"Don't say it, or think it. I've done nothing that you wouldn't have
done if you had been free. And always remember this: I shall never
blame you, even when I think with dearest affection of my old
friend. I shall only blame myself, because the final, fatal mistake
was mine--not yours. I was the fool to trust you and had no excuse
for doing so. You were not to be trusted for a moment just then, and
I ought to have known it. 'Twas our limited capability that made you
err, that made me err, that made Michael Pendean err. The best laid
plans of mice and men--you know, Mark. The villain mars his
villainy; the virtuous smudge their white record; the deep brain
suddenly runs dry--all because perfection, in good or evil, is
denied to saints and sinners alike."




CHAPTER XVIII

CONFESSION


During the autumn assizes, Michael Pendean was tried at Exeter and
condemned to death for the murders of Robert, Bendigo and Albert
Redmayne. He offered no defence and he was only impatient to return
to his seclusion within the red walls of the county jail, where he
occupied the brief balance of his days with just such a statement as
Peter Ganns had foretold that he would seek to make.

This extraordinary document was very characteristic of the criminal.
It possessed a sort of glamour; but it failed of real distinction