“Oh, I have been jugged by mistake,” replied the bandit, with a voice of sinister tone. “It was the seventh time that Justice was deceived in your case,” dryly observed a gendarme. “As for the other times,” rejoined the rogue, “I have nothing to say; but for this, as true as you are an honest man, monsieur, I am innocent. I didn’t do it.” “If it was not you, it was your brother,” said the gendarme, sententiously. “By my faith,” said the man, “that’s worth thinking of: it might be so. I will just mention that to the judge.” “And you,” said Eusebe to a second rogue, “are you also charged with robbery?” “Yes, monsieur.” “Who or what could have led you to rob?” “You shall hear. My story is a very simple one. I was only nineteen years old when I fell in love with a young girl residing in my native province. One day she asked me to bring her some flowers; it was the day after the festival of Sainte-Marie, and she wished to cover the altar with flowers, so that the Blessed Virgin would be favorable to us. Her parents troubled themselves but little about our union. I had neither garden nor flowers. Night came, and I took a stroll. When all the village was sound asleep, I reached the wall of a garden adjoining that of the Maire----” “Robbery, with escalade, at midnight, in an inhabited house: five years in irons,” interrupted a gendarme. “That is the penalty,” resumed the bandit; “but as I was young, had good antecedents, and the booty was only a few roses, which, sooner or later, would have been offered to the Virgin, I was let off with imprisonment for three years. When the term of my sentence expired, I found my mistress a wife. While in prison I had learned the theory of crime; and, as I was now an outcast on account of having been a convict, I was forced to commence its practice.” “And you, old fellow,” demanded Clamens of the third criminal, “why did you steal?” “From taste,” was the laconic reply. “Mon Dieu!” exclaimed the gendarme, “there are all sorts of taste in human nature.” CHAPTER XL. Notwithstanding his cold and rigid aspect, M. de la Varade was not a malicious or a severe man. From the time of Francis I. to the Revolution of ’93, the family of la Varade had always held office in a judicial capacity. The first of the judges was ennobled because he labored to please the beautiful Diana, Countess de Brézé; one of the latest was guillotined because he had displeased the fair Manon Ladri, who had considerable influence with the Revolutionary authorities. The father of the present _juge d’instruction_ died, after the Restoration, attorney-general of the provinces. M. de la Varade spoke with extreme difficulty. Naturally mild and indolent, the magistracy had few charms for him. His profession caused him many torments and vexations; but he would have thought himself wanting in self-respect and regard for the memory of his ancestors had he not continued to exercise the functions of the office.