"You were with him! And he went in the afternoon! Mark that!" He turned quickly to his fellows.

"He went in the afternoon! Now, I would like to know----" Blondel stood up.

"Whether I am a traitor ?" he said, in a tone of fury; and he extended his arms in protest.

"Whether I am in league with this Italian, I, Philibert Blondel of Geneva?
That is what you ask, what you wish to know! Whether I sought him yesterday in the hope of worming his secrets from him, and doing what I could for the benefit of the State in a matter too delicate to be left to underlings?
Or went there, one with him, to betray my country?
To sell the Free City?
That--that is what you ask ?" His passion was full, overpowering, convincing; so convincing--it almost stopped his speech--that he believed in it himself, so convincing that it swept away all but his steady and professed opponents.

"No, no!" cried a dozen voices, in tones that reflected his indignation.