human
I don't think we need trouble you any further, frate, said the Commissary.
gpt
I hope that you will soon get over your touch of fever; and then, if we need you, there will be no difficulty in your attending, when wanted, in the city. I don't see, that there is anything more to be got at present,
human
Does that fellow know anything more than he tells us?
gpt
I fancy not; I don't see much what he is at all likely to know,
human
Nor I; but his manner was so remarkable. One would have said that he was conscious of having committed the murder himself. In all my experience I never saw a man so hard put to it to tell a plain and simple fact.
gpt
Well, the poor old fellow is ill, you see. And then, no doubt, the sight of the body brought back out of the forest made a terrible impression on him. The extreme seclusion, tranquillity, and monotony of his life here, the absence from year's end to year's end of any sort of emotion of any kind, would naturally have the result of increasing the painful effect which such an event and such a sight would have upon him. My own notion is that there is nothing further to be got out of him.
human
There is our friend the lay-brother sitting in the sunshine just where we left him. We might as well just see what he can tell us before going back to the city.
gpt
He seems very ill, the padre, pursued the Commissary, addressing himself to brother Simone, as he and the lawyer lounged up to the spot where he was sitting;
human
That is the way with the maledetto morbo, returned the lay-brother;
gpt
The padre's mind seems to have been very painfully affected by the sight of the body of the woman, who was murdered in the forest, as it was being carried back to the city. Did you see it too?
human
Si, Signor, I saw it too, and a piteous sight it was. Father Fabiano and I were both out here on the piazza when the body was carried past. For I was just coming from the belfry yonder, where I had been to ring Compline; and the padre was at the same time coming out of the church, where he had been as usual with him at that hour, at his devotions before the altar of the Saint.
gpt
Then at the hour of Compline the father had not yet been taken ill? observed the Commissary.
human
Scusi, Signor; I think he had been struck by the fever at that time. He fell a-shivering and a-shaking so that he could hardly stand, when the body was carried past. But that is the way the mischief always begins. Ah, there's never a doctor knows it better than I do, and no wonder.
gpt
You don't think then, said the lawyer,
human
Why should it? said the lay-brother, in the true spirit of monastic philosophy;
gpt
Where had he been all the time between the time when the painter lady left the church, and the hour of Compline?
human
Ever since a little after the Angelus he had been on his knees at the altar of St. Apollinare, according to his custom. He told me so, when he came to give me my potion; for I was down with the fever yesterday morning.
gpt
Do you know where he was before the Angelus?
human
He had to ring the Angelus himself, seeing that I was down with the fever. And he came back to the convent in a hurry, fearing that he was too late. There's very little doubt that it was heating himself that way that made the fever take hold of him.
gpt
Where was he hurrying back from, then? Where had he been?
human
He told me, when he came to my cell, that he had been into the forest; and it was plain to see that the walk had been too much for him; he's too old for moving much now, is Father Fabiano.
gpt
He had been into the forest; and when he came back at the hour of the Angelus, he seemed quite overcome by his walk?
human
Yes, he did; so much so, that as I lay on my bed and listened to the Angelus bell a-going, I thought to myself that the old man had hardly the strength to pull the rope,
gpt
Hardly strength to pull the rope, repeated the Commissary, as he completed the note he was scribbling in his note-book.
human
Well, I hope he will soon get over his attack of fever. I think we need not trouble you any further at present, frate--what is your name, my friend?
gpt
Simone, by the mercy of God, lay-brother of the terz' ordine--
human
That will do, frate Simone, interrupted the Commissary, adding a word to the entry in his note-book.
gpt
Now, Signor Giovacchino, if you are ready, I think we may get your carriage out of the barn and go back to Ravenna.
human
We have not got much for our pains, I am afraid,
gpt
Humph!
human
Signor Giovacchino, he said, suddenly, after they had traversed nearly half their short journey in silence,
gpt
I am convinced he had not, said the lawyer, who was, however, very far from having reached any conviction of the kind;
human
That theory--shall I give it you? It is not only a theory; it is my firm belief as to the facts of the case.
gpt
You suspect--
human
I more than suspect--I am very strongly persuaded that this murder has been committed by the girl Paolina Foscarelli.
gpt
My own notion--
human
Look here, this is how it has been. The Marchese Ludovico has made love to this girl--has made her in love with him--taking the matter au grand serieux, in the way girls will--specially, I am told, it is the way, with those Venetian women. Well, by ill chance, as the devil would have it, she sees her lover starting on a tete-a-tete expedition into the Pineta with this other girl--just the woman of all others in the world, as I am given to understand, to be a dangerous rival, and to excite a deadly jealousy. This much we have in evidence. Further, we know that the girl Paolina was expected to return from her expedition to St. Apollinare early in the morning--say at nine o'clock, or thereabouts--whereas she did not return till several hours afterwards. In addition to all this, we have now ascertained that when she left the church she did not set out on her return towards the city, as she might naturally be expected to have done; but, on the contrary, went in the direction of the Pineta. Then, assuming the story, told by the Marchese to be true, we know that, about the very time that this Paolina was entering the forest, her rival was lying asleep and alone there in the immediate neighbourhood. We know that the means adopted for the perpetration of the crime were such as to be quite within a woman's physical power, and that the weapon used for the purpose such as a woman may much more readily be supposed to have about her than a man; what do you say to that as a theory of the facts? Is not the evidence overpoweringly strong against this Venetian?
gpt
Of course my own attention had been called to the case of suspicion against her. But I confess I had not been struck by the last circumstance you mention; and it seems to me a very strong one. How can it be supposed that a man--a man like the Marchese Ludovico--should chance to have a needle about him? The case of suspicion against him, mark, altogether excludes the notion that he went out prepared to take the life of this unfortunate woman. It is suggested that he put her to death in order to escape from the ruin that would have ensued from his uncle's marriage with her. No other possible motive for such a deed can be conceived. But he knew nothing of any such purpose on the part of the Marchese till the girl herself told him of it as they were driving together to the forest. Therefore, he had not come out prepared with a needle for the purpose of committing murder. Neither, it is true, does the theory we are considering suppose that Paolina came out prepared to do such a deed. But the weapon used is a needle. Is it more likely that a man or that a woman should have by chance such an article about them? I confess it seems to me that this circumstance alone is sufficient to turn the scale of the probabilities unmistakably.
human
But that is not all, said the Commissary, laying his finger impressively on the lawyer's sleeve;
gpt
That is all true, said the lawyer, nodding his head up and down several times;
human
But why, you will say, should the old man, if he has a merely innocent knowledge of that which I suspect him to know, refuse to tell the whole truth simply as he knows it? I will tell you why not. In the first place, if you had had as much experience of monks, and friars, and nuns, as I have, you would know that it is next to impossible to induce them ever to give information to justice of any facts which it is possible for them to conceal. It seems to them, I fancy, like recognizing a lay authority in a manner they don't like. They will communicate nothing to you if they can help it.
gpt
Yes, that's true. I know that is the nature of them,
human
Then, observe, this Father Fabiano is a Venetian, a fellow-citizen of the girl. You know how the Venetians hold together. You may feel quite sure that if he did know her to be guilty of a crime, he would screen her to the utmost of his power. Of course I have not done with him yet. Tutt' altro. We must have an account of that morning stroll in the Pineta from the old gentleman's own lips. Meantime, I do not think that we need consider our trip to-day to have been altogether thrown away.
gpt
Very far from it. Very far from it, indeed. Honestly, I think that you have hit the nail on the head, Signor Pietro. There is nothing like the practical experience of you gentlemen of the police, who pass your lives in playing at who-is-the-sharpest with the most astute of human beings.
human
And beating them at their own game, said the Commissary, self-complacently.
gpt
If that murder was not committed by Paolina Foscarelli, I will give you or anybody else leave to call me a blockhead.