fine black brows lifted high on her forehead.

On the stroke of ten President Enjalran, who was to preside at the
trial, appeared in the overcrowded hall, and after the reading of the
lengthy indictment Bastide was summoned to the hearing.

Firm as if cast in bronze he stood before the judge's table. His
answers were cool, terse, and clear. From beginning to end he now saw
through the senseless fable, woven of stupidity and malice. By a biting
sarcasm he showed his unutterable contempt of all the accusations
against him, thus placing the counsel assigned to him at the last
moment, with whom he stubbornly refused to confer, in no slight
embarrassment.

Now and then he turned his glance toward the tall, church-like windows,
and when he caught sight of a bird that had alighted on the sill and
dug his yellow bill into the feathers on his breast, he lost his
self-command for a moment and his lips parted in pain.

His examination lasted but a short time. It was only a matter of form,
for his fate was sealed. With Bach, Colard, and the other accomplices,
Monsieur d'Enjalran's task was easy; their testimony was petrified, as
it were. Bousquier had died in prison. Of the others, each one sought
to grab at a little remnant of innocence; they produced the impression
of men crushed and wholly bereft of will-power. A sensation was created
by old Bancal, who became hysterical during his examination, and then,
protesting his innocence, behaved like a madman. The humpbacked
Missonier grinned when the question of his presence at the murder was
discussed; he had become brutalized by his long imprisonment and the
repeated examinations. Little Madeleine Bancal behaved like an actress,
and greeted her acquaintances and patrons in the audience by throwing
them kisses. Rose Feral turned deadly pale at the sight of the bloody
rags on the Judge's table, and could not utter a word. Madame Bancal
remembered that Monsieur Fualdes was dragged into her house by six men,
that he was made to sign a number of papers, crisscross, as she said.
The day following, she had found one of these bills, made out upon
stamped paper, but as it was stained with blood, had burned it. More
than that she positively refused to confess, met all questions with a
stolid silence, and declared finally that whatever else she knew she
would confide to her confessor alone.

The witnesses testified placidly the most incredible things. Their
memory was so good that they re