over all the
assembly--a stillness so deep that the eager, frightened whispering, and
sharp rustling of dresses among the women in the library, became audible
from the other side of the closed door.

"Charles," she said, slowly advancing; "why do you look--" She stopped,
and fixed her eyes again on her son more earnestly than before; then
turned them suddenly on Trudaine. "You are looking at my son, sir," she
said, "and I see contempt in your face. By what right do you insult a
man whose grateful sense of his mother's obligations to you made him
risk his life for the saving of yours and your sister's? By what
right have you kept the escape of my son's wife from death by the
guillotine--an escape which, for all I know to the contrary, his
generous exertions were instrumental in effecting--a secret from my son?
By what right, I demand to know, has your treacherous secrecy placed us
in such a position as we now stand in before the master of this house?"

An expression of sorrow and pity passed over Trudaine's face while
she spoke. He retired a few steps, and gave her no answer. The general
looked at him with eager curiosity, and, dropping his hold of Danville's
arm, seemed about to speak; but Lomaque stepped forward at the same
time, and held up his hand to claim attention.

"I think I shall express the wishes of Citizen Trudaine," he said,
addressing Madame Danville, "if I recommend this lady not to press for
too public an answer to her questions."

"Pray who are you, sir, who take it on yourself to advise me?" she
retorted, haughtily. "I have nothing to say to you, except that I repeat
those questions, and that I insist on their being answered."

"Who is this man?" asked the general, addressing Trudaine, and pointing
to Lomaque.

"A man unworthy of credit," cried Danville, speaking audibly for the
first time, and darting a look of deadly hatred at Lomaque. "An agent of
police under Robespierre."

"And in that capacity capable of answering questions which refer to the
transactions of Robespierre's tribunals," remarked the ex-chief agent,
with his old official self-possession.

"True!" exclaimed the general; "the man is right--let him be heard."

"There is no help for it," said Lomaque, looking at Trudaine; "leave it
to me--it is fittest that I should speak. I was present," he continued,
in a louder voice, "at the trial of Citizen Trudaine and his sister.
They were brought to the bar through the denunciation of