r.

Marthe, deceived by the apparent friendliness of Lechesneau and the
public prosecutor, who assured her that complete confession could alone
save her husband's life, admitted that the cavern where the senator had
been hidden was known only to her husband and the Messieurs de Simeuse
and d'Hauteserre, and that she herself had taken provisions to the
senator on three separate occasions at midnight.

Laurence, questioned about the cavern, was forced to acknowledge that
Michu had discovered it and had shown it to her at the time when the
four young men evaded the police and were hidden in it.

As soon as these preliminary examinations were ended, the jury, lawyers,
and audience were notified that the trial would be resumed. At three
o'clock the president opened the session by announcing that the case
would be continued under a new aspect. He exhibited to Michu three
bottles of wine and asked him if he recognized them as bottles from his
own cellar, showing him at the same time the identity between the green
wax on two empty bottles with the green wax on a full bottle taken from
his cellar that morning by the justice of peace in presence of his wife.
Michu refused to recognize anything as his own. But these proofs for
the prosecution were understood by the jurors, to whom the president
explained that the empty bottles were found in the place where the
senator was imprisoned.

Each prisoner was questioned as to the cavern or cellar beneath the
ruins of the old monastery. It was proved by all witnesses for the
prosecution, and also for the defence, that the existence of this
hiding-place discovered by Michu was known only to him and his wife, and
to Laurence and the four gentlemen. We may judge of the effect in the
courtroom when the public prosecutor made known the fact that this
cavern, known only to the accused and to their two witnesses, was the
place where the senator had been imprisoned.

Marthe was summoned. Her appearance caused much excitement among the
spectators and keen anxiety to the prisoners. Monsieur de Grandville
rose to protest against the testimony of a wife against her husband.
The public prosecutor replied that Marthe by her own confession was an
accomplice in the outrage; that she had neither sworn nor testified, and
was to be heard solely in the interests of truth.

"We need only submit her preliminary examination to the jury," remarked
the president, who now ordered the clerk of the court to re