The news seemed to come as a shock to the examining magistrate, M. Camusot, who had granted the warrant of arrest on Sauvager’s application, with no idea that it was to be executed so promptly. Camusot was short, fair, and fat already, though he was only thirty years old or thereabouts; he had the flabby, livid look peculiar to officials who live shut up in their private study or in a court of justice; and his little, pale, yellow eyes were full of the suspicion which is often mistaken for shrewdness. Mme. Camusot looked at her spouse, as who should say, “Was I not right?” “Then the case will come on,” was Camusot’s comment. “Could you doubt it?” asked du Coudrai. “Now they have got the Count, all is over.” “There is the jury,” said Camusot. “In this case M. le Prefet is sure to take care that after the challenges from the prosecution and the defence, the jury to a man will be for an acquittal.--My advice would be to come to a compromise,” he added, turning to du Croisier. “Compromise!” echoed the President; “why, he is in the hands of justice.” “Acquitted or convicted, the Comte d’Esgrignon will be dishonored all the same,” put in Sauvager. “I am bringing an action,”[*] said du Croisier. “I shall have Dupin senior. We shall see how the d’Esgrignon family will escape out of his clutches.” [*] A trial for an offence of this kind in France is an action brought by a private person (partie civile) to recover damages, and at the same time a criminal prosecution conducted on behalf of the Government.--Tr. “The d’Esgrignons will defend the case and have counsel from Paris; they will have Berryer,” said Mme. Camusot. “You will have a Roland for your Oliver.” Du Croisier, M. Sauvager, and the President du Ronceret looked at Camusot, and one thought troubled their minds. The lady’s tone, the way in which she flung her proverb in the faces of the eight conspirators against the house of d’Esgrignon, caused them inward perturbation, which they dissembled as provincials can dissemble, by dint of lifelong practice in the shifts of a monastic existence. Little Mme. Camusot saw their change of countenance and subsequent composure when they scented opposition on the part of the examining magistrate. When her husband unveiled the thoughts in the back of his own mind, she had tried to plumb the depths of hate in du Croisier’s adherents. She wanted to find out how du Croisier had gained over this deputy public prosecutor, who had acted so promptly and so directly in opposition to the views of the central power.