lieutenant, named Welff, had formerly driven Corentin from
Cinq-Cygne to the pavilion, and from the pavilion to Troyes. On the
way, the spy had fully informed him as to what he called the trickery
of Laurence and Michu. The two officers were therefore well inclined to
show, and did show, great eagerness against the family at Cinq-Cygne.

CHAPTER XIII. THE CODE OF BRUMAIRE, YEAR IV.

Malin and Grevin had both, the latter working for the former, taken part
in the construction of the Code called that of Brumaire, year IV., the
judicial work of the National Convention, so-called, and promulgated by
the Directory. Grevin knew its provisions thoroughly, and was able to
apply them in this affair with terrible celerity, under a theory, now
converted into a certainty, of the guilt of Michu and the Messieurs
de Simeuse and d'Hauteserre. No one in these days, unless it be some
antiquated magistrates, will remember this system of justice, which
Napoleon was even then overthrowing by the promulgation of his own
Codes, and by the institution of his magistracy under the form in which
it now rules France.

The Code of Brumaire, year IV., gave to the director of the jury of
the department the duty of discovering, indicting, and prosecuting the
persons guilty of the delinquency committed at Gondreville. Remark, by
the way, that the Convention had eliminated from its judicial vocabulary
the word "crime"; _delinquencies_ and _misdemeanors_ were alone
admitted; and these were punished with fines, imprisonment, and
penalties "afflictive or infamous." Death was an afflictive punishment.
But the penalty of death was to be done away with after the restoration
of peace, and twenty-four years of hard labor were to take its place.
Thus the Convention estimated twenty-four years of hard labor as
the equivalent of death. What therefore can be said for a code which
inflicts the punishment of hard labor for life? The system then in
process of preparation by the Napoleonic Council of State suppressed the
function of the directors of juries, which united many enormous powers.
In relation to the discovery of delinquencies and their prosecution the
director of the jury was, in fact, agent of police, public prosecutor,
municipal judge, and the court itself. His proceedings and his
indictments were, however, submitted for signature to a commissioner of
the executive power and to the verdict of eight jurymen, before whom
he laid the facts of the case