ither he or his father-in-law,
to have cut off all the heads that fell under the Terror in that
department, was made the subject of ridiculous tales. The exasperation
of the public mind was all the more intense because nearly all the
functionaries of the department owed their offices to Malin. No generous
voice uplifted itself against the verdict of the public. Besides all
this, the accused had no legal means with which to combat prejudice; for
the Code of Brumaire, year IV., giving as it did both the prosecution of
a charge and the verdict upon it into the hands of a jury, deprived the
accused of the vast protection of an appeal against legal suspicion.

The day after the arrest all the inhabitants of the chateau of
Cinq-Cygne, both masters and servants, were summoned to appear before
the prosecuting jury. Cinq-Cygne was left in charge of a farmer,
under the supervision of the abbe and his sister who moved into it.
Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, with Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre, went
to Troyes and occupied a small house belonging to Durieu in one of the
long and wide faubourgs which lead from the little town. Laurence's
heart was wrung when she at last comprehended the temper of the
populace, the malignity of the bourgeoisie, and the hostility of the
administration, from the many little events which happened to them as
relatives of prisoners accused of criminal wrong-doing and about to
be judged in a provincial town. Instead of hearing encouraging or
compassionate words they heard only speeches which called for vengeance;
proofs of hatred surrounded them in place of the strict politeness or
the reserve required by mere decency; but above all they were conscious
of an isolation which every mind must feel, but more particularly those
which are made distrustful by misfortune.

Laurence, who had recovered her vigor of mind, relied upon the innocence
of the accused, and despised the community too much to be frightened by
the stern and silent disapproval they met with everywhere. She sustained
the courage of Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre, all the while thinking
of the judicial struggle which was now being hurried on. She was,
however, to receive a blow she little expected, which, undoubtedly,
diminished her courage.

In the midst of this great disaster, at the moment when this afflicted
family were made to feel themselves, as it were, in a desert, a man
suddenly became exalted in Laurence's eyes and showed the full be