"'Messieurs,' said the president, when there was silence. 'Is M. the Count of Pérégrin convicted of felony, treason, and indignity?'
"'Oui!' responded the commissioners with one voice.
Revesting herself of her veil, Shélobe majestically took her leave of the Assembly, and left in the gait of a queen of the Valards."
Réginard lifted his face, red with shame and with tears, and seized Pierre-Jacques-Philippe-Michel Boyen-Xènes-Baguines' arm.
"Friend, my life is finished," he said. "It only remains for me to discover what man pursues me with his enmity; then, when I find him, I will slay that man, or he will slay me, for neither can live while the other survives. I count on your friendship to aid me, Pierre-Jacques-Philippe-Michel Boyen-Xènes-Baguines, if contempt have not annihilated it in your heart."
"Contempt, mon ami?" said Pierre-Jacques-Philippe-Michel Boyen-Xènes-Baguines. "Non! Not though thy bourzoum-ichy tobacco be less than stellar! We are no longer in a time when an unjust prejudice rendered sons responsible for the crimes of their fathers, so that Curufin's illegitimate children had to be excluded from all at-homes because he touched the ankles of Luthienne at a ball without her permission. Abandon yourself to the designs of Providence.
