conduct of the old servant while he was in
Paris?"

"I have information enough to prove that
he was not an object for political suspicion.
He seems to have been simply animated by
servile zeal for the woman's interests; to have
performed for her all the menial offices of a
servant in private; and to have misled the
neighbours by affected equality with her in
public."

"Have you any reason to believe that
Superintendent Danville was privy to his
mother's first attempt at escaping from
France?"

"I infer it from what the female prisoner
has said, and for other reasons which it would
be irregular to detail before the tribunal.
The proofs can no doubt be obtained, if I am
allowed time to communicate with the
authorities at Lyons and Marseilles."

At this moment Danville re-entered the
court, and, advancing to the table, placed
himself close by the chief-agent's side. They
looked each other steadily in the face for
an instant.

"He has recovered from the shock of
Trudaine's answer," thought Lomaque,
retiring. " His hand trembles; his face is pale;
but I can see regained self-possession in his
eye; and I dread the consequences already."

"Citizen president," began Danville, " I
demand to know if anything has transpired
affecting my honour and patriotism in my
absence?"

He spoke apparently with the most perfect
calmness; but he looked nobody in the face.
His eyes were fixed steadily on the green
baize of the table beneath him.

"The female prisoner has made a statement,
referring principally to herself and her
brother," answered the president; "but
incidentally mentioning a previous attempt on
your mother's part to break existing laws by
emigrating from France. This portion of the
confession contains in it some elements of
suspicion which seriously affect you "—

"They shall be suspicious no longer—at
my own peril, I will change them to
certainties! " exclaimed Danville, extending his
arm theatrically, and looking up for the first
time. " Citizen president, I avow it with the
fearless frankness of a good patriot; I was
privy to my mother's first attempt at escaping
from France."

Hisses and cries of execration followed this
confession. He winced under them at first;
but recovered his self possession before silence
was restored.

"Citizens, you have heard the confession of
my fault," he resumed, turning with desperate
assurance towards the audience; " now hear
the atonement I have made for it at the altar
of my country."

He waited at the end. of that sentence, until
the secretary to the tribunal had done writing
it down in the report-book of the court.

"Transcribe faithfully to the letter! " cried
Danville, pointing solemnly to the open page
of the volume. " Life and death hang on my
words."

The secretary took a fresh dip of ink, and
nodded to show that he was ready. Danville
went on:

"In these times of glory and trial for
France," he proceeded, pitching his voice to a
tone of deep emotion, " what are all good
citizens most sacredly bound to do? To
immolate their dearest private affections and
interests before their public duties! On the
first attempt of my mother to violate the
laws against emigration, by escaping from
France, I failed in making the heroic sacrifice
which inexorable patriotism demanded of
me. My situation was more terrible than the
situation of Brutus sitting in judgment on his
own sons. I had not the Roman fortitude to
rise equal to it. I erred, citizens, erred as
Coriolanus did, when his august mother
pleaded with him for the safety of Rome!
For that error I deserved to be purged out of
the republican community; but I escaped
my merited punishment,—nay, I even rose to
the honour of holding an office under the
government. Time passed; and again my
mother attempted an escape from France.
Again, inevitable fate brought my civic virtue
to the test. How did I meet this second
supremest trial? By an atonement for past
weakness, terrible as the trial itself! Citizens,
you will shudder; but you will applaud
while you tremble. Citizens, look! and
while you look, remember well the evidence
given at the opening of this case. Yonder
j stands the enemy of his country, who
intrigued to help my mother to escape; here
stands the patriot son, whose voice was the
first, the only voice, to denounce him for the
crime! " As he spoke, he pointed to Trudaine,
then struck himself on the breast, then folded
his arms, and looked sternly at the benches
occupied by the spectators.

"Do you assert," exclaimed the president,
"that at the time when you denounced
Trudaine, you knew him to be intriguing to aid
your mother's escape?"

"I assert it," answered Danville.

The pen which the president held, dropped
from his hand at that reply; his colleagues
started and looked at each other in blank
silence.

A murmur of "Monster! monster!" began
with the prisoners on the platform, and
spread instantly to the audience, who echoed
and echoed it again; the fiercest woman-
republican on the benches joined cause at last
with the haughtiest woman-aristocrat on the
platform. Even in that sphere of direst
discords, in that age of sharpest enmities,
the one touch of nature preserved its old eternal
virtue; and roused the mother-instinct
which makes the whole world kin!

Of the few persons in the court, who at
once foresaw the effect of Danville's answer
on the proceedings of the tribunal, Lomaque