"My good woman," said the judge to Gritte, when she appeared, "they say you saw Monsieur Joseph Bridau leave the house this morning?"
"Yes, monsieur," she answered, trembling like a leaf.
"At what hour?"
"Just as I was getting up: he walked about his room all night, and was dressed when I came downstairs."
"Was it daylight?"
"Barely."
"Did he seem excited?"
"Yes, he was all of a twitter."
"Send one of your men for my clerk," said Lousteau-Prangin to the lieutenant, "and tell him to bring warrants with him—"
"Good God! don't be in such a hurry," cried Monsieur Hochon. "The young man's agitation may have been caused by something besides the premeditation of this crime. He meant to return to Paris to-day, to attend to a matter in which Gilet and Mademoiselle Brazier had doubted his honor."