iament of
Toulouse. This court decided that the case required more careful
consideration than had yet been given to it, and began by ordering
Arnauld du Thill to be confronted with Pierre Guerre and Bertrande de
Rolls.

Who can say what feelings animate a man who, already once condemned,
finds himself subjected to a second trial? The torture scarcely ended
begins again, and Hope, though reduced to a shadow, regains her sway
over his imagination, which clings to her skirts, as it were, with
desperation. The exhausting efforts must be recommenced; it is the last
struggle--a struggle which is more desperate in proportion as there is
less strength to maintain it. In this case the defendant was not one
of those who are easily cast down; he collected all his energy, all his
courage, hoping to come victoriously out of the new combat which lay
before him.

The magistrates assembled in the great hall of the Parliament, and the
prisoner appeared before them. He had first to deal with Pierre, and
confronted him calmly, letting him speak, without showing any emotion.
He then replied with indignant reproaches, dwelling on Pierre's greed
and avarice, his vows of vengeance, the means employed to work upon
Bertrande, his secret manoeuvres in order to gain his ends, and the
unheard-of animosity displayed in hunting up accusers, witnesses, and
calumniators. He defied Pierre to prove that he was not Martin Guerre,
his nephew, inasmuch as Pierre had publicly acknowledged and embraced
him, and his tardy suspicions only dated from the time of their violent
quarrel. His language was so strong and vehement, that Pierre became
confused and was unable to answer, and the encounter turned entirely in
Arnauld's favour, who seemed to overawe his adversary from a height
of injured innocence, while the latter appeared as a disconcerted
slanderer.

The scene of his confrontation with Bertrande took a wholly different
character. The poor woman, pale, cast down, worn by sorrow, came
staggering before the tribunal, in an almost fainting condition. She
endeavoured to collect herself, but as soon as she saw the prisoner she
hung her head and covered her face with her hands. He approached her
and besought her in the gentlest accents not to persist in an accusation
which might send him to the scaffold, not thus to avenge any sins he
might have committed against her, although he could not reproach himself
with any really serious fault.

Bertrande started