m to his
account at the Assize Court and unmask his crimes. Such a trial is a
triumph in the career of an examining judge!"

"Camusot," Amelie began, pleased to see her husband rally from the
moral and physical prostration into which he had been thrown by Lucien's
suicide, "the President told you that you had blundered to the wrong
side. Now you are blundering as much to the other--you are losing your
way again, my dear."

The magistrate stood up, looking at his wife with a stupid stare.

"The King and the Keeper of the Seals will be glad, no doubt, to know
the truth of this business, and at the same time much annoyed at seeing
the lawyers on the Liberal side dragging important persons to the bar of
opinion and of the Assize Court by their special pleading--such people
as the Maufrigneuses, the Serizys, and the Grandlieus, in short, all who
are directly or indirectly mixed up with this case."

"They are all in it; I have them all!" cried Camusot.

And Camusot walked up and down the room like Sganarelle on the stage
when he is trying to get out of a scrape.

"Listen, Amelie," said he, standing in front of his wife. "An incident
recurs to my mind, a trifle in itself, but, in my position, of vital
importance.

"Realize, my dear, that this Jacques Collin is a giant of cunning, of
dissimulation, of deceit.--He is--what shall I say?--the Cromwell of
the hulks!--I never met such a scoundrel; he almost took me in.--But in
examining a criminal, a little end of thread leads you to find a ball,
is a clue to the investigation of the darkest consciences and obscurest
facts.--When Jacques Collin saw me turning over the letters seized in
Lucien de Rubempre's lodgings, the villain glanced at them with the
evident intention of seeing whether some particular packet were
among them, and he allowed himself to give a visible expression of
satisfaction. This look, as of a thief valuing his booty, this movement,
as of a man in danger saying to himself, 'My weapons are safe,' betrayed
a world of things.

"Only you women, besides us and our examinees, can in a single
flash epitomize a whole scene, revealing trickery as complicated as
safety-locks. Volumes of suspicion may thus be communicated in a second.
It is terrifying--life or death lies in a wink.

"Said I to myself, 'The rascal has more letters in his hands than
these!'--Then the other details of the case filled my mind; I overlooked
the incident, for I thought I should have my