Page:Works of Thomas Carlyle - Volume 04.djvu/51

 —"I was about to do so—Jourgniac does so; with more and more success.

Nay," continued I, "they accuse me even of recruiting for the Emigrants!" At these words there arose a general murmur. "O Messieurs, Messieurs," I exclaimed, raising my voice, "it is my turn to speak; I beg M. le Président to have the kindness to maintain it for me; I never needed it more."—"True enough, true enough," said almost all the Judges with a laugh: "Silence! "

'While they were examining the testimonials I had produced, a new Prisoner was brought in, and placed before the President. "It was one Priest more," they said, "whom they had ferreted out of the Chapelle." After very few questions: "À la Force!" He flung his breviary on the table; was hurled forth, and massacred. I reappeared before the tribunal.

You tell us always," cried one of the Judges, with a tone of impatience, 'that you are not this, that you are not that; what are you, then?"—"I was an open Royalist."—There arose a general murmur; which was miraculously appeased by another of the men, who had seemed to take an interest in me: "We are not here to judge opinions," said he, "but to judge the results of them." Could Rousseau and Voltaire both in one, pleading for me, have said better?—"Yes, Messieurs," cried I, "always till the Tenth of August I was an open Royalist. Ever since the Tenth of August that cause has been finished. I am a Frenchman, true to my country. I was always a man of honour.

My soldiers never distrusted me. Nay, two days before that business of Nanci, when their suspicion of their officers was at its height, they chose me for commander, to lead them to Lunéville, to get back the prisoners of the Regiment Mestre-de-Camp, and seize General Malseigne. Which fact there is, most luckily, an individual present who by a certain token can confirm.

'The President, this cross-questioning being over, took off his hat and said: "I see nothing to suspect in this man: I