If we have them, and if the senator is living, we should assuredly have set him at liberty.
The scheme in relation to Gondreville which you attribute to us is a failure, and only aggravates our position uselessly.

We might perhaps obtain a pardon for an abortive attempt by releasing our victim; instead of that we persist in detaining a man from whom we can obtain no benefit whatever.

It is absurd! Take away your plaster; the effect is a failure," he said, addressing the public prosecutor.

"We are either idiotic criminals (which you do not believe) or the innocent victims of circumstances as inexplicable to us as they are to you.

You ought rather to search for the mass of papers which were burned at Gondreville, which will reveal motives stronger far than yours or ours and put you on the track of the causes of this abduction." The speaker discussed these hypotheses with marvellous ability.