BARONESS ORCZY Ultimate Collection: 130+ Action-Adventure Novels, Thrillers & Detective Stories. Emma Orczy
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EIGHT Maurin the Lawyer
CHAPTER NINE Orders from the Chief
CHAPTER TEN The Abbé Edgeworth
CHAPTER ELEVEN The Morning After
CHAPTER THIRTEEN The Château de la Rodière
CHAPTER SIXTEEN Rumour and Counter-Rumour
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Timely Warning
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Impending Trouble
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Citizen Chauvelin
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO At the Château
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE The Rigaudon
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR A Strange Proposal
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX Open Revolt
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN Treachery
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE The Bald Pate of Chance
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR The English Spy
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE An Unwelcome Guest
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN Accusing Spectres
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT Sister Anne
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE The Canadian
BOOK I
THE ABBÉ
CHAPTER ONE
The King on His Trial
The Hall of the Pas Perdus, the precincts of the House of Justice, the corridors, the bureaux of the various officials, judges and advocates were all thronged that day as they had been during all the week, ever since Tuesday when the first question was put to the vote: "Is Louis Capet guilty of conspiring against liberty?" Louis Capet! otherwise Louis XVI, descendant of a long line of kings of the Grand Monarque of Saint Louis, himself the anointed, the crowned King of France! And now! Arraigned at the bar before his fellow-men, before his one-time devoted subjects, or supposedly devoted, standing before them like any criminal, accused not of murder, or forgery or theft, but of conspiring against liberty.
A king on his trial! And for his life! Let there be no doubt about that. It is a matter of life or death for the King of France. There has been talk, endless talk and debate in the Hall of Justice ever since the eleventh day of December — over a month ago now when Louis first appeared before the bar of the Convention. Fifty-seven questions were put to the accused. "Louis Capet, didst thou do this, that or the other? Didst thou conspire against liberty?" Louis to all the questions gave the simple reply: "No! I did not do that, nor did I do the other. If I did, it was in accordance with the then existing laws of France."
A king on his trial! Heavens above, what a stupendous event! One that had only occurred once before in history — a hundred and fifty years ago when Charles I, King of England, stood at the bar before his people and Parliament, accused by them of conspiring against their liberty. The end of that was regicide. And now once again a king stood before his people accused of conspiring against their liberty. What the end would be, no one doubted for a moment. The paramount significance of the tragedy, the vital importance of what was at stake was reflected in the grave demeanour of the crowd that gathered day after day inside the precincts of the House of Justice. Men of all ages, of all creeds, of every kind of political opinion foregathered in the Salle des Pas Perdus, waited mostly in silence for scraps of news that came filtering through from the hall where a king — once their King — was standing his trial.
They waited for news, longing to see the end of this nerve-racking suspense, yet dreading to hear what the end would be.
On