They had broken their bond, though we had fulfilled
ours, and I held myself justified in doing what I had done for
our cause and for my own life.
I was not heard patiently, though I could see that the Governor
and the Chevalier were impressed; but Bigot instantly urged the
case hotly against me, and the end came very soon. It was now dark;
a single light had been brought and placed beside the Governor,
while a soldier held a torch at a distance. Suddenly there was a
silence; then, in response to a signal, the sharp ringing of a
hundred bayonets as they were drawn and fastened to the muskets,
and I could see them gleaming in the feeble torchlight. Presently,
out of the stillness, the Governor's voice was heard condemning me
to death by hanging, thirty days hence, at sunrise. Silence fell
again instantly, and then a thing occurred which sent a thrill
through us all. From the dark balcony above us came a voice, weird,
high, and wailing:
"Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! He is guilty, and shall die! Francois
Bigot shall die!"
The voice was Mathilde's, and I saw Doltaire shrug a shoulder
and look with malicious amusement at the Intendant. Bigot himself
sat pale and furious. "Discover the intruder," he said to Gabord,
who was standing near, "and have--him--jailed."
But the Governor interfered. "It is some drunken creature," he
urged quietly.
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