ople and sided with the cut-throats of
Versailles, when you participated in the crimes of the Bodyguard;
inasmuch as you have been of the party of conspirators against the
Revolution, and have plotted with the tyrant Capet and his widow for the
Counter-revolution; inasmuch as you are a suspect, inasmuch as you are
an _emigre_; inasmuch as you are a rich and an aristocrat; inasmuch as
you, Germain Lecour, son of Francois Xavier Lecour, peasant of Canada,
and grandson of a butcher of Paris, did thus oppress the people without
the excuse of hereditary illusion, but were a cheat and adventurer
sprung from their own bosom; inasmuch as in order to do so you have
broken many laws of the land and natural rights of mankind, have
outraged the sacred names of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, and have
brought, especially upon yourself, the retribution of that Order of the
Galley-on-Land, part of which was assembled before you in the cave of
Fontainebleau; know now then, for the first time, that through all these
dealings you have been tracked by them in your every movement; that your
misdeeds were collected, not forgotten; that our vengeance was on your
path and waited but the time that suited us; that to hundreds unknown to
you it will be a day of feasting to see you die; that they will drink
wine for your blood and eat bread for your flesh, and when your head
drops into the basket, they will regret the days of tyranny for this
only--that the humanity of these times does not allow of breaking you in
turn on the wheel."

"You are frank," returned Germain bitterly.

The Admiral was taken aback. He had counted on more effect for his
harangue.

"I have one more '_inasmuch_,'" said he, with a sting in his tone and a
gleam in his eye. "Inasmuch as by your imposture you deceived and misled
a heart too pure and lofty for such as you to have dared towards----"

This shaft was aimed to strike deep, and so it did. Germain's defiant
bearing fell, he dropped his head and groaned.

"Strike him!" roared Grancey. "You must die anyway. Strike, in default
of a sword to run him through!"

"He dares not!" the Admiral exclaimed to the group of aristocrats. "You
take him for one of yourselves. You are his dupes like the others."

"You admit this _inasmuch_?" he inquired triumphantly of Lecour.

"It is true, true, true," moaned Germain. "I may not deny it--the
greatest crime of all my crimes."

The Admiral turned with a snort to Lecour's for