ench tribune; he boldly
upheld conspirators, showing that it was human to be true to friendship
rather than to the tyrannical laws brought out of the social arsenal
to be adjusted to circumstances. And, indeed, natural rights have laws
which have never been codified, but which are more effectual and better
known than those laid down by society. Lucien had misapprehended, to
his cost, the law of cohesion, which required him to be silent and leave
Jacques Collin to protect himself; nay, more, he had accused him. In his
own interests the man ought always to be, to him, Carlos Herrera.

Monsieur Camusot was rejoicing in his triumph; he had secured two
criminals. He had crushed with the hand of justice one of the favorites
of fashion, and he had found the undiscoverable Jacques Collin. He would
be regarded as one of the cleverest of examining judges. So he left his
prisoner in peace; but he was studying this speechless consternation,
and he saw drops of sweat collect on the miserable face, swell and fall,
mingled with two streams of tears.

"Why should you weep, Monsieur de Rubempre? You are, as I have told you,
Mademoiselle Esther's legatee, she having no heirs nor near relations,
and her property amounts to nearly eight millions of francs if the lost
seven hundred and fifty thousand francs are recovered."

This was the last blow to the poor wretch. "If you do not lose your head
for ten minutes," Jacques Collin had said in his note, and Lucien by
keeping cool would have gained all his desire. He might have paid his
debt to Jacques Collin and have cut him adrift, have been rich, and
have married Mademoiselle de Grandlieu. Nothing could more eloquently
demonstrate the power with which the examining judge is armed, as a
consequence of the isolation or separation of persons under suspicion,
or the value of such a communication as Asie had conveyed to Jacques
Collin.

"Ah, monsieur!" replied Lucien, with the satirical bitterness of a man
who makes a pedestal of his utter overthrow, "how appropriate is the
phrase in legal slang 'to UNDERGO examination.' For my part, if I had to
choose between the physical torture of past ages and the moral torture
of our day, I would not hesitate to prefer the sufferings inflicted
of old by the executioner.--What more do you want of me?" he added
haughtily.

"In this place, monsieur," said the magistrate, answering the poet's
pride with mocking arrogance, "I alone have a right to ask questio