Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/403



"'I don't know, but not enough,' he replied, in shaking his head. 'I wanted to arrest a great many more, but I was prevented.'

"'Ah! then we will talk no more of that, for we should not agree.'

"'Oh, I know that very well,' he answered, with a smile of benevolent pity.

"'But,' I said, 'there is something that frightens me more than your jury; it is the perspective of a popular movement against the priests, and a massacre such as took place in '92.'

"'Oh, don't be afraid of that, we are perfectly the masters; and at any rate you are acquainted with Mazas. People cannot enter there as they choose. The prisoners are in safety there; and it is for that reason that I did not have them transferred to Pélagie. Pélagie is an open house, and would be less secure.'

"While we were talking, I was endeavoring to find a means of making him add to the permission for seeing the Archbishop and Abbé Duguerry, another for the Père Canbert, a Jesuit, admission to whom I had demanded uselessly for the last fifteen days at the Prefecture of Police.

"'Ah! I forgot; I have here another letter from a prisoner who wishes to see me. I will be much obliged if you will add his name to the other two—M. Canbert."

"'Is it another priest?'

"'Yes.'

"The worthy citizen hesitated a moment, but added the name, and handed me the official paper almost as graciously as a functionary of the reaction could have done.

"'Then,' said I, as we left the cabinet, 'I can count that these affairs will not come on for several days?'

"'No, I am not in any hurry unless the prisoners demand a judgment.'