hastily summoned by telephone; the dignitary was collapsing. The wife
of his Excellency was also called.



CHAPTER II
CONDEMNED TO BE HANGED


Everything befell as the police had foretold. Four terrorists, three
men and a woman, armed with bombs, infernal machines and revolvers,
were seized at the very entrance of the house, and another woman was
later found and arrested in the house where the conspiracy had been
hatched. She was its mistress. At the same time a great deal of
dynamite and half finished bomb explosives were seized. All those
arrested were very young; the eldest of the men was twenty-eight years
old, the younger of the women was only nineteen. They were tried in
the same fortress in which they were imprisoned after the arrest; they
were tried swiftly and secretly, as was done during that unmerciful
time.

At the trial all of them were calm, but very serious and thoughtful.
Their contempt for the judges was so intense that none of them wished
to emphasize his daring by even a superfluous smile or by a feigned
expression of cheerfulness. Each was simply as calm as was necessary
to hedge in his soul, from curious, evil and inimical eyes, the great
gloom that precedes death.

Sometimes they refused to answer questions; sometimes they answered,
briefly, simply and precisely, as though they were answering not the