"What provocation could induce you to so cruel a treatment?"

"Provocation enough. He had no money."

"What, did you use him thus, without so much as being irritated by any
resistance on his part?"

"Yes, he did resist. I only hustled him, and he had the impudence to
strike me."

"Gines! you are an incorrigible fellow."

"Pooh, what signifies what I am? You, with your compassion, and your
fine feelings, will bring us all to the gallows."

"I have nothing to say to you; I have no hopes of you! Comrades, it is
for you to decide upon the conduct of this man as you think proper. You
know how repeated his offences have been; you know what pains I have
taken to mend him. Our profession is the profession of justice." [It is
thus that the prejudices of men universally teach them to colour the
most desperate cause to which they have determined to adhere.] "We, who
are thieves without a licence, are at open war with another set of men
who are thieves according to law. With such a cause then to bear us out,
shall we stain it with cruelty, malice, and revenge? A thief is, of
course, a man living among his equals; I do not pretend therefore to
assume any authority among you; act as you think proper; but, so far as
relates to myself, I vote that Gines be expelled from among us as a
disgrace to our society."