"How old are you? Are you not betrothed?"
"I am seventeen, and I am still free."
"And you sleep on the ground-floor, while your parents have their room above? That is very curious."
"Until quite recently your slave slept above. But fifteen days ago they made a change. I do not know why."
The judge again reflected. Then he struck the table violently, crying out:
"It is you who have killed your father and mother. Or, rather, it is your lover. Tell me his name."
"Your slave never leaves the house. How could she have a forbidden love? Would not the neighbors know it?"
The judge made a salacious grimace:
"In a case of murder the neighbors know nothing. It is clear that you have had relations with a man. Your parents knew of it, and that is why they changed their room. Your lover killed them in a rage."
Hearing these words, she became scarlet and then pale. At a sign from the Governor, the gaolers threw themselves like tigers upon the little girl, closing a cruel pair of iron nippers on her pellucid and delicate jade hand. As the jaws began to crush her fingers, she uttered loud cries: