One look at his face had already told Juliette what she wished to know.  He had searched her room, and found the fragments of burnt paper, which she had purposely left in the ash-pan.

How he would act now was the one thing of importance left for Juliette to ponder over.  That she would not escape arrest and condemnation was at once made clear to her.  Merlin’s look of sneering contempt, when he glanced towards her, had told her that.

Deroulede himself had been conscious of a feeling of intense relief when the men re-entered the room.  The tension had become unendurable.  When he saw his dethroned madonna kneel in humiliation at his feet, an overwhelming pain had wrenched his very heart-strings.

And yet he could not go to her.  The passionate, human nature within him felt a certain proud exultation at seeing her there.

She was not above him now, she was no longer akin to the angels.

He had given no further thought to his own immediate danger.  Vaguely he guessed that Merlin would find the leather case.  Where it was he could not tell; perhaps Juliette herself had handed it to the soldiers.  She had only hidden it for a few moments, out of impulse perhaps, fearing lest, at the first instant of its discovery, Merlin might betray her.

He remembered now those hints and insinuations which had gone out from the Terrorist to Juliette whilst the search was being conducted in the study.  At the time he had merely looked upon these as a base attempt at insult, and had tortured himself almost beyond bearing, in the endeavour to refrain from punishing that evilmouthed creature, who dared to bandy words with his madonna.

But now he understood, and felt his very soul writhing with shame at the remembrance of it all.

Oh yes; the return of Merlin and his men, the presence of these grimy, degraded brutes, was welcome now.  He would have wished to crowd in the entire world, the universe and its population, between him and his fallen idol.

Merlin’s manner towards him had lost nothing of its ironical benevolence.  There was even a touch of obsequiousness apparent in the ugly face, as the representative of the people approached the popular Citizen-Deputy.

“Citizen-Deputy,” began Merlin, “I have to bring you the welcome news, that we have found nothing in your house that in any way can cast suspicion upon your loyalty to the Republic.  My orders, however, were to bring you before the Committee of Public Safety, whether I had found proofs of your guilt or not.  I have found none.”

He was watching Deroulede keenly, hoping even at this eleventh hour to detect a look or a sign, which would furnish him with the proofs for which he was seeking.  The slightest suggestion of relief on Deroulede’s part, a sigh of satisfaction, would have been sufficient at this moment, to convince him and the Committee of Public Safety that the Citizen-Deputy was guilty after all.