And to think that you should have stood there and wasted
the time of this Court - His Majesty's time - with your damnable
falsehoods! What purpose did you think to serve by delaying your
doom? Did you imagine that haply, whilst we sent to Paris for your
witnesses, the King might grow weary of justice, and in some fit
of clemency announce a general pardon? Such things have been known,
and it may be that in your cunning you played for such a gain based
upon such a hope. But justice, fool, is not to be cozened. Had
you, indeed, been Bardelys, you had seen that here in this court
sits a gentleman who is very intimate with him. He is there,
monsieur; that is Monsieur le Comte de Chatellerault, of whom
perhaps you may have heard. Yet, when I ask you whether in Toulouse
there is any one who can bear witness to your identity, you answer
me that you know of no one. I will waste no more time with you, I
promise you."
He flung himself back into his chair like a man exhausted, and
mopped his brow with a great kerchief which he had drawn from his
robes. His fellow judges laid their heads together, and with smiles
and nods, winks and leers, they discussed and admired the miraculous
subtlety and acumen of this Solomon. Chatellerault sat, calmly
smiling, in solemn mockery.
For a spell I was too thunderstruck to speak, aghast at this
catastrophe. Like a fool, indeed, I had tumbled into the pit that
had been dug for me by Chatellerault for I never doubted that it
was of his contriving.
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