Pagina 861 di 896

It was nothing to her, that an innocent man was to die for the

sins of his forefathers; she saw, not him, but them. It was

nothing to her, that his wife was to be made a widow and his

daughter an orphan; that was insufficient punishment, because

they were her natural enemies and her prey, and as such had no

right to live. To appeal to her, was made hopeless by her having

no sense of pity, even for herself. If she had been laid low in

the streets, in any of the many encounters in which she had been

engaged, she would not have pitied herself; nor, if she had been

ordered to the axe to-morrow, would she have gone to it with any

softer feeling than a fierce desire to change places with the man

who sent her there.