The eminent lawyer looked cast-down, as if he had been guilty himself. When Dr. Seignebos saw this, he exclaimed,—
“What do you mean, friend Magloire? Are you no longer the man whose marvellous eloquence is the pride of our country? Hold your head up: for shame! Never was a nobler cause intrusted to you.”
But he shook his head, and murmured,—
“I have no faith in it; and I cannot plead when my conscience does not furnish the arguments.”
And becoming more and more embarrassed, he added,—
“Seignebos was right in saying just now, I am not the man for such a cause. Here all my experience would be of no use. It will be better to intrust it to my young brother here.”
For the first time in his life, M. Folgat came here upon a case such as enables a man to rise to eminence, and to open a great future before him. For the first time, he came upon a case in which were united all the elements of supreme interest,—greatness of crime, eminence of victim, character of the accused, mystery, variety of opinions, difficulty of defence, and uncertainty of issue,—one of those causes for which an advocate is filled with enthusiasm, which he seizes upon with all his energies, and in which he shares all the anxiety and all the hopes with his client.
He would readily have given five years’ income to be offered the management of this case; but he was, above all, an honest man. He said, therefore,—
“You would not think of abandoning M. de Boiscoran, M. Magloire?”
“You will be more useful to him than I can be,” was the reply.