The worthy soul, calmed and refreshed, deluded herself into the idea that she was waiting for the return of her young mistress, and became quite cheerful at sight of the familiar room.
Deroulede had provided her with money and necessaries.

He had but few remaining hopes in his heart, but among them was the firmly implanted one that Petronelle was too insignificant to draw upon herself the terrible attention of the Committee of Public Safety.
By the nightfall he had seen the good woman safely installed.

Then only did he feel free.
At last he could devote himself to what seemed to him the one, the only, aim of his life--to find Juliette.
A dozen prisons in this vast Paris! Over five thousand prisoners on that night, awaiting trial, condemnation and death.
Deroulede at first, strong in his own power, his personality, had thought that the task would be comparatively easy.
At the Palais de Justice they would tell him nothing: the list of new arrests had not yet been handled in by the commandant of Paris, Citizen Santerre, who classified and docketed the miserable herd of aspirants for the next day's guillotine.
The lists, moreover, would not be completed until the next day, when the trials of the new prisoners would already be imminent.
The work of the Committee of Public Safety was done without much delay.
Then began Deroulede's weary quest through those twelve prisons of Paris.

From the Temple to the Conciergerie, from Palais Conde to the Luxembourg, he spent hours in the fruitless search.
Everywhere the same shrug of the shoulders, the same indifferent reply to his eager query: "Juliette Marny?
_Inconnue._" Unknown! She had not yet been docketed, not yet classified; she was still one of that immense flock of cattle, sent in ever-increasing numbers to the slaughter-house.
Presently, to-morrow, after a trial which might last ten minutes, after a hasty condemnation and quick return to prison, she would be listed as one of the traitors, whom this great and beneficent Republic sent daily to the guillotine.
Vainly did Deroulede try to persuade, to entreat, to bribe.

The sullen guardians of these twelve charnel-houses knew nothing of individual prisoners.
But the Citizen-Deputy was allowed to look for himself.