Here he felt stronger and more at ease for his back being turned
to the window, his face was half hidden in shadow; and in case of need,
he could, by bending over his papers, conceal any sign of surprise or
discomfiture.
The prisoner, on the contrary, stood in the full light, and not a
movement of his features, not the fluttering of an eyelid could escape
the magistrate's attention. He seemed to have completely recovered
from his indisposition; and his features assumed an expression which
indicated either careless indifference, or complete resignation.
"Do you feel better?" asked M. Segmuller.
"I feel very well."
"I hope," continued the magistrate, paternally, "that in future you will
know how to moderate your excitement. Yesterday you tried to destroy
yourself. It would have been another great crime added to many others--a
crime which--"
With a hasty movement of the hand, the prisoner interrupted him. "I
have committed no crime," said he, in a rough, but no longer threatening
voice. "I was attacked, and I defended myself. Any one has a right to do
that. There were three men against me. It was a great misfortune; and
I would give my right hand to repair it; but my conscience does not
reproach me--that much!"
The prisoner's "that much," was a contemptuous snap of his finger and
thumb.
"And yet I've been arrested and treated like an assassin," he continued.
"When I saw myself interred in that living tomb which you call a secret
cell, I grew afraid; I lost my senses.
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