time the speaker handed a folded parchment across the room.

The sheriff passed it to the magistrate, who opened it and read aloud.

It proved to be the "free papers" of Aurore the Quadroon--the
certificate of her manumission--regularly signed and attested by her
master, Auguste Besancon, and left by him in his will.

The astonishment was extreme--so much so that the crowd seemed
petrified, and preserved silence. Their feelings were on the turn.

The effect produced upon Gayarre was visible to all. He seemed covered
with confusion. In his embarrassment he faltered out--

"I protest against this--that paper has been stolen from my bureau,
and--"

"So much the better, Monsieur Gayarre!" said D'Hauteville, again
interrupting him; "so much the better! You confess to its being stolen,
and therefore you confess to its being genuine. Now, sir, having this
document in your possession, and knowing its contents, how could you
claim Aurore Besancon as your slave?"

Gayarre was confounded. His cadaverous face became of a white, sickly
hue; and his habitual look of malice rapidly gave way to an expression
of terror. He appeared as if he wanted to be gone; and already crouched
behind the taller men who stood around him.

"Stop, Monsieur Gayarre!" continued the inexorable D'Hauteville, "I have
not done with you yet. Here, Justice Claiborne! I have another
document that may interest you. Will you have the goodness to give it
your attention?"

Saying this, the speaker held out a second folded parchment, which was
handed to the magistrate--who, as before, opened the document and read
it aloud.

This was a codicil to the will of Auguste Besancon, by which the sum of
fifty thousand dollars in bank stock was bequeathed to his daughter,
Eugenie Besancon, to be paid to her upon the day on which she should be
of age by the joint executors of the estate--Monsieur Dominique Gayarre
and Antoine Lereux--and these executors were instructed not to make
known to the recipient the existence of this sum in her favour, until
the very day of its payment.

"Now, Monsieur Dominique Gayarre!" continued D'Hauteville, as soon as
the reading was finished, "I charge you with the embezzlement of this
fifty thousand dollars, with various other sums--of which more
hereafter. I charge you with having concealed the existence of this
money--of having withheld it from the assets of the estate Besancon--of
having appropriated it to your own us