"
The President smote the table a blow that scattered a flight of
papers.
"Par la mort Dieu!" he roared, with a most indecent exhibition of
temper in one so placed. "I have had enough of your contradictions.
You forget, monsieur, your position--"
"At least," I broke in harshly, "no less than you forget yours."
The Keeper of the Seals gasped for breath at that, and his fellow
judges murmured angrily amongst themselves. Chatellerault maintained
his sardonic smile, but permitted himself to utter no word.
"I would, gentlemen," I cried, addressing them all, "that His
Majesty were here to see how you conduct your trials and defile his
Courts. As for you, Monsieur le President, you violate the sanctity
of your office in giving way to anger; it is a thing unpardonable
in a judge. I have told you in plain terms, gentlemen, that I am
not this Rene de Lesperon with whose crimes you charge me. Yet, in
spite of my denials, ignoring them, or setting them down either to
a futile attempt at defence or to an hallucination of which you
suppose me the victim, you proceed to lay those crimes to my charge,
and when I deny your charges you speak of proofs that can only
apply to another.
"How shall the name of Lesperon having been found among the Duke
of Montmorency's papers convict me of treason, since I tell you that
I am not Lesperon? Had you the slightest, the remotest sense of
your high duty, messieurs, you would ask me rather to explain how,
if what I state be true, I come to be confounded with Lesperon and
arrested in his place.
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