ear crept through me. "Are we to be tried without having a list of
the charges alleged against us?"

"You 'll hear them time enough in court."

"Without an advocate to defend us."

"The President will name one for that purpose."

"And can the jury--"

"Jury! There is no jury; the Consul has suspended trial by jury for
two years. Come, come, don't be downhearted; your friends without are
singing away as gayly as though it were a festival. My faith, that
Greneral George is made of iron, I believe. He has been confined _au
secret_ these ten days, his rations diminished to almost a starvation
level, and yet there is he now, with his countenance as calm and his
look as firm as if he were at large on the hills of La Vendee. Cheer up,
then; let the example of your chief--"

"Chief! he is no chief of mine."

"That 's as it may, or may not be," replied he, gruffly, as though
wounded by what he deemed a want of confidence in his honor. "However,
make haste and dress, for the carriages will be here to convey you to
the Palais. And there now are the Gendarmes d'Elite assembling in the
court."

As I proceeded to dress, I could see from the window of my cell that a
squadron of gendarmes, in full uniform, were drawn up in the square of
the prison, along one side of which were several carriages standing,
each with two gendarmes seated on the box. The prisoners were confined
to their walls; but at every window some face appeared peering anxiously
at the proceedings beneath, and watching with inquisitive gaze every,
even the slightest, movement.

Just as the clock struck nine the door of my cell was opened, and a
greffier of the court entered, and, taking from a black portmanteau at
his side a roll of paper, began without delay to repeat in a sing-song
recitative tone a formal summons of the Grand Tribunal for the
"surrender of the body of Thomas Burke, sous-lieutenant of the huitieme
hussars, now in the prison of the Temple, and accused of the crime of
treason."

The last word made me shudder as it fell from him; and not all my
stoical indifference of weeks past was proof against such an accusation.
The jailer having formally listened to the document, and replied by
reading aloud another, delivered me over to the officer, who desired me
to follow him.

In the court beneath the greater number of the prisoners were already
assembled. George, among the number, was conspicuous, not only by his
size and proportions, but by a h