"Yes, now we shall hear the truth!"
The king again kissed my sister's hand, and placed her in a seat beside his arm-chair, which he resumed.
"Monsieur the Abbé Edgeworth," he said, "having stood on the scaffold with our martyred sovereign, as priest and comforter, is eminently the one to conduct an examination like this, which touches matters of conscience. We leave it in his hands."
Abbé Edgeworth, fine and sweet of presence, stood by the king, facing Bellenger and the idiot. That poor creature, astonished by his environment, gazed at the high room corners, or smiled experimentally at the courtiers, stretching his cracked lips over darkened fangs.
"You are admitted here, Bellenger," said the priest, "to answer his Majesty's questions in the presence of witnesses."
"I thank his Majesty," said Bellenger.
The abbé began as if the idiot attracted his notice for the first time.
"Who is the unfortunate child you hold with your right hand?"
"The dauphin of France, monsieur the abbé," spoke out Bellenger, his left hand on his hip.
"What! Take care what you say! How do you know that the dauphin of France is yet among the living?"