Below the front of the table, a railed-off space, with a gallery beyond, was appropriated to the general public--mostly represented, as to the gallery, on this occasion, by women, all sitting together on forms, knitting, shirt-mending, and baby-linen-making, as coolly as if they were at home.
Parallel with the side of the table furthest from the great door of entrance was a low platform railed off, on which the prisoners, surrounded by their guard, were now assembled to await their trial.

The sun shone in brightly from a high window, and a hum of ceaseless talking pervaded the hall cheerfully as Lomaque entered it.

He was a privileged man here, as at the prison; and he made his way in by a private door, so as to pass to the prisoners' platform, and to walk round it, before he got to a place behind the president's chair.

Trudaine, standing with his sister on the outermost limits of the group, nodded significantly as Lomaque looked up at him for an instant.

He had contrived, on his way to the tribunal, to get an opportunity of reading the paper which the chief agent had slipped into his cravat.