"
M. de Sairmeuse gave utterance to a little disdainful laugh.
"Ah, gentlemen!" he said, addressing the commissioners, "can you not
see that the prisoner's courage does not equal his depravity? But I will
confound him. What did you do, prisoner, when the insurgents left the
Reche?"
"I returned to my home with all possible haste, took a horse and
repaired to the Croix d'Arcy."
"Then you knew that this was the spot appointed for the general
rendezvous?"
"Lacheneur had just informed me."
"If I believed your story, I should tell you that it was your duty to
have hastened to Montaignac and informed the authorities. But what you
say is untrue. You did not leave Lacheneur, you accompanied him."
"No, Monsieur, no!"
"And what if I could prove this fact beyond all question?"
"Impossible, Monsieur, since such was not the case."
By the malicious satisfaction that lighted M. de Sairmeuse's face, the
abbe knew that this wicked judge had some terrible weapon in his hands,
and that Baron d'Escorval was about to be overwhelmed by one of those
fatal coincidences which explain, although they do not justify, judicial
errors.
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