Chapter 29 - Page 2

"once across the frontiers, it
shall be my care never to molest the rocks of Valais again. I ask only
what I have been the means of saving, eccellenza,--life."

The Signor Grimaldi shook his head, though it was very evident that he
declined the required intercession with much reluctance. He and old
Melchior de Willading exchanged glances; and all who noted this silent
intercourse understood it to say, that each considered duty to God a
higher obligation than gratitude for a service rendered to themselves.

"Ask gold, or what thou wilt else, but do not ask me to aid in defeating
justice. Gladly would I have given for the asking, twenty times the value
of those miserable baubles for whose possession, Maso, thou hast rashly
taken life; but I cannot become a sharer of thy crime, by refusing
atonement to his friends. It is too late: I cannot befriend thee now, if I
would."

"Thou nearest the answer of this noble gentleman," interposed the
châtelain; "it is wise and seemly, and thou greatly overratest his
influence or that of any present, if thou fanciest the laws can be set
aside at pleasure. Wert thou a noble thyself, or the son of a prince,
judgment would have its way in the Valais!"

Maso smiled wildly; and yet the expression of his glittering eye was so
ironical as to cause uneasiness in his judge. The Signor Grimaldi, too,
observed the audacious confidence of his air with distrust, for his spirit
had taken secret alarm on a subject that was rarely long absent from his
thoughts.

"If thou meanest more than has been said," exclaimed the latter, "for the
sake of the blessed Maria be explicit!"

"Signor Melchior," continued Maso, turning to the baron, "I did you and
your daughter fair service on the lake!"

"That thou didst, Maso, we are both willing to admit, and were it in
Berne,--but the laws are made equally for all, the great and the humble
they who have friends, and they who have none,"

"I have heard of this act on the lake," put in Peterchen; "and unless fame
lieth--which. Heaven knows, fame is apt enough to do, except in giving
their just dues to those who are in high trusts,--thou didst conduct
thyself in that affair, Maso, like a loyal and well-taught mariner: but
the honorable châtelain has well remarked, that holy justice must have way
before all other things. Justice is represented as blind, in order that it
may be seen she is no respecter of persons: and wert thou an Avoyer, the
decree must come. Reflect maturely, therefore, on all the facts, and thou
wilt come, in time, to see the impossibility of thine own innocence.
First, thou left the path, being ahead of