you will ruin me if I do not speak?"

"It is true."

"There is still time for reflection; consider what you are doing; I will
forget your insults and your anger. Your trouble is great enough without
my reproaches being added to it. But you desire that I should speak, you
desire it absolutely?"

"I do desire it."

"Very well, then; it shall be as you wish."

Derues surveyed Monsieur de Lamotte with a look which seemed to say, "I
pity you." He then added, with a sigh--

"I am now ready to answer. Your Honour, will you have the kindness to
resume my examination?"

Derues had succeeded in taking up an advantageous position. If he had
begun narrating the extraordinary romance he had invented, the least
penetrating eye must have perceived its improbability, and one would have
felt it required some support at every turn. But since he had resisted
being forced to tell it, and apparently only ceded to Monsieur de
Lamotte's violent persistency, the situation was changed; and this
refusal to speak, coming from a man who thereby compromised his personal
safety, took the semblance of generosity, and was likely to arouse the
magistrate's curiosity and prepare his mind for unusual and mysterious
revelations. This was exactly what Derues wanted, and he awaited the
interrogation with calm and tranquillity.