alone in this cell. Listen! you who are my likeness; for I am a man!

Listen, my brother, because I am a Christian! Listen, my son, because I

am an old man! Look at me; for I am the master of your sufferings, and I

am about to become terrible. The terrors of the law make up the majesty

of the judge. Believe that I myself tremble before myself. My own power

alarms me. Do not drive me to extremities. I am filled by the holy

malice of chastisement. Feel, then, wretched man, the salutary and

honest fear of justice, and obey me. The hour of confrontation is come,

and you must answer. Do not harden yourself in resistance. Do not that

which will be irrevocable. Think that your end belongs to me. Half man,

half corpse, listen! At least, let it not be your determination to

expire here, exhausted for hours, days, and weeks, by frightful agonies

of hunger and foulness, under the weight of those stones, alone in this

cell, deserted, forgotten, annihilated, left as food for the rats and

the weasels, gnawed by creatures of darkness while the world comes and

goes, buys and sells, whilst carriages roll in the streets above your

head. Unless you would continue to draw painful breath without remission

in the depths of this despair--grinding your teeth, weeping,

blaspheming--without a doctor to appease the anguish of your wounds,

without a priest to offer a divine draught of water to your soul. Oh! if

only that you may not feel the frightful froth of the sepulchre ooze

slowly from your lips, I adjure and conjure you to hear me. I call you

to your own aid. Have pity on yourself. Do what is asked of you. Give

way to justice. Open your eyes, and see if you recognize this man!"

The prisoner neither turned his head nor lifted his eyelids.

619

The Man Who Laughs