"I shall be obliged to you, master," said Gautran, "if you will leave your mysteries, and come back to my trial."
"I will oblige you. I read the particulars of the case for the first time on my arrival here, and it appeared to me almost impossible you could escape conviction. It was simply that. I examined you, and saw the legal point which, villain as you are, proclaimed your innocence. That laugh of yours, Gautran, has no mirth in it. I am beginning to be dangerously shaken. I will do, I said then, for this wretch what I believe no other man can do. I will perform a miracle."
"You have done it!" cried Gautran, falling on his knees in a paroxysm of fear, and kissing the Advocate's hand, which was instantly snatched away. "You are great--you are the greatest! You knew the truth!"
"The truth!" echoed the Advocate, and his face grew ashen white.
"Aye, the truth--and you were sent to save me. You can read the soul; nothing is hidden from you. But you have not finished your work. You can save me entirely--you can, you can! Oh, master, finish your work, and I will be your slave to the last hour of my life!"
"Save you! From what?" demanded the Advocate. He was compelled to exercise great control over himself, for a horror was stealing upon him.
The trembling wretch rose, and pointed to the opposite roadside.
"From shadows--from dreams--from the wild eyes of Madeline! Look there--look there!"
The Advocate turned in the direction of Gautran's outstretched trembling hand. A pale light was coining into the sky, and weird shadows were on the earth.
"You ask me to torture me," moaned Gautran. "She dogs me like my shadow--I cannot shake her off! I have threatened her, but she does not heed me. She is waiting--there--there--to follow me when I am alone--to put her arms about me--to breathe upon my face, and turn my heart to ice! If I could hold her, I would tear her piecemeal! You _must_ have known her, you who can read what passes in a man's soul--you who knew the truth when you came to me in my cell! She will not obey me, but she will you. Command her, compel her to leave me, or she will drive me mad!"
With amazing strength the Advocate placed his hands on Gautran's shoulders, and twisted the man's face so close to his own that not an inch of space divided them. Their eyes met, Gautran's wavering and dilating with fear, the Advocate's fixed and stern, and with a fire in them terrible to behold.