Still, his courageous advocate, in his indignation, presented a score of arguments which would have made any other tribunal reflect.
But all the while he was speaking the Duc de Sairmeuse fidgeted in his gilded arm-chair with every sign of angry impatience.
"The plea was very long," he remarked, when the lawyer had concluded, "terribly long.

We shall never get through with this business if each prisoner takes up as much time!" He turned to his colleagues as if to consult them, but suddenly changing his mind he proposed to the prosecuting counsel that he should unite all the cases, try all the culprits in a body, with the exception of the elder d'Escorval.
"This will shorten our task, for, in case we adopt this course, there will be but two judgments to be pronounced," he said.

"This will not, of course, prevent each individual from defending himself." The lawyers protested against this.

A judgment in a lump, like that suggested by the duke, would destroy all hope of saving a single one of these unfortunate men from the guillotine.
"How can we defend them," the lawyers pleaded, "when we know nothing of the situation of each of the prisoners?
we do not even know their names.
We shall be obliged to designate them by the cut of their coats and by the color of their hair." They implored the tribunal to grant them a week for preparation, four days, even twenty-four hours.

Futile efforts! The president's proposition was adopted.
Consequently, each prisoner was called to the desk according to the place which he occupied upon the benches.