George W. M. Reynolds

“ On the ensuing morning Wagner stood before the judge of the Criminal Tribunal of the Republic.
The judgment hall was a large and lofty room in the Palazzo del Podesto, or ducal palace. The judges sat in antique and richly carved chairs, placed on a platform, beneath a canopy of purple velvet fringed with gold.
On the left, at a handsome desk covered with papers, was seated the procurator fiscal or attorney-general of the republic, distinguished in attire from the judges only by the fact of the ermine upon his scarlet robe being narrower than theirs. ”

“ I am rather inclined to believe that the prisoner is allied with the banditti who infest the republic, than with any preterhuman powers. His absence from home during the entire night, according to his own admission, his immense wealth, without any ostensible resources, all justify my suspicion. Let the case proceed," added the chief judge aloud; for he had made the previous observations in a low tone. "Usher, remove the black cloth from the picture!"
"No! no!" exclaimed Wagner, wildly: and he was about to rush from the dock, but the sbirri held him back. ”

“ Perhaps, also, the rumor that he was a young man endowed with extraordinary personal attractions, had exercised its influence upon the susceptible hearts of the Florentine ladies. Certain it is, that when he was conducted into the judgment hall, his strikingly handsome exterior—his air of modest confidence—his graceful gait, and his youthful appearance, so far threw into the back-ground the crime imputed to him, that the ladies present felt their sympathies deeply enlisted in his behalf. ”