But other and darker disclosures have to be made; and
when you have heard all, even your compassionate breast may be steeled
against them. Retire for a moment; but do not leave the room. Your
presence may yet be needed."
And bowing graciously to Aveline, she withdrew under the care of the
gentleman who had brought her forward, but still remained a spectatress
of the scene.
"And now to proceed with the investigation," pursued Charles. "What have
you to allege against the two persons before you?" he added, to Clement
Lanyere.
"Were I to relate all their enormities, most gracious Prince," replied
the promoter, "the recital would be too painful for your hearing, and
that of this noble assemblage. But I will, in a word, declare that there
is no kind of outrage, oppression, and extortion of which they have not
been guilty. Their insatiable greediness has been fed by constant
plunder; and, alike cruel and rapacious, nothing but the ruin and
absolute destruction of their victims would content them. Merciless as
creditors, they have ground their unfortunate debtors to the dust. The
tears of the widow they have robbed of her husband and her means of
existence--the despair of the orphan, whose fair prospects they have
blighted--have failed to move them. Utterly unscrupulous as to the means
of obtaining possession of property, they have forged wills, deeds, and
other documents.
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