"For the future we will be as mute as sepulchers, we swear to you."

"Good; but can you repair the evil you have done to-day?"

"We will try."

"It is impossible, I tell you."

"Then, for this time, pardon us."

"You live," continued De Loignac, "with a sort of license which I must
repress. Those who find the terms too hard will return; I can easily
replace them; but I warn you that justice will be done among us,
secretly and expeditiously. Traitors will be punished with death on the
spot."

Montcrabeau nearly fainted, and Pertinax grew paler than ever.

"I shall have," De Loignac continued, "for smaller offenses lighter
punishments, as imprisonment, for instance. For this time, I spare the
lives of M. de Montcrabeau and M. de Pincornay, because they probably
acted in ignorance, and shall only enforce against them my third method
of punishment--a fine. You have received one thousand livres apiece,
gentlemen; you will each return one hundred."

"One hundred!" cried Pincornay; "Cap de Bious! I have not got them; I
have spent them on my equipment."

"Sell your chain, then. But I have something else to add; I have
remarked many signs of irritation between different members of your