g, hoping at all
costs to withdraw her denunciation. He was not there: he had at once
taken a horse and started for Rieux. Her accusation was already on its
way to the magistrates!

At break of day the house where Martin Guerre lodged when at Rieux was
surrounded by soldiers. He came forward with confidence and inquired
what was wanted. On hearing the accusation, he changed colour slightly,
then collected himself, and made no resistance. When he came before the
judge, Bertrande's petition was read to him, declaring him to be "an
impostor, who falsely, audaciously, and treacherously had deceived her by
taking the name and assuming the person of Martin Guerre," and demanding
that he should be required to entreat pardon from God, the king, and
herself.

The prisoner listened calmly to the charge, and met it courageously, only
evincing profound surprise at such a step being taken by a wife who had
lived with him for two years since his return, and who only now thought
of disputing the rights he had so long enjoyed. As he was ignorant both
of Bertrande's suspicions and their confirmation, and also of the
jealousy which had inspired her accusation, his astonishment was
perfectly natural, and did not at all appear to be assumed. He
attributed the whole charge to the machinations of his uncle, Pierre
Guerre; an old man, he said, who, being governed entirely by avarice and
the desire of revenge, now disputed his name and rights, in order the
better to deprive him of his property, which might be worth from sixteen
to eighteen hundred livres. In order to attain his end, this wicked man
had not hesitated to pervert his wife's mind, and at the risk of her own
dishonour had instigated this calumnious charge--a horrible and
unheard-of thing in the mouth of a lawful wife. "Ah! I do not blame
her," he cried; "she must suffer more than I do, if she really entertains
doubts such as these; but I deplore her readiness to listen to these
extraordinary calumnies originated by my enemy."

The judge was a good deal impressed by so much assurance. The accused
was relegated to prison, whence he was brought two days later to
encounter a formal examination.

He began by explaining the cause of his long absence, originating, he
said, in a domestic quarrel, as his wife well remembered. He there
related his life during these eight years. At first he wandered over the
country, wherever his curiosity and the love of travel led him. He the