This was a rare tribute to a prisoner from the people of the Reign of Terror.
The president looked round at his colleagues, and shook his head suspiciously.
"This statement of the female prisoner's complicates the matter very seriously," said he.

"Is there anybody in court," he added, looking at the persons behind his chair, "who knows where the mother of Superintendent Danville and the servant are now ?" Lomaque came forward at the appeal, and placed himself by the table.
"Why, citizen agent!" continued the president, looking hard at him, "are you overcome by the heat, too ?" "The fit seemed to take him, citizen president, when the female prisoner had made an end of her statement," exclaimed Magloire, pressing forward officiously.
Lomaque gave his subordinate a look which sent the man back directly to the shelter of the official group; then said, in lower tones than were customary with him: "I have received information relative to the mother of Superintendent Danville and the servant, and am ready to answer any questions that may be put to me." "Where are they now ?" asked the president.
"She and the servant are known to have crossed the frontier, and are supposed to be on their way to Cologne.

But, since they have entered Germany, their whereabouts is necessarily a matter of uncertainty to the republican authorities." "Have you any information relative to the conduct of the old servant while he was in Paris ?" "I have information enough to prove that he was not an object for political suspicion.

He seems to have been simply animated by servile zeal for the woman's interests; to have performed for her all the menial offices of a servant in private; and to have misled the neighbors by affected equality with her in public." "Have you any reason to believe that Superintendent Danville was privy to his mother's first attempt at escaping from France ?" "I infer it from what the female prisoner has said, and for other reasons which it would be irregular to detail before the tribunal.

The proofs can no doubt be obtained if I am allowed time to communicate with the authorities at Lyons and Marseilles." At this moment Danville re-entered the court; and, advancing to the table, placed himself close by the chief agent's side.