The presiding judge opened the proceedings and ordered the clerk of the
court to read the accusation, which was homicide through negligence, as
well as the minutes of the coroner's inquest and the other documents of
the investigation, then he proceeded to the examination of the accused,
asking the usual questions concerning his name, age, etc., in a
courteous, kindly tone, wholly devoid of sternness, which filled Panna
with vehement rage. This was not the terrible personification of the
fell punishment of crime, but a smooth farce, acted amid universal
satisfaction.
Now the judge reached the kernel of the matter, and asked the defendant
to state the circumstances of the event which formed the subject of the
legal proceedings. Abonyi, in a somewhat unsteady voice, related that
on the fatal day he had gone to his coachhouse and found "his workman"
asleep; he had roused him and warned him to be more industrious, then
the fellow became amazingly insolent and defiant, and threatened him so
roughly with a pitchfork, that he owed his escape with a whole skin
solely to his rapid flight, and the presence of mind with which he
bolted the furious man into the shed.
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