can grant you no delay," interrupted M. de Sairmeuse; "will
you accept the defence, yes or no?"

The advocate hesitated, not that he was afraid, for he was a brave man:
but he was endeavoring to find some argument strong enough to trouble
the conscience of these judges.

"I will speak in his behalf," said the advocate, at last, "but not
without first protesting with all my strength against these unheard-of
modes of procedure."

"Oh! spare us your homilies, and be brief."

After Chanlouineau's examination, it was difficult to improvise there,
on the spur of the moment, a plea in his behalf. Still, his courageous
advocate, in his indignation, presented a score of arguments which would
have made any other tribunal reflect.

But all the while he was speaking the Duc de Sairmeuse fidgeted in his
gilded arm-chair with every sign of angry impatience.

"The plea was very long," he remarked, when the lawyer had concluded,
"terribly long. We shall never get through with this business if each
prisoner takes up as much time!"

He turned to his colleagues as if to consult them, but suddenly changing
his mind he proposed to the prosecuting counsel that he should unite
all the cases, try all the culprits in a body, with the exception of the
elder d'Escorval.

"This will shorten our task, for, in case we adopt this course, there
will be but two judgments to be pronounced," he said. "This will not, of
course, prevent each individual from defending himself."

The lawyers protested against this. A judgment in a lump, like that
suggested by the duke, would destroy all hope of saving a single one of
these unfortunate men from the guillotine.

"How can we defend them," the lawyers pleaded, "when we know nothing of
the situation of each of the prisoners? we do not even know their names.
We shall be obliged to designate them by the cut of their coats and by
the color of their hair."

They implored the tribunal to grant them a week for preparation,
four days, even twenty-four hours. Futile efforts! The president's
proposition was adopted.

Consequently, each prisoner was called to the desk according to the
place which he occupied upon the benches. Each man gave his name, his
age, his abode, and his profession, and received an order to return to
his place.

Six or seven prisoners were actually granted time to say that they were
absolutely ignorant of the conspiracy, and that they had been arrested
while conversing quietly upon