"Why the —— don't you go on with the trial?"
"Prisoner," said the president, "if you continue to make these interruptions I shall stop the trial and order you to be flogged."
Bruno answered with a peal of laughter. The president—he was a bald-headed man with the heavy jaw of a bloodhound—looked at him attentively for a moment, and then said to the men below:
"Go on."
The next witness was the Director of Regina Cœli. He deposed that the prisoner had made a statement to him which he had taken down in writing. This statement amounted to a denunciation of the Deputy David Rossi as the real author of the crime of which he with others was charged.
After the denunciation had been read the president asked the prisoner if he had any questions to put to the witness, and thereupon Bruno cried in a loud voice:
"Of course I have. It is exactly what I've been waiting for."
He had risen to his feet, kicked over a chair which stood in front of him, and folded his arms across his breast.
"Ask him," said Bruno, "if he sent for me late at night and promised my pardon if I would denounce David Rossi."
"It was not so," said the Director. "All I did was to advise him not to observe a useless silence which could only condemn him to further imprisonment if by speaking the truth he could save himself and serve the interests of justice."