Nothing else was possible."
"To penal servitude?"
"For life."
He continued, in a voice so weak that it was barely audible:--
"Then his identity was established?"
"What identity?" replied the lawyer.
"There was no identity to be established.
The matter was very simple.
The woman had murdered her child; the infanticide was proved; the jury threw out the question of premeditation, and she was condemned for life."
"So it was a woman?" said he.
"Why, certainly.
The Limosin woman.
Of what are you speaking?"
"Nothing.
But since it is all over, how comes it that the hall is still lighted?"
"For another case, which was begun about two hours ago.
"What other case?"
"Oh! this one is a clear case also.
It is about a sort of blackguard; a man arrested for a second offence; a convict who has been guilty of theft.
I don't know his name exactly.