d to listen to him.

About the same period, dreams of quite a different kind occupied the
mind of a certain M. Desalleaux, deputy of the public prosecutor in
the criminal court of Orleans. Having made a promising _debut_ in that
office only a few months previously, there was no longer any position
in the magistracy which he believed too high for his future
attainment; and the post of keeper of the seals was one of the most
frequent visions of his slumbers. But it was particularly in the
intoxicating triumphs of oratory that his thoughts would revel in
sleep, when the whole day had been given to the study of some case in
which he was to plead. The glory of the Aguesseaux, and the other
celebrated names of the great days of parliamentary eloquence,
scarcely sufficed for his impatient ambition; it was in the most
distant periods of the past--the times of the marvellous eloquence of
Demosthenes--that he delighted to contemplate the likeness of his own
ideal future. The attainment of power by eloquence; such was the idea,
the text, so to speak, of his whole life--the one object for which he
renounced all the ordinary hopes and pleasures of youth.

One day, these two natures--that of Peter Leroux, lifted scarcely one
degree above the range of the brute, and that of M. Desalleux,
abstract and rectified to the highest pitch of intellectuality--found
themselves face to face. A little contest was going on between them.
M. Desalleux, sitting in his official place, demanded, upon evidence
somewhat insufficient, the head of Peter Leroux, accused of murder;
and Peter Leroux defended his head against the eloquence of M.
Desalleux.

Notwithstanding the remarkable disproportion of power which Providence
had placed in this duel, the accused, for lack of conclusive proofs,
would in all probability have escaped from the hands of the
executioner; but from that very scantiness in the evidence arose an
extraordinary opportunity for eloquence, which could not fail to be
singularly useful to the ambitious hopes of M. Desalleux. In justice
to himself, he could not neglect to take advantage of it.

In the next place, an unlucky circumstance presented itself for poor
Peter Leroux. Some days before the commencement of the trial, and in
the presence of several ladies, who promised themselves the pleasure
of being there to enjoy the spectacle, the young deputy had let fall
an expression of his firm confidence in obtaining from the jury a
verdict