he played a part previously agreed
upon, or that he was really an informer, Philippe was condemned to
five years' surveillance by the police department, and ordered to
leave Paris the same day for Autun, the town which the
director-general of police selected as the place of his exile for five
years. This punishment resembled the detention of prisoners on parole
who have a town for a prison. Learning that the Comte de Serizy, one of
the peers appointed by the Chamber on the court-martial, was employing
Joseph to decorate his chateau at Presles, Desroches begged the
minister to grant him an audience, and found Monsieur de Serizy most
amiably disposed toward Joseph, with whom he had happened to make
personal acquaintance. Desroches explained the financial condition of
the two brothers, recalling the services of the father, and the
neglect shown to them under the Restoration.

"Such injustice, monseigneur," said the lawyer, "is a lasting cause of
irritation and discontent. You knew the father; give the sons a
chance, at least, of making a fortune--"

And he drew a succinct picture of the situation of the family affairs
at Issoudun, begging the all-powerful vice-president of the Council of
State to take steps to induce the director-general of police to change
Philippe's place of residence from Autun to Issoudun. He also spoke of
Philippe's extreme poverty, and asked a dole of sixty francs a month,
which the minister of war ought, he said, for mere shame's sake, to
grant to a former lieutenant-colonel.

"I will obtain all you ask of me, for I think it just," replied the
count.

Three days later, Desroches, furnished with the necessary authority,
fetched Philippe from the prison of the Court of Peers, and took him
to his own house, rue de Bethizy. Once there, the young barrister read
the miserable vagabond one of those unanswerable lectures in which
lawyers rate things at their actual value; using plain terms to
qualify the conduct, and to analyze and reduce to their simplest
meaning the sentiments and ideas of clients toward whom they feel
enough interest to speak plainly. After humbling the Emperor's
staff-officer by reproaching him with his reckless dissipations, his
mother's misfortunes, and the death of Madame Descoings, he went on to
tell him the state of things at Issoudun, explaining it according to
his lights, and probing both the scheme and the character of Maxence
Gilet and the Rabouilleuse to their depths. Ph