"No!" she said, "I do not confess myself guilty, and I have no
reason to! My heart only shuddered when I saw this man enter, whom I
have saved from hunger, overwhelmed with kindness, and whom my
enemies have now brought up to make him testify against me! But it
is over--I am now ready to see new lies, new infamies heaped upon
me: M. Retaux de Vilette may now speak on, his calumnies will only
drop from the undented mail of my conscience!"

And with possessed bearing and an air of proud scorn, Countess
Lamotte looked at the man who, bowing and trembling, advanced by the
side of the officer to the green table, and sedulously shunned
meeting the eyes of Lamotte, which rested on him like two fiery
daggers.

The president propounded the usual questions as to name and rank. He
answered that his name was Retaux de Vilette, and that he was
steward and secretary of the Countess Lamotte-Valois. On further
questioning, he declared that after the count and the countess had
been arrested he had fled, and had gone to Geneva in order to await
the end of the trial. But as it lingered so long, he had attempted
to escape to England, but had been arrested.

"Why do you wish to escape?" asked the attorney-general.

"Because I feared being involved in the affairs of the Countess
Lamotte," answered Retaux de Vilette, in low tones.

"Say rather you knew that you would be involved with them. You have
at a previous examination deposed circumstantially, and you cannot
take back what you testified then, for your denial would be of no