"Lost! The lie which has saved
that villain's head leaves them without the shadow of a hope. No
need to stop for the sentence--Danville's infamous presence of
mind has given them up to the guillotine!" Pronouncing these
words, he went out hurriedly by a door near the platform, which
led to the prisoners' waiting-room.
Rose's head sank again on her brother's shoulder. She shuddered,
and leaned back faintly on the arm which he extended to support
her. One of the female prisoners tried to help Trudaine in
speaking consolingly to her; but the consummation of her
husband's perfidy seemed to have paralyzed her at heart. She
murmured once in her brother's ear, "Louis! I am resigned to
die--nothing but death is left for me after the degradation of
having loved that man." She said those words and closed her eyes
wearily, and spoke no more.
"One other question, and you may retire," resumed the president,
addressing Danville. "Were you cognizant of your wife's
connection with her brother's conspiracy?"
Danville reflected for a moment, remembered that there were
witnesses in court who could speak to his language and behavior
on the evening of his wife's arrest, and resolved this time to
tell the truth.
"I was not aware of it," he answered. "Testimony in my favor can
be called which will prove that when my wife's complicity was
discovered I was absent from Paris.
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