"
A project of mad generosity occurred to the bewildered man. "If I save
him," murmured he, "if for Claire's sake I leave him his honour and his
life. But how can I save him? To do so I shall be obliged to suppress
old Tabaret's discoveries, and make an accomplice of him by ensuring his
silence. We shall have to follow a wrong track, join Gevrol in running
after some imaginary murderer. Is this practicable? Besides, to spare
Albert is to defame Noel; it is to assure impunity to the most odious of
crimes. In short, it is still sacrificing justice to my feelings."
The magistrate suffered greatly. How choose a path in the midst of
so many perplexities! Impelled by different interests, he wavered,
undecided between the most opposite decisions, his mind oscillating from
one extreme to the other.
What could he do? His reason after this new and unforeseen shock vainly
sought to regain its equilibrium.
"Resign?" said he to himself. "Where, then, would be my courage? Ought
I not rather to remain the representative of the law, incapable of
emotion, insensible to prejudice? am I so weak that, in assuming my
office, I am unable to divest myself of my personality? Can I not, for
the present, make abstraction of the past? My duty is to pursue this
investigation.
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