hat you are speaking to a king:
think of me as your friend!... Whatever the risks to be run, can you
bring us face to face under such conditions that the truth will be
apparent to me?"

Juve reflected. He raised his head and looked at the king.

"Your Majesty," said he slowly: "I am going to ask you to take an
extraordinary step.... I am going to ask Your Majesty to perhaps risk
your life. I am going to ask Your Majesty."...

Juve's emotion was such that he could scarcely speak. Mastering it, he
said in a low voice:

"I am going to ask Your Majesty to accompany me in three days' time ...
when."...

XXXV

AT THE COUNCIL OF WAR

"The Council, gentlemen!... Stand up!"

"Shoulder--arms!"

"Rest--arms!"

The seven military judges of the Council of War advanced solemnly, in
single file. They were in full dress uniform--sabres, epaulettes,
regulation plumes on helmets and caps. With all due ceremony they took
their respective places at a long green-covered table.

This opened at one o'clock, on the afternoon of the twenty-eighth of
December. The president was a colonel of dragoons, a smart,
distinguished-looking man, whose fair hair was slightly tinged with
grey at the temples.

On the right of the tribunal, before a bureau piled with voluminous
case papers, was seated Commandant Dumoulin, redder in the face than
ever. The place next him was filled by Lieutenant Servin, who showed
himself the very pink of correctness and meticulous elegance. Seated
near the lieutenant was a white-haired officer acting as clerk of
court.

The government commissioners had their backs to the court windows
which looked on to a very large garden; facing them was the dock,
guarded by two soldiers with fixed bayonets; behind the dock was the
table which stood for the bar where the counsel for the defence would
plead.

The centre of the room was occupied by an enormous cast-iron stove,
shedding cinders on every side, whose ancient pipes were scaly with
age.

Behind the line of soldiers cutting the room in two were narrow seats
and still narrower desks, where the representatives of the legal
press were seated as best they could.

Behind the journalists pressed a tightly packed crowd, restless,
overflowing with curiosity, leaning on the press-men's shoulders,
peering between their heads, for whom the authorities had shown but
scant consideration, and for whom the poorest accommodation was
provided.

All Paris had done