'Your Honour thought from what I said that they were "cutters of the road,"[7] or hired assassins, who kill men for gain.
Those are the greater criminals, whose punishment is death.

Few such exist among us.

Here a robber will seldom kill a man unless that man kills him.' [I translate literally] 'when it is just retaliation; and as for hired assassins, I have known several of them in my time, and they are not bad people, but unfortunate, having fallen early in the power of cruel and ambitious men.

Most of the killing in this country is done without a thought, in anger or mad jealousy.' 'Is it for man to judge them ?' he exclaimed, with a high shrug, when I remarked upon their friendly treatment by the Turkish guards.

'They are punished by authority down here, so we are better; but afterwards, when comes the Judgment of the Lord, we may be worse.