eal table, were all the furniture. Here we halted for a few moments,
till a door opening at the extreme end, a sign was made for us to
advance. And now we heard a low rushing sound, like the distant breaking
of the sea in a calm night; it grew louder as we went, till we could
mark the mingling of several hundred voices, as they conversed in a
subdued and under tone. Then, indeed, a dreadful thrill ran through me,
as I thought of the countless mass before whom I was to stand forth a
criminal, and it needed every effort in my power to keep my feet.

A heavy curtain of dark cloth yet separated us from a view of the court;
but we could hear the voice of the president commanding silence, and
the monotonous intonation of the clerk reading the order for the
proceedings. This concluded, a deep voice called out, "Introduce the
prisoners!" and the words were repeated still louder by a huissier at
the entrance; and at a signal the line moved forward, the curtain was
drawn back, and we advanced into the court.

The crowd of faces that filled the vast space from the body of the court
below to the galleries above, turned as we passed on to the bench, at
one side of the raised platform near the seat of the judges. A similar
bench, but unoccupied, ran along the opposite side; while directly in
front of the judges were ranged the advocates in rows, closely packed
as they could sit,--a small desk, somewhat advanced from the rest, being
the seat reserved for the Procureur-General of the court.

The vast multitudes of spectators; the pomp and circumstance of a court
of justice; the solemn look of the judges, arrayed in their dark robes
and square black caps, reminding one of the officers of the Inquisition,
as we see them in old paintings; the silence where so many were
assembled,--all struck me with awe, and I scarcely dared to look up,
lest in the glances bent upon me I should meet some whose looks might
seem to condemn me.

"Proclaim the _seance_," said the President. And with: a loud voice
the _huissier_ of the court made proclamation that the tribunal had
commenced its sitting.

This concluded, the Procureur-General proceeded to read the names of the
accused, beginning with General Moreau, Armand de Polignac, Charles de
Riviere, Sol de Gisolles, George Cadoudal, and some twenty others
of less note, among which I heard with a sinking heart my own name
pronounced.

Some customary formalities seemed now to occupy the court for a
c