He thought, like General Panther, that tangible proofs against Pyrot were necessary, that they could never ave too many of them, that they could never have even enough.

He expressed these' sentiments to his Chief of Staff, who was only too inclined to agree with them.
"Panther," said he, "we are at the moment when we need abundant and superabundant proofs." "You have said enough, General," answered Panther, "I will complete my piles of documents." Six months later the proofs against Pyrot filled two storeys of the Ministry of War.

The ceiling fell in beneath the weight of the bundles, and the avalanche of falling documents crushed two head clerks, fourteen second clerks, and sixty copying clerks, who were at work upon the ground floor arranging a change in the fashion of the cavalry gaiters.
The walls of the huge edifice had to be propped.

Passers-by saw with amazement enormous beams and monstrous stanchions which reared themselves obliquely against the noble front of the building, now tottering and disjointed, and blocked up the streets, stopped the carriages, and presented to the motor-omnibuses an obstacle against which they dashed with their loads of passengers.
The judges who had condemned Pyrot were not, properly speaking, judges but soldiers.

The judges who had condemned Colomban were real judges, but of inferior rank, wearing seedy black clothes like church vergers, unlucky wretches of judges, miserable judgelings.