going to forgive you for having
betrayed you, and I am really quite ready to take you back into favour."
She made no further attempt therefore to cure what she called her
lover's crotchets, and Gamelin remained firm in the conviction that
Jacques Maubel was Elodie's seducer.

* * * * *

Through the days that ensued the Tribunal devoted its undivided
attention to the task of crushing Federalism, which, like a hydra, had
threatened to devour Liberty. They were busy days; and the jurors, worn
out with fatigue, despatched with the utmost possible expedition the
case of the woman Roland, instigator and accomplice of the crimes of the
Brissotin faction.

Meantime Gamelin spent every morning at the Courts to press on Maubel's
trial. Some important pieces of evidence were to be found at Bordeaux;
he insisted on a Commissioner being sent to ride post to fetch them.
They arrived at last. The deputy of the Public Prosecutor read them,
pulled a face and told Evariste:

"It is not good for much, your new evidence! there is nothing in it!
mere fiddle-faddle.... If only it was certain that this _ci-devant_
Comte de Maubel ever really emigrated...!"

In the end Gamelin succeeded. Young Maubel was served with his act of
accusation and brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal on the 19
Brumaire.

From the first opening of the sitting the President showed the gloomy
and dreadful face he took care to assume for the hearing of cases where
the evidence was weak. The Deputy Prosecutor stroked his chin with the
feather of his pen and affected the serenity of a conscience at ease.
The Clerk read the act of accusation; it was the hollowest sham the
Court had ever heard so far.

The President asked the accused if he had not been aware of the laws
passed against the _emigres_.

"I was aware of them and I observed them," answered Maubel, "and I left
France provided with passports in proper form."

As to the reasons for his journey to England and his return to France he
had satisfactory explanations to offer. His face was pleasant, with a
look of frankness and confidence that was agreeable. The women in the
galleries looked at the young man with a favourable eye. The prosecution
maintained that he had made a stay in Spain at the time that Nation was
at war with France; he averred he had never left Bayonne at that period.
One point alone remained obscure. Among the papers he had thrown in the
fire at the t