Page:Meda - a tale of the future.djvu/297

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A TALE OF THE FUTURE.
293

often unjust to her, and had often given this kind, patient creature great pain; I remembered everything that could possibly tell against me; and all this life-like panorama seemed to flash through my brain in a moment. I tried to think that the crime I was convicted of, and sentenced for, was a terrible crime, but somehow I could not think it was a crime at all. I thought rather that I was sinned against and persecuted. In my agony when the sentence was pronounced, and when the President said I was to be removed, I rose to my feet and begged him to hear me before I left them for ever. To this request he acquiesced, but said, "You must be brief." I then began:—

"Mr. President, you have pronounced this terrible sentence on one who, in his own eyes, and in the eyes of Almighty God, is innocent of having committed any crime. To commit a crime surely you must allow that one must feel that he is doing something wrong. Had I been conversant with your laws, and had I