"Citizen La Vaque is summoned."
A tall man answered from the bench. Then another and another was called. The officers went down the line, and, paper in hand, verified the prisoners. They were taken, one by one, into a side room by a second officer, and their hands secured behind their backs.
At last the first officer said: "Here are but ten, Citizen Vaubertrand, and the list calls for eleven. The keeper must see the commissioner." The officer in charge reproached Vaubertrand for neglect. The man with the wart came out from the office.
"Silence!" he cried. "What is this?"
The matter was explained, or was being set forth, when the door opened, and another half-dozen unfortunates were rudely thrust in, while the crowd made a furious effort to enter. Grégoire turned pale.
"Thou shalt answer for this. Find another. I shall hear of it, and thou, too."
Meanwhile, Despard, too insane to observe Grégoire's condition, and lost to all sense of anything but his own sudden wish to escape, was frantically pulling the furious commissioner by the arm.
"Citizen," he cried, "I must be heard! Dost hear? Thou wilt repent. I am the friend of Robespierre."
Grégoire paid no attention; he was half drunk, and raging at poor Vaubertrand.
"I will report thee," cried Despard. "I denounce thee!"