Yes, sh….
For then I should be sentenced to death.
And I would sit in my prison and know that I should be calm and
indifferent when the supreme moment should arrive.
I would ascend the steps of the scaffold, I would smile and humbly beg
permission to say a word.
And then I would speak. I would implore everybody to learn something good from my death. A speech from my inmost heart, and my last farewell should be like a breath of flame….
Now my secret guilt is known.
Yes!
And I am sentenced to death. And I have languished in prison so long
that my spirit is broken.
I ascend the steps to the scaffold; but to-day the sun is shining and
my eyes fill with tears.
For I have languished so long in prison that I am weak. And then the sun is shining so—I haven't seen it for nine months, and I haven't heard the birds sing for nine months—until to-day.