The magistrate from Saigon saw his hopes fulfilled, and, thanks to his
promotion, was commissioned to continue the trial which he had so ably
commenced. After the jury had brought in their verdict of guilty, he
sentenced Justin Chevassat, alias Maxime de Brevan, to penal servitude
for life.
Crochard, surnamed Bagnolet, got off with twenty years; and the two
Chevassats escaped with ten years’ solitary confinement.
The trial of Thomas Elgin, which came on during the same term, revealed
a system of swindling which was so strikingly bold and daring, that it
appeared at first sight almost incredible. It excited especial surprise
when it was found out that he had issued false shares, which he made
Count Ville-Handry buy in, so as to ruin, by the same process, the count
as an individual, and the company over which he presided. He was sent
for twenty years to the penitentiary.
These scandalous proceedings had one good result. They saved the poor
count; but they revealed, at the same time, such prodigious unfitness
for business, that people began to suspect how dependent he must have
been on his first wife, Henrietta’s mother. He remained, however,
relatively poor. They had made Thomas Elgin refund, and had even
obtained possession of Sarah Brandon’s fortune; but the count was called
upon to make amends for his want of business capacity. When he had
satisfied all his creditors, and handed over to his daughter a part of
her maternal inheritance, he had hardly more than six thousand dollars a
year left.
Of the whole “band,” Mrs. Brian alone escaped.
Malgat, having surrendered to justice with the prescribed limits of time
to purge himself, was tried, and the whole process begun anew. But the
trial was naturally a mere form. His own lawyer had very little to
say. The state attorney himself made his defense. After having fully
explained the circumstances which had led the poor cashier to permit
a crime, rather than to commit it himself, the attorney said to the
jury,--
“Now, gentlemen, that you have learned what was the wrong of which he is
guilty, you ought also to know how he has expiated his crime.
“When he left the miserable woman who had ruined him, maddened by grief,
and determined to end his life, Malgat went home. There he found his
sister.
“She was one of those women who have religiously preserved the domestic
virtues of our forefathers, and who know of no compromise in questions
of honor.
“She had soon forced her brother to confess his fatal secret, and,
overcoming the horror she naturally felt, she found words, inspired
by her excellent heart, which moved him, and led him to reconsider his
resolve. She told him that suicide was but an additional crime, and that
he was in honor bound to live, so that he might make amends, and restore
the money he had stolen.”
“Hope began to rise once more in his heart, and filled him with
unexpected energy. And yet what obstacles he had to encounter! How could
he ever hope to return four hundred thousand francs. How should he go
about to earn so much money? and where? How could he do anything, now
that he was compelled to live in concealment?
“Do you know, gentlemen, what this sister did in her almost sublime
devotion? She had a moderate income from state bonds; she sold them
all, and carried the proceeds to the president of the Mutual Discount
Society, begging him to be patient as to the remainder, and promising
that he should be repaid, capital and interest alike. She asked for
nothing but secrecy; and he pledged himself to secrecy.
“And from that day, gentlemen of the jury, the brother and the sister
have lived like the poorest laborers, working incessantly, and denying
themselves everything but what was indispensable for life itself.
“And this day, gentlemen, Malgat owes nothing to the society; he has
paid everything. He fell once; but he has risen again. And this place
in court, where he now sits as a prisoner, will become to him a place of
honor, in which he will recover his position in society, and his honor.”
Malgat was acquitted.
The marriage of Henrietta, Countess Ville-Handry, and Lieut. Daniel
Champcey, was celebrated at the Church of St. Clothilda. Daniel’s
groomsmen were Malgat and the old chief surgeon of the frigate
“Conquest.” Several persons noticed that the bride wore, contrary to
usage, a dress of embroidered muslin. It was the robe which Henrietta
had so often covered with her tears, at the time when, having no bread
for the morrow, she had tried to live by the work of her hands. Malgat
had hunted it up, and bought it: the precious dress was his wedding-
gift.