e to keep back her tears, but
persisted in declaring her innocence of the crime.

"It is useless to try to make me believe this," said the judge. "You
were the only one to enter the room where the ring was. No one but you
could have taken it. You had better acknowledge the truth."

"It is the truth I speak now," replied Mary. "I cannot speak anything
else. I have not seen the ring, indeed I have not."

"The ring was seen in your hands," continued the judge; "have you
anything to say now?"

Mary declared that this was impossible. Turning to his side, the judge
rang a little bell, and Amelia's maid, Juliette, was brought in. In the
fit of jealousy which she had felt because of the dress given to Mary,
and in her anxiety to deprive Mary of her mistress's favour, Juliette
had said to one or two people that she had seen Mary take the ring. In
consequence of this statement Juliette was now summoned as a witness,
and, fearful to be caught in a lie, she determined to maintain it even
in a court of justice. When the judge warned her to declare the truth
before God, she felt her heart beat quickly and her knees tremble; but
this wicked girl obeyed neither the voice of the judge nor the voice of
her own conscience. "If," said she to herself, "I acknowledge now that
I told a lie, then I shall be driven away. Perhaps I may even be
imprisoned." Determined to carry out her part, she turned to Mary and
said insultingly--

"You have the ring; I saw you with it."

Mary heard this false charge with horror, but she did not allow passion
to get the upper hand. Her only reply was, and her tears almost choked
her while she said it--

"It is not true. You did not see me with the ring. How can you tell so
terrible a falsehood for the sake of ruining me, when I never have
injured you?"

At the sight of Mary, Juliette's feelings of hatred and jealousy
revived. She repeated the falsehood, with new circumstances and
details, after which she was dismissed by the judge.

"Mary, you are convicted," said he. "All the circumstances are against
you. The chamber-maid of the young Countess saw the ring in your hand.
Tell me now, what you have done with it?"

In vain Mary protested her innocence. According to the cruel custom of
those days, the judge now sent her to be whipped until the blood came,
in the effort to make her confess her guilt. The punishment made poor
Mary scream with pain, but she continued to declare her innocence.
Suffering g