living, we should assuredly have set him at liberty.
The scheme in relation to Gondreville which you attribute to us is a
failure, and only aggravates our position uselessly. We might perhaps
obtain a pardon for an abortive attempt by releasing our victim; instead
of that we persist in detaining a man from whom we can obtain no
benefit whatever. It is absurd! Take away your plaster; the effect is
a failure," he said, addressing the public prosecutor. "We are either
idiotic criminals (which you do not believe) or the innocent victims of
circumstances as inexplicable to us as they are to you. You ought rather
to search for the mass of papers which were burned at Gondreville, which
will reveal motives stronger far than yours or ours and put you on the
track of the causes of this abduction."

The speaker discussed these hypotheses with marvellous ability. He dwelt
on the moral character of the witnesses for the defence, whose religious
faith was a living one, who believed in a future life and in eternal
punishment. He rose to grandeur in this part of his speech and moved his
hearers deeply:--

"Remember!" he said; "these criminals were tranquilly dining when told
of the abduction of the senator. When the officer of gendarmes intimated
to them the best means of ending the whole affair by giving up the
senator, they refused, for they did not understand what was asked of
them!"

Then, reverting to the mystery of the matter, he declared that its
solution was in the hands of time, which would eventually reveal the
injustice of the charge. Once on this ground, he boldly and ingeniously
supposed himself a juror; related his deliberations with his colleagues;
imagined his distress lest, having condemned the innocent, the error
should be known too late, and drew such a picture of his remorse,
dwelling on the grave doubts which the case presented, that he brought
the jury to a condition of intense anxiety.

Juries were not in those days so blase to this sort of allocution as
they are now; Monsieur de Grandville's appeal had the power of things
new, and the jurors were evidently shaken. After this passionate
outburst they had to listen to the wily and specious prosecutor, who
went over the whole case, brought out the darkest points against the
prisoners and made the rest inexplicable. His aim was to reach the
minds and the reasoning faculties of his hearers just as Monsieur de
Grandville had aimed at the heart and the imagination