Arrived at the back of the president’s chair, Lomaque recognized his two trusty subordinates, Magloire and Picard, waiting among the assembled patriot officials, to give their evidence. Beyond them, leaning against the wall, addressed by no one, and speaking to no one, stood the superintendent, Danville. Doubt and suspense were written in every line of his face; the fretfulness of an uneasy mind expressed itself in his slightest gesture--even in his manner of passing a handkerchief from time to time over his face, on which the perspiration was gathering thick and fast already. “Silence!” cried the usher of the court for the time being--a hoarse-voiced man in top-boots with a huge saber buckled to his side, and a bludgeon in his hand. “Silence for the Citizen President!” he reiterated, striking his bludgeon on the table. The president rose and proclaimed that the sitting for the day had begun; then sat down again. The momentary silence which followed was interrupted by a sudden confusion among the prisoners on the platform. Two of the guards sprang in among them. There was the thump of a heavy fall--a scream of terror from some of the female prisoners--then another dead silence, broken by one of the guards, who walked across the hall with a bloody knife in his hand, and laid it on the table. “Citizen President,” he said, “I have to report that one of the prisoners has just stabbed himself.” There was a murmuring exclamation, “Is that all?” among the women spectators, as they resumed their work. Suicide at the bar of justice was no uncommon occurrence, under the Reign of Terror. “Name?” asked the president, quietly taking up his pen and opening a book. “Martigne,” answered the humpbacked jailer, coming forward to the table. “Description?” “Ex-royalist coach-maker to the tyrant Capet.” “Accusation?” “Conspiracy in prison.” The president nodded, and entered in the book: “Martigne, coachmaker. Accused of conspiring in prison. Anticipated course of law by suicide. Action accepted as sufficient confession of guilt. Goods confiscated. 1st Thermidor, year two of the Republic.” “Silence!” cried the man with the bludgeon, as the president dropped a little sand on the entry, and signing to the jailer that he might remove the dead body, closed the book. “Any special cases this morning?” resumed the president, looking round at the group behind him. “There is one,” said Lomaque, making his way to the back of the official chair. “Will it be convenient to you, citizen, to take the case of Louis Trudaine and Rose Danville first? Two of my men are detained here as witnesses, and their time is valuable to the Republic.” The president marked a list of names before him, and handed it to the crier or usher, placing the figures one and two against Louis Trudaine and Rose Danville.