"
"Produce your proofs in answer to this order."
Picard and Magloire opened their minutes of evidence, and read to
the president the same particulars which they had formerly read
to Lomaque in the secret police office.
"Good," said the president, when they had done, "we need trouble
ourselves with nothing more than the identifying of the citizen
and citoyenne Dubois, which, of course, you are prepared for.
Have you heard the evidence?" he continued, turning to the
prisoners; while Picard and Magloire consulted together in
whispers, looking perplexedly toward the chief agent, who stood
silent behind them. "Have you heard the evidence, prisoners? Do
you wish to say anything? If you do, remember that the time of
this tribunal is precious, and that you will not be suffered to
waste it."
"I demand permission to speak for myself and for my sister,"
answered Trudaine. "My object is to save the time of the tribunal
by making a confession."
The faint whispering, audible among the women spectators a moment
before, ceased instantaneously as he pronounced the word
confession. In the breathless silence, his low, quiet tones
penetrated to the remotest corners of the hall; while,
suppressing externally all evidences of the death-agony of hope
within him, he continued his address in these words:
"I confess my secret visits to the house in the Rue de Clery.
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