afety of the uncrowned King.

But the bitterness did not last long; on the contrary, a kind of wild
exultation took its place. If Percy had forgotten, then Armand could
stand by Jeanne alone. It was better so! He would save the loved one; it
was his duty and his right to work for her sake. Never for a moment did
he doubt that he could save her, that his life would be readily accepted
in exchange for hers.

The crowd around him was moving up the monumental steps, and Armand went
with the crowd. It lacked but a few minutes to ten now; soon the court
would begin to sit. In the olden days, when he was studying for the law,
Armand had often wandered about at will along the corridors of the house
of Justice. He knew exactly where the different prisons were situated
about the buildings, and how to reach the courtyards where the prisoners
took their daily exercise.

To watch those aristos who were awaiting trial and death taking their
recreation in these courtyards had become one of the sights of
Paris. Country cousins on a visit to the city were brought hither
for entertainment. Tall iron gates stood between the public and the
prisoners, and a row of sentinels guarded these gates; but if one was
enterprising and eager to see, one could glue one's nose against the
ironwork and watch the ci-devant aristocrats in threadbare
clothes trying to cheat their horror of death by acting a farce of
light-heartedness which their wan faces and tear-dimmed eyes effectually
belied.

All this Armand knew, and on this he counted. For a little while he
joined the crowd in the Salle des Pas Perdus, and wandered idly up and
down the majestic colonnaded hall. He even at one time formed part of
the throng that watched one of those quick tragedies that were enacted
within the great chamber of the court. A number of prisoners brought
in, in a batch; hurried interrogations, interrupted answers, a
quick indictment, monstrous in its flaring injustice, spoken by
Foucquier-Tinville, the public prosecutor, and listened to in all
seriousness by men who dared to call themselves judges of their fellows.

The accused had walked down the Champs Elysees without wearing a
tricolour cockade; the other had invested some savings in an English
industrial enterprise; yet another had sold public funds, causing them
to depreciate rather suddenly in the market!

Sometimes from one of these unfortunates led thus wantonly to butchery
there would come an excited prote