A/N: I'd like to offer excuses for not updating, but I'll limit myself to an apology and a thanks to those who continue to follow this fic despite my inconsistency. I hope that it gives some of you some amount of pleasure to see it pop up again.

"I'd like to ask for the table and chair to be removed."

Captain Dubois stared across the desk at Enjolras as if it were the most idiotic thing he had ever heard. "Why, boy?"

"They are not regularly provided, are they?"

"No, your friend here—" and he gestured to Combeferre, who sat with them in the office, "made request."

"And I appreciate his solicitude." Enjolras would have preferred to first mention this to Combeferre in private, but they had been permitted to see one another only here. "But I do not want favors, captain."

"You do not want favors," he repeated.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I categorically object to inequity and partiality in any form."

"You categorically object. –Why?"

Combeferre spoke up. "Because charity is no substitute for justice withheld."

Captain Dubois turned to look at him. "St. Augustine? I'd have thought him a little old-school and traditional for students like you."

"Truth is truth," Combeferre said, "whatever you may presume me to think of the speaker thereof. Charity truly is no substitute for justice withheld—something which I should have remembered. I ask your pardon for my forgetfulness, Enjolras."

Enjolras smiled at him gravely. "It is nothing. Captain?"

He waved his hand in dismissal. "Yes, yes, I'll have them taken away. But come, there are more important things to discuss. You've been told by now that you are accused of threatening the king?"

"Yes, I have been told."

"And do you consider yourself innocent or guilty of this charge?"

"I know myself to be innocent."

"And on the broader charge of spreading anti-monarchic views?"

"Of that I am guilty, if guilt is to be assigned to simple free exercise of thought and speech."

"I have been approached by three witnesses who say that you did indeed threaten the king."

"They removed my words from their proper context."

"And that context was?"

"That of symbolism." He quoted for Captain Dubois the words he had recalled for Combeferre before. "Anti-monarchic, yes, and that I will not hide. However, it was in no way a distinct threat."

"So you would have France abolish the monarchy, if you could?"

"I would."

"Would you consider instigating that by the death of the king?"

"Captain," said Enjolras, "I would not presume to take the will of the people into my own hands in such a way. I would have the king brought to judgment, yes, but that does not make me an assassin."

"It still makes you a criminal, in the eyes of the law."

"The law is often corrupt, and has always been on some points fallible."

"And now you insult the law?"

"No, I do not, monsieur. I honor the law, insofar as it upholds justice and supports the rights of mankind."

The captain sighed in exasperation. "So. Anti-monarchic, yes; threat to the king, no. That is your statement, in essence?"

"Yes."

He picked up a piece of paper from his desk. "I've inquired into trial dates, and the courts are surprisingly calm at the moment. You may get a trial within two weeks. You'll be granted a defense lawyer—and just as a private word of advice, I strongly suggest you work with him. It's easy to see from brief conversation with you that you could easily be your own worst prosecutor."

Enjolras raised his eyebrows. "All I have done is speak the truth."

"And been imprudently stubborn about it, at that. Look, let the lawyer make excuses for your actions. Let him play on the sympathy to your case. You're young; you're rich; they're not going to make an example of you unless you push them into it. We're looking at probably a two or three month sentence for the offense itself, if it's found credible that you didn't threaten the king. But if you keep talking the way you have, you could have that sentence lengthened to a year."

"Enjolras," Combeferre said in an undertone, "a year-long imprisonment on your part would be a quite a deterrent to many of your goals—our goals." He turned to address Captain Dubois. "Thank you for your concern, captain, and for putting in the request for a trial."

The captain nodded, then called for the guards who were waiting outside the door. "Take the prisoner back to his cell. His friend may speak with him for some few minutes, at your discretion. Oh—and remove the furnishings that were brought for him."

Combeferre sent Enjolras a concerned glance as they went down the stairs into the cold corridors of the lower level, but Enjolras simply shook his head to communicate that the temperature was not worth his concern. Enjolras' hands, which were tied behind him as they walked, were only loosed once the table and chair were removed from his cell and he was placed back inside it. The door was shut between them, but they were permitted to talk through the grating.

"Your lectures went well?"

"They did. I am sorry about the furnishings, Enjolras—I did not think."

"You did think, kindly and out of concern for my comfort. I simply find that there are things much more important than my comfort."

"And I know that, and should have remembered."

Enjolras hushed him. "Did I not already tell you it was forgiven? The matter is of no importance. This is, however: I have remembered the names of the men to whom I was speaking. Clavier and Rivoire, the first a student of law and the second of letters."

Combeferre produced a lead pencil and piece of paper, and wrote them down. "I'll find them. You need witnesses. And Captain Dubois was right on one point, Enjolras; you need to work with the defense your lawyer offers. If I'm allowed, I'll find you a lawyer myself, but even if you must use the one provided by the government, you must not jeopardize yourself through noncooperation. We need you back as soon as possible, to go on with the work."

He hesitated. "I cannot compromise, Combeferre. You know that."

"I know. But as Captain Dubois said, you're young, wealthy, enthusiastic—the simplest means of defense is to let the courts know beyond shadow of a doubt that they're at risk of creating a cause célèbre."

"I do not want to be a cause célèbre. I wish to be tried and sentenced for my actions and my actions alone, and not to be given lenience because of a sympathetic public."

"But if sympathy for you was raised, sympathy for what you represent would follow. I am not asking you to compromise, Enjolras. I'm asking you to be wise, to be cunning, to be political." He glanced at the guard, who was already growing impatient. "Promise me you will at least think on it."

"I will think on it."

"Good." They clasped hands briefly through the bars, and with a hasty farewell Combeferre turned and disappeared.