“Unfortunately that has nothing to do with the force of the evidence
against you. If you persist in keeping silence, you must look for a
criminal trial for the galleys. If you are innocent, why not explain the
matter? What do you wait for? What do you hope?”
“Nothing.”
Mechinet had, in the meantime, completed the official report.
“We must go,” said M. Galpin
“Am I at liberty,” asked M. de Boiscoran, “to write a few lines to my
father and my mother? They are old: such an event may kill them.”
“Impossible!” said the magistrate.