The Court deliberated without retiring, and the president rose to pronounce judgement.

  “The Court,” he said, in closing, “desires me to express to
  Birotteau the satisfaction with which it renders such a judgment. 
  Clerk, call the next case.”

Birotteau, clothed with the caftan of honor which the speech of the illustrious procureur-general had cast about him, stood dumb with joy as he listened to the solemn words of the president, which betrayed the quiverings of a heart beneath the impassibility of human justice.  He was unable to stir from his place before the bar, and seemed for a moment nailed there, gazing at the judges with a wondering air, as though they were angels opening to him the gates of social life.  His uncle took him by the arm and led him from the hall.  Cesar had not as yet obeyed the command of Louis XVIII., but he now mechanically fastened the ribbon of the Legion of honor to his button-hole.  In a moment he was surrounded by his friends and borne in triumph down the great stairway to his coach.

“Where are you taking me, my friends?” he said to Joseph Lebas, Pillerault, and Ragon.

“To your own home.”

“No; it is only three o’clock.  I wish to go to the Bourse, and use my rights.”

“To the Bourse!” said Pillerault to the coachman, making an expressive sign to Joseph Lebas, for he saw symptoms in Cesar which led him to fear he might lose his mind.

The late perfumer re-entered the Bourse leaning on the arms of the two honored merchants, his uncle and Joseph Lebas.  The news of his rehabilitation had preceded him.  The first person who saw them enter, followed by Ragon, was du Tillet.

“Ah! my dear master,” he cried, “I am delighted that you have pulled through.  I have perhaps contributed to this happy ending of your troubles by letting that little Popinot drag a feather from my wing.  I am as glad of your happiness as if it were my own.”

“You could not be otherwise,” said Pillerault.  “Such a thing can never happen to you.”

“What do you mean by that?” said du Tillet.

“Oh! all in good part,” said Lebas, smiling at the malicious meaning of Pillerault, who, without knowing the real truth, considered the man a scoundrel.

Matifat caught sight of Cesar, and immediately the most noted merchants surrounded him and gave him an ovation boursiere.  He was overwhelmed with flattering compliments and grasped by the hand, which roused some jealousy and caused some remorse; for out of every hundred persons walking about that hall fifty at least had “liquidated” their affairs.  Gigonnet and Gobseck, who were talking together in a corner, looked at the man of commercial honor very much as a naturalist must have looked at the first electric-eel that was ever brought to him,—­a fish armed with the power of a Leyden jar, which is the greatest curiosity of the animal kingdom.  After inhaling the incense of his triumph, Cesar got into the coach to go to his own home, where the marriage contract of his dear Cesarine and the devoted Popinot was ready for signature.  His nervous laugh disturbed the minds of the three old friends.