Michu was accused of abduction and the concealment of a person, but not of murder.

Such an insinuation was a serious matter.

The code of Brumaire, year IV., forbade the public prosecutor from presenting any fresh count at the trial; he must keep within the indictment or the proceedings would be annulled.
The public prosecutor replied that Michu, the person chiefly concerned in the abduction and who, in the interests of his masters, had taken the responsibility on his own shoulders, might have thought it necessary to plaster up the entrance of the hiding-place, still undiscovered, where the senator was now immured.
Pressed with questions, hampered by the presence of Gothard, and brought into contradiction with himself, Michu struck his fist upon the edge of the dock with a resounding blow and said: "I have had nothing whatever to do with the abduction of the senator.

I hope and believe his enemies have merely imprisoned him; when he reappears you'll find out that the plaster was put to no such use." "Good!" said de Grandville, addressing the public prosecutor; "you have done more for my client's cause than anything I could have said." The first day's session ended with this bold declaration, which surprised the judges and gave an advantage to the defence.

The lawyers of the town and Bordin himself congratulated the young advocate.