hrieked in good
season. You could still dance, my beauty!"

Then he turned to his acolytes of the officiality,--"Behold justice
enlightened at last! This is a solace, gentlemen! Madamoiselle will bear
us witness that we have acted with all possible gentleness."

CHAPTER III. END OF THE CROWN WHICH WAS TURNED INTO A DRY LEAF.

When she re-entered the audience hall, pale and limping, she was
received with a general murmur of pleasure. On the part of the audience
there was the feeling of impatience gratified which one experiences at
the theatre at the end of the last entr'acte of the comedy, when the
curtain rises and the conclusion is about to begin. On the part of the
judges, it was the hope of getting their suppers sooner.

The little goat also bleated with joy. He tried to run towards his
mistress, but they had tied him to the bench.

Night was fully set in. The candles, whose number had not been
increased, cast so little light, that the walls of the hall could not be
seen. The shadows there enveloped all objects in a sort of mist. A few
apathetic faces of judges alone could be dimly discerned. Opposite them,
at the extremity of the long hail, they could see a vaguely white point
standing out against the sombre background. This was the accused.

She had dragged herself to her place. When Charmolue had installed
himself in a magisterial manner in his own, he seated himself, then
rose and said, without exhibiting too much self-complacency at his
success,--"The accused has confessed all."

"Bohemian girl," the president continued, "have you avowed all
your deeds of magic, prostitution, and assassination on Phoebus de
Chateaupers."

Her heart contracted. She was heard to sob amid the darkness.

"Anything you like," she replied feebly, "but kill me quickly!"

"Monsieur, procurator of the king in the ecclesiastical courts," said
the president, "the chamber is ready to hear you in your charge."

Master Charmolue exhibited an alarming note book, and began to read,
with many gestures and the exaggerated accentuation of the pleader, an
oration in Latin, wherein all the proofs of the suit were piled up
in Ciceronian periphrases, flanked with quotations from Plautus, his
favorite comic author. We regret that we are not able to offer to our
readers this remarkable piece. The orator pronounced it with marvellous
action. Before he had finished the exordium, the perspiration was
starting from his brow, and his ey