discussion was continued, not without vivacity. The orators, as always happens
in such a case, reproduced the arguments they had already brought forward,

though with less order and moderation than before. The dispute was prolonged
and none changed his opinion. These opinions, in the final analysis, were

reduced to two: that of Sapor and Lapersonne who advised abstention, and that
of Phoenix and Larrivee, who wanted intervention. Even these two contrary

opinions were united in a common hatred of the heads of the army and of their
justice, and in a common belief in Pyrot's innocence. So that public opinion

was hardly mistaken in regarding all the Socialist leaders as pernicious
Anti-Pyrotists.

As for the vast masses in whose name they spoke and whom they represented as
far as speech can express the impossible--as for the proletarians whose

thought is difficult to know and who do not know it themselves, it seemed that
the Pyrot affair did not interest them. It was too literary for them, it was

in too classical a style, and had an upper-middle-class and high-finance tone
about it that did not please them much.

VIII. THE COLOMBAN TRIAL
When the Colomban trial began, the Pyrotists were not many more than thirty

thousand, but they were every where and might be found even among the priests
and millionaires. What injured them most was the sympathy of the rich Jews. On

the other hand they derived valuable advantages from their feeble number. In
the first place there were among them fewer fools than among their opponents,

who were over-burdened with them. Comprising but a feebleminority, they
co-operated easily, acted with harmony, and had no temptation to divide and

thus counteract one another's efforts. Each of them felt the necessity of
doing the best possible and was the more careful of his conduct as he found

himself more in the public eye. Finally, they had every reason to hope that
they would gain fresh adherents, while their opponents, having had everybody

with them at the beginning, could only decrease.
Summoned before the judges at a public sitting, Colomban immediately perceived

that his judges were not anxious to discover the truth. As soon as he opened
his mouth the President ordered him to be silent in the superior interests of

the State. For the same reason, which is the supreme reason, the witnesses for
the defence were not heard. General Panther, the Chief of the Staff, appeared

in the witness-box, in full uniform and decorated with all his orders. He
deposed as follows:

"The infamous Colomban states that we have no proofs against Pyrot. He lies;
we have them. I have in my archives seven hundred and thirty-two square yards

of them which at five hundred pounds each make three hundred and sixty-six
thousand pounds."

That superior officer afterwards gave, with elegance and ease, a summary of
those proofs.

"They are of all colours and all shades," said he in substance, "they are of
every form--pot, crown, sovereign, grape, dove-cot, grand eagle, etc. The

smallest is less than the hundredth part of a square inch, the largest
measures seventy yards long by ninety yards broad."

At this revelation the audience shuddered with horror.
Greatauk came to give evidence in his turn. Simpler, and perhaps greater, he

wore a grey tunic and held his hands joined behind his back.
"I leave," said he calmly and in a slightly raised voice, "I leave to M.

Colomban the responsibility for an act that has brought our country to the
brink of ruin. The Pyrot affair is secret; it ought to remain secret. If it

were divulged the cruelest ills, wars, pillages, depredations, fires,
massacres, and epidemics would immediately burst upon Penguinia. I should

consider myself guilty of high treason if I uttered another word."
Some persons known for their political experience, among others M. Bigourd,

considered the evidence of the Minister of War as abler and of greater weight
than that of his Chief of Staff.

The evidence of Colonel de Boisjoli made a great impression.
"One evening at the Ministry of War," said that officer, "the attache of a

neighbouring Power told me that while visiting his sovereign's stables he had
once admired some soft and fragrant hay, of a pretty green colour, the finest

hay he had ever seen! 'Where did it come from?' I asked him. He did not
answer, but there seemed to me no doubt about its origin. It was the hay Pyrot

had stolen. Those qualities of verdure, softness, and aroma, are those of our
national hay. The forage of the neighbouring Power is grey and brittle; it

sounds under the fork and smells of dust. One can draw one own conclusions."
Lieutenant-Colonel Hastaing said in the witness-box, amid hisses, that he did

not believe Pyrot guilty. He was immediately seized by the police and thrown
into the bottom of a dungeon where, amid vipers, toads, and broken glass, he

remained insensible both to promises and threats.
The usher called:

"Count Pierre Maubec de la Dentdulynx."
There was deep silence, and a stately but ill-dressed nobleman, whose

moustaches pointed to the skies and whose dark eyes shot forth flashing
glances, was seen advancing toward the witness-box.

He approached Colomban and casting upon him a look of ineffable disdain:
"My evidence," said he, "here it is: you excrement!"

At these words the entire hall burst into enthusiasticapplause and jumped up,
moved by one of those transports that stir men's hearts and rouse them to

extraordinary actions. Without another word Count Maubec de la Dentdulynx
withdrew.

All those present left the Court and formed a procession behind him. Prostrate
at his feet, Princess des Boscenos held his legs in a close embrace, but he

went on, stern and impassive, beneath a shower of handkerchiefs and flowers.
Viscountess Olive, clinging to his neck, could not be removed, and the calm

hero bore her along with him, floating on his breast like a light scarf.
When the court resumed its sitting, which it had been compelled to suspend,

the President called the experts.
Vermillard, the famous expert in writing" target="_blank" title="n.笔迹；书法">handwriting, gave the results of his

researches.
"Having carefully studied," said he, "the papers found in Pyrot's house, in

particular his account book and his laundry books, I noticed that, though
apparently not out of the common, they formed an impenetrable cryptogram, the

key to which, however, I discovered. The traitor's infamy is to be seen in
every line. In this system of writing the words 'Three glasses of beer and

twenty francs for Adele' mean 'I have delivered thirty thousand trusses of hay
to a neighbouring Power! From these documents I have even been able to

establish the composition of the hay delivered by this officer. The words
waistcoat, drawers, pocket handkerchief, collars, drink, tobacco, cigars, mean

clover, meadowgrass, lucern, burnet, oats, rye-grass, vernal-grass, and common
cat's tail grass. And these are precisely the constituents of the hay

furnished by Count Maubec to the Penguin cavalry. In this way Pyrot mentioned
his crimes in a language that he believed would always remain indecipherable.

One is confounded by so much astuteness and so great a want of conscience."
Colomban, pronouncedguilty without any extenuating circumstances, was

condemned to the severest penalty. The judges immediately signed a warrant
consuming him to solitary confinement.

In the Place du Palais on the sides of a river whose banks had during the
course of twelve centuries seen so great a history, fifty thousand persons

were tumultuously awaiting the result of the trial. Here were the heads of the
Anti-Pyrotist Association, among whom might be seen Prince des Boscenos, Count

Clena, Viscount Olive, and M. de La Trumelle; here crowded the Reverend Father
Agaric and the teachers of St. Mael College with their pupils; here the monk

Douillard and General Caraguel, embracing each other, formed a sublime group.
The market women and laundry women with spits, shovels, tongs, beetles, and

kettles full of water might be seen running across the Pont-Vieux. On the
steps in front of the bronze gates were assembled all the defenders of Pyrot

in Alca, professors, publicists, workmen, some conservatives, others Radicals
or Revolutionaries, and by their negligent dress and fierceaspect could be

recognised comrades Phoenix, Larrivee, Lapersonne, Dagobert, and Varambille.
Squeezed in his funereal frock-coat and wearing his hat of ceremony,

Bidault-Coquille invoked the sentimentalmathematics on behalf of Colomban and
Colonel Hastaing. Maniflore shone smiling and resplendent on the topmost step,

anxious, like Leaena, to deserve a gloriousmonument, or to be given, like
Epicharis, the praises of history.

The seven hundred Pyrotists disguised as lemonade sellers, utter-merchants,
collectors of odds and ends, or anti-Pyrotists, wandered round the vast

building.
When Colomban appeared, so great an uproar burst forth that, struck by the

commotion of air and water, birds fell from the trees and fishes floated on
the surface of the stream.

On all sides there were yells:
"Duck Colomban, duck him, duck him!"

There were some cries of "Justice and truth!" and a voice was even heard
shouting:

"Down with the Army!"
This was the signal for a terrible struggle. The combatants fell in thousands,

and their bodies formed howling and moving mounds on top of which fresh
champions gripped each other by the throats. Women, eager, pale, and

dishevelled, with clenched teeth and frantic nails, rushed on the man, in
transports that, in the brilliant light of the public square, gave to their

faces expressions unsurpassed even in the shade of curtains and in the hollows
of pillows. They were going to seize Colomban, to bite him, to strangle,

dismember and rend him, when Maniflore, tall and dignified in her red tunic,
stood forth, serene and terrible, confronting these furies who recoiled from