“Ah, let me alone! Your human justice,--do you want me to tell you what
I think of it? I am ashamed of it! When you send every year three or
four stupid murderers to the scaffold, and some dozens of miserable
thieves to the penitentiary, you fold your black gowns around you, and
proudly proclaim that all is well, and that society, thus protected, may
sleep soundly. Well, do you know what is the real state of things? You
only catch the stupid, the fools. The others, the strong, escape between
the meshes of your laws, and, relying on their cleverness and your want
of power, they enjoy the fruit of their crimes in all the pride of their
impunity, until”--