indifference that of conscious innocence,--it was
pure carelessness!

I slept that night in a prison, and ate of prison fare,--ravenously and
eagerly too; so much so that the turnkey, compassionating me, fetched me
some of his own supper to satisfy my cravings. I awoke the next day with
a gnawing sense of hunger, intensely painful, far more so than my former
suffering from want. That day, and I believe the two following ones,
I spent in durance, and at last was conveyed in the prison-cart to the
office of a magistrate.

The court was densely crowded, but the cases called seemed commonplace
and uninteresting,--at least so they appeared to me, as I tried in vain
to follow them. At length the crier called out the name of Paul Gervois,
and it was less the words than the directed looks of the vast assembly,
as they all turned towards me, showed that I was the representative of
that designation.

My sense of shame at this moment prevented my observing accurately what
went forward; but I soon rallied, and perceived that my case was then
before the court, and my accuser it was who then addressed the bench.

The effort to follow the speaker, to keep up with the narrative that
fell from his lips, was indescribably painful to me. I can compare my
struggle to nothing save the endeavor of one with a shattered limb to
keep pace with the step of his unwounded comrades. The very murmurs of
indignation that at times stirred the auditory, increased this feeling
to a kind of agony. I knew that it was all-important I should hear and
clearly understand what was said, and yet my faculties were unequal to
the effort.

The constable who arrested me came forward next, and spoke as to the
few words which passed between us, affirming how I had confessed to a
certain letter as being written by myself, and that I alone was to be
held responsible for its contents. When he left the table, the judge
called on me for my defence. I stared vaguely from side to side, and
asked to what charge?

"You have been present, prisoner, during the whole of this examination,
and have distinctly heard the allegation against you," replied he.
"The charge is for having written a threatening letter to one of his
Majesty's ministers of state,--a letter which in itself constitutes
a grave offence, but is seriously aggravated as being part of a
long-pursued system of intimidation, and enforced by menaces of the most
extreme violence."

I was now suddenly recalled