— 10 — THE EXAMINATION
OF DELMASThe man Roussel or Delmas, the companion of the Widow Bosse when she had been arrested, was lodged roughly in the Bastille. His stone cell with the one, high-placed, barred window, the rough wooden furniture and pallet bed, his meals of coarse boiled meat, black bread, and sour wine were not calculated to fill him with much hope of leniency from the law.
When Charles Desgrez went to interview him the day after the visit of Solange to the Italian apothecary, he found Delmas in a dejected mood. The man was a dark, lean Southerner with the cropped hair, shaven face, and servile manners of a lackey. He alternated between terrified humility and insolent effrontery.
“Monsieur,” he began at once when Desgrez entered his cell, “it is useless to interrogate me fur
