Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 439
the door where the sentry stands. You have only to ascend
the grand staircase.’
He conformed to the bourgeois’s directions, and a few
minutes later he was in a hall containing many people, and
where groups, intermingled with lawyers in their gowns,
were whispering together here and there.
It is always a heart-breaking thing to see these congre-
gations of men robed in black, murmuring together in low
voices, on the threshold of the halls of justice. It is rare that
charity and pity are the outcome of these words. Condem-
nations pronounced in advance are more likely to be the
result. All these groups seem to the passing and thoughtful
observer so many sombre hives where buzzing spirits con-
struct in concert all sorts of dark edifices.
This spacious hall, illuminated by a single lamp, was the
old hall of the episcopal palace, and served as the large hall
of the palace of justice. A double-leaved door, which was
closed at that moment, separated it from the large apart-
ment where the court was sitting.
The obscurity was such that he did not fear to accost the
first lawyer whom he met.
‘What stage have they reached, sir?’ he asked.
‘It is finished,’ said the lawyer.
‘Finished!’
This word was repeated in such accents that the lawyer
turned round.
‘Excuse me sir; perhaps you are a relative?’
‘No; I know no one here. Has judgment been pro-
nounced?’