All this afforded Panna infinite satisfaction. She felt
her heart grow lighter, and became calm, almost cheerful. A voice in
her soul said: "There--there is justice!" and every letter which the
gentlemen, with swiftly moving pencils, scrawled on the paper, seemed
to her a link in the steel chain which was being forged before her
eyes, ever longer and heavier, and would serve to drag the criminal
fettered before the tribunal.
From the castle, the committee returned to the town-hall, and now
followed the real official examination of the witnesses, whose previous
information had been taken merely as unofficial information, and not as
legal depositions. They were summoned singly into the room and
examined, first Janos, then the gardener, and lastly the beadle. When
the latter came out Panna, who, until then had waited patiently at the
threshold, stepped resolutely into the chamber, though the constable
told her that she had not been summoned.
The examining magistrate looked at the new-comer in surprise, and asked
what she wanted.
"What do I want?" replied Panna in astonishment, "why, to be examined
as the others have been.
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