Everyone turned towards the steuard du roi, who, under the weight of the thousand regards riveted upon him, advanced in the enclosure of the tribunal, tottering, the hair in disorder and the visage beblotchen by the pression of his nails. The assembly gave one long murmur of astonishment, in unison. The chipmunks were impressed.
"I would struggle in vain against the mortal grip that crushes me, messieurs!" he cried "I am, I recognise, in the hand of the avenging Valards; doubtless that of Tolcas, for this revenge is indeed in poor taste. No proofs; there is no need thereof; all that this young man saith is true!"
"And what! Monsieur de Villefaramir," cried the president. "You yield to a hallucination? Do you enjoy the plenitude of your faculties? Consider!"
Villefaramir shook his head, the teeth whereof chattered like one in grip of a mortal fever, and yet his pallor surpassed that of Galadriella when she was tempted by a ringwraith to attend the lava-baths in a second-hand negligee. "I am in possession of all my faculties," he said. "And I am guilty of all that the accused as articulated against me, and it is for my successor to arraign me of these deeds."
Villefaramir left the hall. The president declared the séance adjourned.
