She found herself with child by this man.  The learned counsel for the prosecution had already referred—­in the most delicate and considerate manner, be it said—­to the question of concealment of birth.  Had Barbro attempted to conceal her condition; had she denied being with child?  The two witnesses, girls from her own village, had been of opinion that she was in that condition; but when they had asked her, she had not denied it at all, she had merely passed the matter off.  What would a young girl naturally do in such a case but pass it off?  No one else had asked her about it at all.  Go to her mistress and confess?  She had no mistress; she was mistress on the place herself.  She had a master, certainly, but a girl could not be expected to confide in a man upon such a matter; she bears her cross herself; does not sing, does not whisper, but is silent as a Trappist.  Concealment?  No, but she kept herself to herself.

The child is born—­a sound and healthy boy; had lived and breathed after birth, but had been suffocated.  The court had been made aware of the circumstances attending this birth:  it had taken place in the water; the mother falls into the stream, and the child is born, but she is incapable of saving the child.  She lies there, unable even to rise herself till some time after.  No marks of violence were to be seen upon the body; there was nothing to indicate that it had been intentionally killed; it had been drowned by misadventure at birth, that was all.  The most natural explanation in the world.

His learned colleague had made some mention of a cloth or wrapping, considering it something of a mystery why she should have taken half a shirt with her that day.  The mystery was clear enough; she had taken the shirt to carry stripped juniper in.  She might have taken—­let us say, a pillow-case; as it was, she had taken this piece of a. shirt.  Something she must have, in any case; she could not carry the stuff back in her hands.  No, there was surely no ground for making a mystery of this.

One point, however, was not quite so clear:  had the accused been treated with the care and consideration which her condition at the time demanded?  Had her master dealt kindly with her?  It would be as well for him if it were found so.  The girl herself had, under cross-examination, referred to the man in satisfactory terms; and this again was evidence in itself of her own nobility of character.  The man, on his part, Axel Stroem, had likewise in his depositions refrained from any attempt to add to the burden of the girl, or to blame her in any way.  In this he had acted rightly—­not to say wisely, seeing that his own case depended very largely upon how matters went with her.  By laying the blame on her he would, if she were convicted, bring about his own downfall.