In person of the advocate of each,
To weigh its worth, thereby arrange, array
The battle. T was the so-styled Fisc began,
Pleaded (and since he only spoke in print
The printed voice of him lives now as then)
The public Prosecutor-" Murder's proved;

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"With five . . . what we call qualities of bad,

"Worse, worst, and yet worse still, and still worse yet; "Crest over crest crowning the cockatrice,

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"That beggar hell's regalia to enrich

"Count Guido Franceschini: punish him!"

Thus was the paper put before the court
In the next stage, (no noisy work at all,)
To study at ease. In due time like reply
Came from the so-styled Patron of the Poor,
Official mouthpiece of the five accused

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Too poor to fee a better,-Guido's luck

Or else his fellows',-which, I hardly know,—

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An outbreak as of wonder at the world,

A fury-fit of outraged innocence,

A passion of betrayed simplicity:

"Punish Count Guido? For what crime, what hint

"O' the colour of a crime, inform us first!

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"Reward him rather! Recognize, we say,

"In the deed done, a righteous judgment dealt !

"All conscience and all courage,-there's our Count

"Charactered in a word; and, what's more strange,

"He had companionship in privilege,

"Found four courageous conscientious friends:

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66 Absolve, applaud all five, as props of law, "Sustainers of society !-perchance

"A trifle over-hasty with the hand

"To hold her tottering ark, had tumbled else;
"But that's a splendid fault whereat we wink,
"Wishing your cold correctness sparkled so!"
Thus paper second followed paper first,
Thus did the two join issue-nay, the four,
Each pleader having an adjunct. "True, he killed
"-So to speak-in a certain sort-his wife,
"But laudably, since thus it happed!" quoth one:
Whereat, more witness and the case postponed.
"Thus it happed not, since thus he did the deed,
"And proved himself thereby portentousest
"Of cutthroats and a prodigy of crime,

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"As the woman that he slaughtered was a saint, "Martyr and miracle!" quoth the other to match: Again, more witness, and the case postponed. "A miracle, ay-of lust and impudence; "Hear my new reasons!" interposed the first: "-Coupled with more of mine!" pursued his peer. "6 'Beside, the precedents, the authorities !" From both at once a cry with an echo, that!

That was a firebrand at each fox's tail

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Unleashed in a cornfield: soon spread flare enough,
As hurtled thither and there heaped themselves
From earth's four corners, all authority

And precedent for putting wives to death,
Or letting wives live, sinful as they seem.
How legislated, now, in this respect,
Solon and his Athenians? Quote the code
Of Romulus and Rome! Justinian speak!
Nor modern Baldo, Bartolo be dumb!
The Roman voice was potent, plentiful;
Cornelia de Sicariis hurried to help
Pompeia de Parricidiis; Julia de

Something-or-other jostled Lex this-and-that;
King Solomon confirmed Apostle Paul:

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That nice decision of Dolabella, eh?

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That pregnant instance of Theodoric, oh!

Down to that choice example Ælian gives

(An instance I find much insisted on)

Of the elephant who, brute-beast though he were,
Yet understood and punished on the spot
His master's naughty spouse and faithless friend;
A true tale which has edified each child,
Much more shall flourish favoured by our court!
Pages of proof this way, and that way proof,
And always-once again the case postponed.

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Thus wrangled, brangled, jangled they a month,
-Only on paper, pleadings all in print,

Nor ever was, except i' the brains of men,

More noise by word of mouth than you hear now

Till the court cut all short with "Judged, your cause. 245.
"Receive our sentence! Praise God! We pronounce
"Count Guido devilish and damnable:

"His wife Pompilia in thought, word and deed,
"Was perfect pure, he murdered her for that:
"As for the Four who helped the One, all Five-
"Why, let employer and hirelings share alike
"In guilt and guilt's reward, the death their due!"

So was the trial at end, do you suppose?
"Guilty you find him, death you doom him to?

Ay, were not Guido, more than needs, a priest,
"Priest and to spare!"-this was a shot reserved;
I learn this from epistles which begin

Here where the print ends,-see the pen and ink
Of the advocate, the ready at a pinch !—
"My client boasts the clerkly privilege,
"Has taken minor orders many enough,
"Shows still sufficient chrism upon
"To neutralize a blood-stain: presbyter,

"Prima tonsura, subdiaconus,

his pate

"Sacerdos, so he slips from underneath

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"Your power, the temporal, slides inside the robe
"Of mother Church: to her we make appeal
"By the Pope, the Church's head!"

A parlous plea,

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Put in with noticeable effect, it seems;

"Since straight,"-resumes the zealous orator, Making a friend acquainted with the facts,— "Once the word 'clericality' let fall,

"Procedure stopped and freer breath was drawn

"By all considerate and responsible Rome."

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Quality took the decent part, of course;

Held by the husband, who was noble too:

Or, for the matter of that, a churl would side
With too-refined susceptibility,

And honour which, tender in the extreme,

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Stung to the quick, must roughly right itself

At all risks, not sit still and whine for law
As a Jew would, if you squeezed him to the wall,
Brisk-trotting through the Ghetto. Nay, it seems,
Even the Emperor's Envoy had his say

To say on the subject; might not see, unmoved,
Civility menaced throughout Christendom

- By too harsh measure dealt her champion here.
Lastly, what made all safe, the Pope was kind,
From his youth up, reluctant to take life,

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