confession. I implore the tribunal to attach
no importance to what my sister says. The
trouble and terror of this day have shaken
her intellects. She is not responsible for her
words—I assert it solemnly, in the face of the
whole court!"

The blood flew up into his white face as he
made the asseveration. Even at that supreme
moment the great heart of the man reproached
him for yielding himself to a deception,
though the motive of it was to save his sister's
life.

"Let her speak! let her speak! " exclaimed
the women, as Rose, without moving, without
looking at her brother, without seeming even
to have heard what he said, made a second
attempt to address her judges, in spite of
Trudaine's interposition.

"Silence! " shouted the man with the
bludgeon. " Silence, you women! the citizen-
president is going to speak."

"The prisoner, Trudaine, has the ear of the
court," said the president; " and may
continue his confession. If the female prisoner
wishes to speak, she may be heard afterwards.
I enjoin both the accused persons to make
short work of it with their addresses to me,
or they will make their case worse instead of
better. I command silence among the
audience; and if I am not obeyed, I will clear the
hall. Now, prisoner Trudaine, I invite you
to proceed. No more about your sister; let
her speak for herself. Your business and
ours is with the man and woman Dubois
now. Are you, or are you not, ready to tell
the court who they are?"

"I repeat that I am ready," answered
Trudaine. "The citizen Dubois is a servant.
The woman Dubois is the mother of the
man who denounces me—superintendent
Danville."

A low, murmuring, rushing sound of
hundreds of exclaiming voices, all speaking, half-
suppressedly, at the same moment, followed
the delivery of the answer. No officer of the
court attempted to control the outburst of
astonishment. The infection of it spread to
the persons on the platform, to the crier
himself, to the judges of the tribunal, lounging,
but the moment before, so carelessly silent
in their chairs. When the noise was at
length quelled, it was subdued in the most
instantaneous manner by one man, who
shouted from the throng behind the
president's chair,

"Clear the way there! Superintendent
Danville is taken ill!"

A vehement whispering and contending of
many voices interrupting each other, followed;
then a swaying among the assembly of official
people; then a great stillness; then the
sudden appearance of Danville, alone, at the
table. The look of him, as he turned his
ghastly face towards the audience, silenced
and steadied them in an instant, just as they
were on the point of falling into fresh
confusion. Everyone stretched forward eagerly
to hear what he would say. His lips moved;
but the few words that fell from them were
inaudible, except to the persons who
happened to be close by him. Having spoken,
he left the table supported by a police-agent,
who was seen to lead him towards the private
door of the court, and, consequently, also
towards the prisoner's platform. He stopped,
however, half-way, quickly turned his face
from the prisoners, and pointing towards the
public door at the opposite side of the hall,
caused himself to be led out into the air by
that direction. When he had gone, the
president, addressing himself, partly to Trudaine
and partly to the audience, said,—

"The citizen-superintendent Danville has
been overcome by the heat in the court. He
has retired (by my desire, under the care of
a police-agent) to recover in the open air;
pledging himself to me to come back and
throw a new light on the extraordinary and
suspicious statement which the prisoner has
just made. Until the return of citizen
Danville, I order the accused, Trudaine, to
suspend any further acknowledgement of
complicity which he may have to address to me.
This matter must be cleared up before other
matters are entered on. Meanwhile, in order
that the time of the tribunal may not be
wasted, I authorise the female prisoner to
take this opportunity of making any statement
concerning herself which she may wish
to address to the judges."

"Silence him! " " Remove him out of
court! " " Gag him? " " Guillotine him!"
These cries rose from the audience the
moment the president had done speaking.
They were all directed at Trudaine, who had
made a last desperate effort to persuade his
sister to keep silence, and had been detected
in the attempt by the spectators.

"If the prisoner speaks another word to
his sister, remove him," said the president,
addressing the guard round the platform.

"Good! we shall hear her at last. Silence!
silence! " exclaimed the women, settling
themselves comfortably on their benches, and
preparing to resume their work.

"Rose Danville, the court is waiting to
hear you," said the president, crossing his
legs, and leaning back luxuriously in his large
arm-chair.

Amid all the noise and confusion of the last
few minutes, Rose had stood ever in the same
attitude, with that strangely fixed expression
never altering on her face but once. When
her husband made his way to the side of the
table, and stood there prominently alone, her
lips trembled a little, and a faint shade of
colour passed swiftly over her cheeks. Even
that slight change had vanished now—she
was paler, stiller, more widely altered from
her former self than ever, as she faced the
president, and said these words:—

"I wish to follow my brother's example,
and make my confession, as he has made his.
I would rather he had spoken for me; but