“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 consequences already.”

“Citizen president,” began Danville, “I demand to know if anything has transpired affecting my honor and patriotism in my absence?”

He spoke apparently with the most perfect calmness, but he looked nobody in the face.  His eyes were fixed steadily on the green baize of the table beneath him.

“The female prisoner has made a statement, referring principally to herself and her brother,” answered the president, “but incidentally mentioning a previous attempt on your mother’s part to break existing laws by emigrating from France.  This portion of the confession contains in it some elements of suspicion which seriously affect you—­”

“They shall be suspicions no longer—­at my own peril I will change them to certainties!” exclaimed Danville, extending his arm theatrically, and looking up for the first time.  “Citizen president, I avow it with the fearless frankness of a good patriot; I was privy to my mother’s first attempt at escaping from France.”