ight of
severe thought: all the men in that instant appeared thirty years
older. They simply would not see such a one as she was, however much
effort she might make. They had left their admiration and their desires
on the other side of the door.

Freya perceived that she had ceased to be a woman and was no more than
one accused. Another of her sex, an irresistible rival, was now
engrossing everything, binding these men with a profound and austere
love. Instinct made her regard fixedly the white matron of grave
countenance whose vigorous bust appeared over the head of the
president. She was Patriotism, Justice, the Republic, contemplating
with her vague and hollow eyes this female of flesh and blood who was
beginning to tremble upon realizing her situation.

"I do not want to die!" cried Freya, suddenly abandoning her seductions
and becoming a poor, wretched creature crazed by fear. "I am innocent."

She lied with the absurd and barefaced illogicalness of one finding
herself in danger of death. It was necessary to re-read her first
declarations, which she was now denying, of presenting afresh the
material proofs whose existence she did not wish to admit, of making
her entire past file by supported by that irrefutable data of anonymous
origin.

"It is _they_ who have done it all!... They have mis-represented me!...
Since they have brought about my ruin, I am going to tell what I know."

In his account the lawyer passed lightly over what had occurred in the
Council of War. Professional secrecy and patriotic interest prevented
greater explicitness. The session had lasted from morning till night,
Freya revealing to her judges all that she knew.... Then her defender
had spoken for five hours, trying to establish a species of interchange
in the application of the penalty. The guilt of this woman was
undeniable and the wickedness that she had carried through was very
great, but they should spare her life in exchange for her important
confessions.... Besides, the inconsequence of her character should be
taken into consideration ... also, that vengeance of which the enemy
had made her the victim....

With Freya he had waited, until well on into the night, the decision of
the tribunal. The defendant appeared animated by hope. She had become a
woman again: she was talking placidly with him and smiling at the
gendarmes and eulogizing the army.... "Frenchmen, gentlemen, were
incapable of killing a woman...."

The _maitre_ wa