licity given to trials is a terrible
penalty which would never have been inflicted had legislators reflected
on it. Customs are often more cruel than laws. Customs are the deeds of
men, but laws are the judgment of a nation. Customs in which there is
often no judgment are stronger than laws.

Crowds surrounded the courtroom; the president was obliged to station
squads of soldiers to guard the doors. The audience, standing below the
bar, was so crowded that persons suffocated. Monsieur de Grandville,
defending Michu, Bordin, defending the Simeuse brothers, and a lawyer
of Troyes who appeared for the d'Hauteserres, were in their seats before
the opening of the court; their faces wore a look of confidence. When
the prisoners were brought in, sympathetic murmurs were heard at the
appearance of the young men, whose faces, in twenty days' imprisonment
and anxiety, had somewhat paled. The perfect likeness of the twins
excited the deepest interest. Perhaps the spectators thought that Nature
would exercise some special protection in the case of her own anomalies,
and felt ready to join in repairing the harm done to them by destiny.
Their noble, simple faces, showing no signs of shame, still less of
bravado, touched the women's hearts. The four gentlemen and Gothard wore
the clothes in which they had been arrested; but Michu, whose coat and
trousers were among the "articles of testimony," so-called, had put
on his best clothes,--a blue surtout, a brown velvet waistcoat _a la_
Robespierre, and a white cravat. The poor man paid the penalty of his
dangerous-looking face. When he cast a glance of his yellow eye, so
clear and so profound upon the audience, a murmur of repulsion answered
it. The assembly chose to see the finger of God bringing him to the dock
where his father-in-law had sacrificed so many victims. This man, truly
great, looked at his masters, repressing a smile of scorn. He seemed to
say to them, "I am injuring your cause." Five of the prisoners exchanged
greetings with their counsel. Gothard still played the part of an idiot.

After several challenges, made with much sagacity by the defence under
advice of the Marquis de Chargeboeuf, who boldly took a seat beside
Bordin and de Grandville, the jury were empanelled, the indictment was
read, and the prisoners were brought up separately to be examined. They
answered every question with remarkable unanimity. After riding about
the forest all the morning they had returned t