Alfred; or, The Adventures of a French Gentleman — page 32: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

OF A FRENCH GENTLEMAN. 19 before a high authority, whose duty it was to investigate the grounds of the accusation brought against the prisoner, and either commit hin: to a gaol, or restore him to liberty, according to the importance to be attached to first appearances. Arrived at the office of the Commissary of Police, the Gendarmes introduced De Rosann tc the private cabinet in which the magistrate was seated. A iong and painful investigation then commenced, De Rosann endeavoured to recall his scattered ideas ; but his replies were frequently so vague and contradictory, his looks so wild, and his countenance so distorted with terror, that ere half the examimation was concluded, the Commissary was almost convinced in his own mind that the accused was guilty of the crime—and that crime was Forgery! The unguarded exclamations he had uttered at the moment of his capture, the useless supplications he had made to the Gen- darmes to suffer him to proceed alone to the Commissary’s office, to trust to his honour, and not to ruin his character by an exposure—all these circumstances appeared sadly to the unfortunate youth’s disad- vantage ; and when coupled with the damning fact that the bills were in his own hand-writing, they seemed to combine an overwhelming evidence against him. He was accordingly consigned to the safe- guard of a prison, while the Commissary forwarded the proces-verbal, or indictment, to the Procureur du Rol. We shall not dwell at any considerable length on this sad portion of our tale: we shall draw a veil over the sorrows of Eloise, and the afflictions which De Rosann was doomed to experience. One thing we must however mention: the moment it was generally rumoured that the unhappy young man was certain to be found guilty and to be condemned to a very severe punishment, Mrs. Clayton deemed it her duty—a severe one, which maternal prudence, and perhaps selfish- ness, obliged her, she thought, to perform—to forbid Eloise to consider herself as any longer engaged to De Rosann. In vain the heroic girl, with tears in her eyes, threw herself at her mother’s feet, and implored a reversion of this sad sentence—in vain did her uncle eloquently plead in behalf of the lovers, and endeavour to impress upon Mrs. Clayton’s mind that it was neither humane nor generous to desert the poor youth at amoment when sorrows bowed him down to the earth, and when the rest of the world forsook him—and notwith- standing she believed, nay—was convinced in her own mind, as well as her brother-in-law and her almost heart-broken daughter, that De Rosann was innocent of the dreadful crime laid to his charge, Mrs. Clayton was still firm in her resolves not to suffer Hloise to regard him as her future husband, unless he were fully acquitted in the face of the world by a jury of his countrymen. The eventful day of the trial dawned; and numerous were the hopes and fears in the minds of the few who were any way interested as to the fate of Alfred de Rosann. The court was crowded to excess; the accused manifested a degree of firmness which astonished those who had heard or read of his agitation and terror on the morning of his arrest; and when his counsel rose to defend him, a pin might have been heard to fall on the oaken floor of the hall, in which the tribunal sate, at the Palais de Justice. De Rosann’s counsel entered at considerable length upon the affairs GOMIGDOOKSHGO =)