"Ah! that is too much!" cried Jacques. "Do you deny the paternity?" asked the judge. "Not only do I deny the paternity, but I deny the condition." "Write," said the judge, "that the accused denies the paternity, and also denies the condition; an inquiry will be ordered on that point." "One moment, one moment!" cried Aubry, realizing that if Gervaise were convicted of falsehood on a single point the whole structure would fall to the ground: "did Gervaise really say what the clerk has read?" "She said it word for word," replied the clerk. "Then if she said it," continued Aubry, "if she said it--why--" "Well?" queried the lieutenant criminal. "Why, it must be so." "Write that the accused pleads guilty to all the charges." The clerk wrote as directed. "Pardieu!" said the student to himself, "if Ascanio deserves a week in the Châtelet for simply paying court to Colombe, I, who have deceived Gervaise, drugged her, and seduced her, can count upon three months' incarceration at the very least. But, faith, I would like to be sure of my facts. However, I must congratulate Gervaise. Peste! she kept to her word, and Jeanne d'Arc was nowhere beside her." "So you confess to all the crimes you're accused of?" said the judge. "I do, messire," replied Jacques unhesitatingly; "I do: all of them and more too, if you choose. I am a great sinner, Monsieur le Lieutenant Criminel, don't spare me." "Impudent varlet!" muttered the magistrate, in the tone in which the uncle of comedy speaks to his nephew, "impudent varlet, out upon you!" With that he let his great round head, with his bloated, purple face, fall upon his breast, and reflected magisterially. "Whereas," he began, after meditating a few moments, raising his head, and lifting the index finger of his right hand,--"write, Master Clerk,--whereas Jacques Aubry, clerk of the Basoche, has pleaded guilty to the charge of seducing one Gervaise-Perrette Popinot by fine promises and simulated affection, we sentence said Jacques Aubry to pay a fine of twenty Paris sous, to support the child, if it is a boy, and to pay the costs." "And the imprisonment?" cried Aubry. "Imprisonment! what do you mean?" asked the judge. "Why, I mean the imprisonment. For Heaven's sake, aren't you going to sentence me to prison?" "No." "You're not going to order me committed to the Châtelet as Ascanio was?" "Who's Ascanio?" "Ascanio is a pupil of Master Benvenuto Cellini." "What did he do?" "He seduced a maid." "Who was she?" "Mademoiselle Colombe d'Estourville, daughter of the Provost of Paris." "What then?" "What then! why I say that it's unjust, when we both committed the same crime, to make a distinction in the punishment. What! you send him to prison and fine me twenty Paris sous! In God's name, is there no justice in this world?" "On the contrary," rejoined the magistrate, "it is because there is justice in this world, and enlightened justice too, that this is as it is." "How so?"