But on the instant Dossonville, erect and holding out his hands, cried:
"I am unarmed; my weapons are on the bed. I submit. There is no need of murder. What is the accusation?"
Javogues, baffled at the turn, still greedily covered the prisoner with his pistol, but his face showed indecision and the longing for a pretext.
"Lower your pistol," Dossonville continued calmly. "Citoyen Barabant, I call you to witness that I surrendered willingly and am now under the protection of the Nation. On what charges do you, without warrants, arrest an officer of the National Guard?"
Javogues unwillingly dropped his weapon. But immediately, his anger rising at being so thwarted, he advanced and, as though to crush his enemy, thundered out:
"Dog of an aristocrat! I'll tell you. I arrest you for firing on the Nation from the Tuileries."
"What, Citoyen Javogues!" Barabant cried indignantly. "If you have taken this step on the evidence you gave me, I declare it an outrage!"
One of the band spoke up:
"I saw him, too,—I, with my own eyes,—firing on us with the Swiss."
"Citoyen, you are mistaken," Dossonville replied. Then realizing the danger he ran, he continued rapidly, "At what hour?"