'I shall certainly convict him,' replied the magistrate, 'for I am as well convinced of his guilt as if I had seen him commit the crime.'
'And I would not believe it,' said Arthur's fair champion, 'even if I had seen it.'
'It is a fortunate thing for society that women cannot serve on juries,' replied the advocate-general, shrugging his shoulders; 'it would be out of the question for them to convict a criminal, provided he was five-and-twenty, well made, with bright eyes and curling hair.'
In accordance with that law of gradation which seems so natural that it is observed even in affairs of the greatest moment, the case of Gorsay had been reserved for the last of the session. The petty larcenies, misdemeanors, forgeries, murders without premeditation, and other ordinary crimes, punishable at most with the galleys, were first hurried over, exciting but little interest except in members of the bar, and the habitual attendants upon the assizes: but when the day came for the trial of the prisoners, whose names were in all mouths, the court room was not large enough to contain the crowds which early in the morning besieged its doors. Almost the whole space allotted to the public on ordinary occasions was now reserved for the more favored amateurs of justice. Many young men, who had been on terms of intimacy with Arthur, exhibited great curiosity to see how he would look when placed upon the culprit's stand. These excellent friends, introduced within the privileged inclosure, some by favor, others under the robes of members of the bar, settled themselves clamorously on the seats of the lawyers, behind the tribune, wherever in short they could find a seat or foot-hold. By a gallant attention on the part of the president of the assizes, the interior of the judgment-hall had been exclusively reserved for ladies of condition, who were there crowded together, bustling and buzzing like a swarm of bees in their hive. On the previous evening, the greater part of these butterflies of fashion had cast with dramatic effect their bouquets at the feet of Mademoiselle Taglioni, who was then performing at Bordeaux; and now, with the person half hid by a large veil, (at the court of assizes the veil is etiquette, as the bouquet is at the theatre,) with pockets well supplied with scent-bottles, and handkerchief in hand ready for the expected tear, they were awaiting, but not in silence, the dénouement of a drama more piquant than that of the theatre, and emotions more touching than the enchantments of the Sylphide.
The simultaneous entrance of the court and prisoners produced in this brilliant audience one of those sudden movements which resemble the phenomena of electricity. The whole assemblage rose with one movement; and soon it appeared that the women had the advantage over the men; for all of them, even the most timid, in the excitement of the moment, had sprung upon their chairs. The plebeians in the hindmost ranks, protested with indignant outcries against this screen of hats and shawls, which at such an interesting moment hid from their gaze the spectacle so long and anxiously waited for. Some time elapsed before the constables could restore order and obtain silence: at length the female part of the audience consented to be seated, and the plumed bevy settled down, as the waves of the ocean subside when the tempest which excited them has passed away.
All eyes, however, remained intently fixed upon the two accused, who, in obedience to that principle of equality with which the law regards all its victims, were placed side by side, the gentleman and the galley-slave on the ignominious bench alloted to the prisoners. Two months of captivity, the termination of which might be the scaffold, had impressed upon the features of Arthur deep and visible traces. The elegant young man, who during the preceding winter had obtained in the most brilliant saloons of Bordeaux a success which was due at least as much to his good looks as to his wit, now presented himself to the companions of his happy days, pale, wan, emaciated, and bearing on his countenance the impress of a destiny, the horror of which, while he bowed before its sway, he seemed fully to comprehend. But if his brow appeared colorless, and his eye deprived of the fire which his fair admirers had not unfrequently remarked in them, his countenance had at least lost none of its firmness and noble aspect. Without deigning to cast a look upon the man with whom he found himself coupled, nor upon the audience which, with greedy eyes and ears, he heard murmuring around him, like a pack of hounds yelping over their prey, he exchanged a few words with his counsel, whose friendship and devotion had been of long standing, and seated himself with a composed air, and remained in a fixed attitude, apparently indifferent to what was going on around him.
''Pon honor! the handsome d'Aubian is just now badly named,' said a youngster with no small pretensions to good looks himself, to one of his companions.
'The poor fellow cannot feel very much at his ease,' replied the other, who had been on terms of the greatest intimacy with d'Aubian; 'guilty or not, I should be sorry to have him convicted. But what an idea, to assassinate this poor old man! There were a thousand other means to get money.'
'What means?'
'Why, not one of these women here would have refused to lend him some.'