will defend Michu," said Bordin.

"Michu!" exclaimed the Marquis de Chargeboeuf, amazed at the change.

"He is the pivot of the affair--the danger lies there," replied the old
lawyer.

"If he is more in danger than the others, I think that is just," cried
Laurence.

"We see certain chances," said Monsieur de Grandville, "and we shall
study them carefully. If we are able to save these gentlemen it will be
because Monsieur d'Hauteserre ordered Michu to repair one of the stone
posts in the covered way, and also because a wolf has been seen in
the forest; in a criminal court everything depends on discussions, and
discussions often turn on trivial matters which then become of immense
importance."

Laurence sank into that inward dejection which humiliates the soul of
all thoughtful and energetic persons when the uselessness of thought
and action is made manifest to them. It was no longer a matter
of overthrowing a usurper, or of coming to the help of devoted
friends,--fanatical sympathies wrapped in a shroud of mystery. She now
saw all social forces full-armed against her cousins and herself. There
was no taking a prison by assault with her own hands, no deliverance of
prisoners from the midst of a hostile population and beneath the eyes of
a watchful police. So, when the young lawyer, alarmed at the stupor of
the generous and noble girl, which the natural expression of her face
made still more noticeable, endeavored to revive her courage, she turned
to him and said: "I must be silent; I suffer,--I wait."

The accent, gesture, and look with which the words were said made this
answer one of those sublime things which only need a wider stage to make
them famous.

A few moments later old d'Hauteserre was saying to the Marquis de
Chargeboeuf: "What efforts I have made for my two unfortunate sons! I
have already laid by in the Funds enough to give them eight thousand
francs a year. If they had only been willing to serve in the army they
would have reached the higher grades by this time, and could now have
married to advantage. Instead of that, all my plans are scattered to the
winds!"

"How can you," said his wife, "think of their interests when it is a
question of their honor and their lives?"

"Monsieur d'Hauteserre thinks of everything," said the marquis.

CHAPTER XVI. MARTHE INVEIGLED

While the masters of Cinq-Cygne were waiting at Troyes for the opening
of the trial before the Criminal court and vainly so