“Then I saw that they took me for the assassin. I recovered force and energy enough to free myself from the hands of those who held me, while I managed to stammer forth:

“ ‘I did not do it! Indeed, indeed I did not!’

“A couple of gendarmes held the muzzles of their carbines against my breast.

“ ‘Stir but a step,’ said they, ‘and you are a dead man.’

“ ‘Why should you threaten me with death,’ cried I, ‘when I have already declared my innocence?’

“ ‘Tush, tush,’ cried the men; ‘keep your innocent stories to tell to the judge at Nîmes. Meanwhile, come along with us; and the best advice we can give you is to do so unresistingly.’