"I shall suffer terribly until the day when I can see a lawyer. Thank
my mother for having brought one. I hope he will pardon me, if I address
myself first to another man. I want a man who knows the country and its
customs.

"That is why I have chosen M. Magloire; and I beg you will tell him
to hold himself ready for the day on which, the examination being
completed, I shall be relieved from close confinement.

"Until then, nothing can be done, nothing, unless you can obtain that
the case be taken out of M. G-----'s hands, and be given to some one
else. That man acts infamously. He wants me to be guilty. He would
himself commit a crime in order to charge me with it, and there is no
kind of trap he does not lay for me. I have the greatest difficulty in
controlling myself every time I see this man enter my cell, who was my
friend, and now is my accuser.

"Ah, my dear ones! I pay a heavy price for a fault of which I have been,
until now, almost unconscious.

"And you, my only friend, will you ever be able to forgive me the
terrible anxiety I cause you?

"I should like to say much more; but the prisoner who has handed me your
note says I must be quick, and it takes so much time to pick out the
words!

"J."