"What!" exclaimed Elphinston, dazed by being summoned at last so unexpectedly, and also at the last description--"what!"
--"the Vicomte d'Argenson, Judge and Examiner of his Majesty's fortresses, desires your presence."
"I, too, am ready," he replied in a low voice.
"Avancez!" said the Lieutenant, and at the word the party left the calotte and descended the massive stairs, the officer with two turnkeys leading the way, while Bluet and another followed.
And as they went to the Hall of Judgment, Bertie whispered to the marquis:
"I begin to understand. I know now why I have been here so long. It was another Elphinston, not I, who served in the Scots Dutch--the Elphinston who eloped with the daughter of the Duc de Baufremont!"
[CHAPTER XXIX.]
FREE.
When the stairs had been descended, at the foot of which were several soldiers who, as ever, removed their hats and placed them before their faces so as not to observe the prisoners, they passed through a little door into a great court and, traversing this, entered what was known and served as the arsenal or armoury. There Bertie observed a number of gorgeously dressed footmen and coachmen seated about, whom he supposed to belong to the judges, as well as a number of exempts and several messengers of the Bastille, known to all Paris by the badge they wore--a brass plate, having on it an engraved club full of points and spikes, with round it the motto "Monstrorum Terror"--most of whom, perhaps from long habit, regarded the party very indifferently. Leaving this place behind, they traversed another court, and then, after the King's Lieutenant had struck three times on an iron-studded door, they were admitted to a large, stately hall well warmed and lighted. It was the hall known as the Salle de Justice.
At one end of the hall, seated in great padded chairs let into niches, were four judges clad in scarlet robes, with huge wigs upon their heads, while one, who was undoubtedly D'Argenson, wore above his wig a richly laced three-cornered hat, as a symbol that he represented the sovereign. At his feet sat his registrar, or secretary, with a long table before him covered with a great crimson cloth that hung down to the ground, and also with innumerable papers, while at either end of the table stood sergeants-at-arms with maces. In the midst of the court, or hall, near to these, was a railed-in space, within it two small wooden stools, and to these the sergeants motioned that both De Chevagny and Bertie should approach, while, as they did so, the registrar handed up to each of the judges papers which were copies of the interrogatories about to be administered. At another table, with some papers also before him, sat De Launey, shivering and shaking and smiling in exactly the same way that Bertie had seen him do more than two years ago. Poor wretch! smiles and shivers were alike to be soon over for him now; in another few months the worst form of paralysis was to end his life.