A conspiracy against whom? Evidently
against you; and yet you pretend that you had only arrived in Paris
that evening, and that mere chance brought you to the Poivriere. Can you
reconcile such conflicting statements?"
The prisoner had the hardihood to shrug his shoulders disdainfully. "I
see the matter in an entirely different light," said he. "These people
were plotting mischief against I don't know whom--and it was because I
was in their way that they sought a quarrel with me, without any cause
whatever."
Skilfully as the magistrate had delivered this thrust, it had been as
skilfully parried; so skilfully, indeed, that Goguet, the smiling clerk,
could not conceal an approving grimace. Besides, on principle, he always
took the prisoner's part, in a mild, Platonic way, of course.
"Let us consider the circumstances that followed your arrest," resumed
M. Segmuller. "Why did you refuse to answer all the questions put to
you?"
A gleam of real or assumed resentment shone in the prisoner's eyes.
"This examination," he growled, "will alone suffice to make a culprit
out of an innocent man!"
"I advise you, in your own interest, to behave properly. Those who
arrested you observed that you were conversant with all the prison
formalities and rules."
"Ah! sir, haven't I told you that I have been arrested and put in prison
several times--always on account of my papers? I told you the truth, and
you shouldn't taunt me for having done so.
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