he president looked round at his colleagues, and shook his head
suspiciously.

"This statement of the female prisoner's complicates the matter very
seriously," said he. "Is there anybody in court," he added, looking
at the persons behind his chair, "who knows where the mother of
Superintendent Danville and the servant are now?"

Lomaque came forward at the appeal, and placed himself by the table.

"Why, citizen agent!" continued the president, looking hard at him, "are
you overcome by the heat, too?"

"The fit seemed to take him, citizen president, when the female prisoner
had made an end of her statement," exclaimed Magloire, pressing forward
officiously.

Lomaque gave his subordinate a look which sent the man back directly to
the shelter of the official group; then said, in lower tones than were
customary with him:

"I have received information relative to the mother of Superintendent
Danville and the servant, and am ready to answer any questions that may
be put to me."

"Where are they now?" asked the president.

"She and the servant are known to have crossed the frontier, and are
supposed to be on their way to Cologne. But, since they have entered
Germany, their whereabouts is necessarily a matter of uncertainty to the
republican authorities."

"Have you any information relative to the conduct of the old servant
while he was in Paris?"

"I have information enough to prove that he was not an object for
political suspicion. He seems to have been simply animated by servile
zeal for the woman's interests; to have performed for her all the menial
offices of a servant in private; and to have misled the neighbors by
affected equality with her in public."

"Have you any reason to believe that Superintendent Danville was privy
to his mother's first attempt at escaping from France?"

"I infer it from what the female prisoner has said, and for other
reasons which it would be irregular to detail before the tribunal. The
proofs can no doubt be obtained if I am allowed time to communicate with
the authorities at Lyons and Marseilles."

At this moment Danville re-entered the court; and, advancing to the
table, placed himself close by the chief agent's side. They looked each
other steadily in the face for an instant.

"He has recovered from the shock of Trudaine's answer," thought Lomaque,
retiring. "His hand trembles, his face is pale, but I can see regained
self-possession in his eye, and I dread the consequence