‘Oh! no; even that must not be.’
‘Mon Dieu! you terrify me. Is it an order to send me to Siberia?’
‘Siberia, sir, is a fine country, and which people have calumniated. Besides, people return from it.’
‘Am I condemned to prison?’
‘The prison is nothing. Prisoners come out of prison.’
‘Sir, sir!’ cried the banker, more and more affrighted, ‘am I destined to the knout?’
‘The knout is a punishment very grievous; but the knout does not kill.’
‘Miserable fate!’ said Sutherland, terrified. ‘I see indeed that it is a matter of death.’
‘And what a death!’ exclaimed the master of the police, whilst he solemnly raised his eyes with an expression of the most profound pity.
‘How! what a death! Is it not enough to kill me without trial, to assassinate me without cause? Catharine orders, yet’——