“I do not deny that.”

“Unfortunately, you have been tempted by the prestige you might gain in a great and famous trial.  You have laid aside all prudence; and your projects are forgotten.  Whether M. de Boiscoran is innocent or guilty, his family will never forgive you your interference.  If he is guilty, they will blame you for having handed him over to justice:  if he is innocent, they will blame you even more for having suspected him.”

M. Galpin hung his head as if to conceal his trouble.  Then he asked,—­

“And what would you do in my place?”

“I would withdraw from the case, although it is rather late.”

“If I did so, I should risk my career.”

“Even that would be better for you than to engage in an affair in which you cannot feel the calmness nor the impartiality which are the first and indispensable virtues of an upright magistrate.”

The latter was becoming impatient.  He exclaimed,—­

“Sir, do you think I am a man to be turned aside from my duty by considerations of friendship or personal interest?”

“I said nothing of the kind.”

“Did you not see just now how I carried on the inquiry?  Did you see me start when Cocoleu first mentioned M. de Boiscoran’s name?  If he had denounced any one else, I should probably have let the matter rest there.  But precisely because M. de Boiscoran is a friend of mine, and because I have great expectations from him, I have insisted and persisted, and I do so still.”

The commonwealth attorney shrugged his shoulders.

“That is it exactly,” he said.  “Because M. de Boiscoran is a friend of yours, you are afraid of being accused of weakness; and you are going to be hard, pitiless, unjust even, against him.  Because you had great expectations from him, you will insist upon finding him guilty.  And you call yourself impartial?”

M. Galpin assumed all his usual rigidity, and said solemnly,—­

“I am sure of myself!”

“Have a care!”

“My mind is made up, sir.”

It was time for M. Seneschal to join them again:  he returned, accompanied by Capt.  Parenteau.

“Well, gentlemen,” he asked, “what have you resolved?”

“We are going to Boiscoran,” replied the magistrate.

“What!  Immediately?”

“Yes:  I wish to find M. de Boiscoran in bed.  I am so anxious about it, that I shall do without my clerk.”

Capt.  Parenteau bowed, and said,—­

“Your clerk is here, sir:  he was but just inquiring for you.”  Thereupon he called out as loud as he could,—­

“Mechinet, Mechinet!”

A small gray-haired man, jovial and cheerful, came running up, and at once proceeded to tell at full length how a neighbor had told him what had happened, and how the magistrate had left town, whereupon he, also, had started on foot, and come after him as fast as he could.