Have you heard the evidence ?" he continued, turning to the prisoners; while Picard and Magloire consulted together in whispers, looking perplexedly toward the chief agent, who stood silent behind them.

"Have you heard the evidence, prisoners?
Do you wish to say anything?
If you do, remember that the time of this tribunal is precious, and that you will not be suffered to waste it." "I demand permission to speak for myself and for my sister," answered Trudaine.

"My object is to save the time of the tribunal by making a confession." The faint whispering, audible among the women spectators a moment before, ceased instantaneously as he pronounced the word confession.

In the breathless silence, his low, quiet tones penetrated to the remotest corners of the hall; while, suppressing externally all evidences of the death-agony of hope within him, he continued his address in these words: "I confess my secret visits to the house in the Rue de Clery.

I confess that the persons whom I went to see are the persons pointed at in the evidence.