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Danger in the Dark - ZseZse

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DANGER IN 'rHE DARK. 267<br />

callous to <strong>the</strong> sense of tender emotions. The o<strong>the</strong>r<br />

was a priest, educated <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> mild doctr<strong>in</strong>es of Christ· ,<br />

he was <strong>the</strong>refore worse than <strong>the</strong> first.<br />

"Bed<strong>in</strong>i accepted <strong>the</strong> odious office. It was <strong>the</strong><br />

pla<strong>in</strong> duty of a true m<strong>in</strong>ister of God to refuse it.-<br />

Bed<strong>in</strong>i marched toward <strong>the</strong> walls of Bologna, conta<strong>in</strong>-<br />

<strong>in</strong>g seventy thousand persons, with a division of<br />

Austrian Croats, well equipped with abundant means<br />

of death and destruction. Eight days of desperate<br />

strife-<strong>the</strong> burn<strong>in</strong>g of houses, <strong>the</strong> death of numerous<br />

citizens; fam<strong>in</strong>e at last put an end to <strong>the</strong> trag dy.<br />

Bed<strong>in</strong>i entered <strong>the</strong> conquered city with his Oroats.<br />

He, clo<strong>the</strong>d with perfect sovereign power, proclaimed<br />

martial law throughout all <strong>the</strong> territory of <strong>the</strong> Four<br />

Legations. By this brutal law are suspended at once<br />

all o<strong>the</strong>r laws, preservative of' order and ju;tice; cus-<br />

tomary forms of procedure abolished; judges are con-<br />

stituted from soldiers of rank, and sentence is sum-<br />

marily passed, by tap of drum, to death, to <strong>the</strong><br />

galleys, to exile, to <strong>the</strong> bast<strong>in</strong>ado. This law was en-<br />

forced by a priest-by Bed<strong>in</strong>i. It came not, it could<br />

not come from <strong>the</strong> Austrian General. To make or<br />

abrogate laws is an attribute of sovereignty, and this<br />

attribute had been delegated by <strong>the</strong> Pope to Bed<strong>in</strong>i,<br />

and not to <strong>the</strong> General. But this law was a terrible<br />

<strong>in</strong>strument of vengeance <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> hands of Bed<strong>in</strong>i, and<br />

he made use of it without mercy. We defy <strong>the</strong> apolo-<br />

gists of Bed<strong>in</strong>i to deny it. Let <strong>the</strong>m read all <strong>the</strong><br />

journals <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> pay of <strong>the</strong> government at that accursed<br />

epoch. They will see that <strong>in</strong> Bologna, <strong>in</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r cities,

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