rs," the Abbe
Matouillet, and Madame Dumont, were committed for trial as swindlers,
as the government did not deem them of sufficient importance to charge
them with high treason.

The Abbe contrived to effect his escape from the jail, but the others
were placed in the dock, Bruneau was received with some faint cries of
"Vive Louis XVII.!" but the scamp knew that his game was played out,
and did not care to conceal his knowledge of the fact. He had made no
effort to make himself presentable; but appeared in court ill-dressed,
unshaven, and wearing a cotton night-cap on his head. It was with
difficulty that he could be compelled to respect the forms of the
court, or to preserve ordinary decency. He interrupted the opening
speech of the government prosecutor by noisy ejaculations, oaths,
filthy expletives, and immodest and insulting gestures, and when
rebuked by the judges showered down upon them all the abusive and
abominable epithets of his extensive vocabulary.

The trial lasted for ten days, and the career of Bruneau was clearly
traced from his very childhood. As revelation after revelation was
made, and the history of crime after crime was disclosed, his
interruptions became more and more frequent and violent, until his
very accomplices shrank from him in horror, protesting that it he had
presented himself to them in the same guise when he first proclaimed
his pretensions, they would not have been seduced by him. Their
advocates pleaded on their behalf that they were dupes and not
confederates, and the plea served to exculpate the Abbe, Madame
Dumont, and Tourly. The impostor himself was condemned to five years'
imprisonment, three thousand francs fine, and a further imprisonment
of two years for his offences against the dignity of justice and the
public morality committed in open court. He was further condemned to
remain at the after-disposal of the government, and to pay
three-fourths of the expenses of the trial. Branzon, his literary
friend, was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, and to pay a fourth
of the expenses. When that part of the sentence was pronounced, which
referred to the cost of the proceedings, Bruneau burst into an
insulting laugh, and informed the judges that he would take care to
defray the heavy responsibility laid upon him as soon as he was able.
But, as the saying is, he laughed without his host. The subscriptions
of his dupes were lying at the Bank of France, were confiscated by the
stat