"Martigne," answered the humpbacked jailer, coming forward to the
table.
"Description?"
"Ex-royalist coach-maker to the tyrant Capet."
"Accusation?"
"Conspiracy in prison."
The president nodded, and entered in the book: "Martigne,
coachmaker. Accused of conspiring in prison. Anticipated course
of law by suicide. Action accepted as sufficient confession of
guilt. Goods confiscated. 1st Thermidor, year two of the
Republic."
"Silence!" cried the man with the bludgeon, as the president
dropped a little sand on the entry, and signing to the jailer
that he might remove the dead body, closed the book.
"Any special cases this morning?" resumed the president, looking
round at the group behind him.
"There is one," said Lomaque, making his way to the back of the
official chair. "Will it be convenient to you, citizen, to take
the case of Louis Trudaine and Rose Danville first? Two of my men
are detained here as witnesses, and their time is valuable to the
Republic."
The president marked a list of names before him, and handed it to
the crier or usher, placing the figures one and two against Louis
Trudaine and Rose Danville.
While Lomaque was backing again to his former place behind the
chair, Danville approached and whispered to him, "There is a
rumor that secret information has reached you about the citizen
and citoyenne Dubois.
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