Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 7.djvu/240

 diately, followed by the clerk. He was a large, fat man. He took down a wig hung on a nail and hastily put it on his head. "The first case," he said.

But putting his hand to his head, he added, "Humph! this is not my wig!"

"That's a fact, Mr. Obadiah, it is mine," replied the clerk.

"My dear Mr. Oysterpuff, how do you think that a judge can give a wise sentence with a clerk's wig?"

An exchange of wigs had been made. During these preliminaries, Passepartout was boiling over with impatience, for the hands appeared to him to move terribly fast over the face of the large clock in the court-room.

"The first case," said Judge Obadiah again.

"Phileas Fogg?" said Clerk Oysterpuff.

"Here I am," replied Mr. Fogg.

"Passepartout?"

"Present!" replied Passepartout.

"Good!" said Judge Obadiah. "For two days, prisoners, you have been looked for upon the arrival of all the trains from Bombay."

"But of what are we accused?" cried Passepartout impatiently.

"You shall know now," replied the judge.

"ir," said Mr. Fogg then, "I am an English citizen, and have the right"

"Have you been treated disrespectfully," asked Mr. Obadiah.

"Not at all."

"Very well, let the complainants come in."

Upon the order of the judge a door was opened, and three Hindoo priests were led in by a tipstaff.

"Well, well!" murmured Passepartout, "they are the rascals who were going to burn our young lady!"

The priests stood up before the judge, and the clerk read in a loud voice a complaint of sacrilege, preferred against Mr. Phileas Fogg and his servant, accused of having violated a place consecrated by the Brahmin religion.

"You have heard the charge?" the judge asked Phileas Fogg.

"Yes, sir," replied Mr. Fogg, consulting his watch, "and I confess it."

"Ah! You confess?"