MOUZON. Step forward. Now, Madame, I shall not administer the oath to
you, since you are the wife of the accused. But none the less I beg you
most urgently to tell the truth. I warn you that an untruth on your part
might compel me to accuse you of complicity with your husband in the
crime of which he is accused and force me to have you arrested at once.
YANETTA. I'm not afraid. I can't be my husband's accomplice because my
husband isn't guilty.
MOUZON. That is not my opinion. I will say further: you know a great
deal more about this matter than you care to tell.
YANETTA. I? That's infamous.
MOUZON. Come, come, no shouting! I don't say you took a direct part in
the murder, I say it is highly probable that you knew of the murder,
perhaps advised it, and that you have profited by it. That would be
enough to place you in the dock beside your husband at the assizes. My
treatment of you will depend on the sincerity of your answers to my
questions. As you do or do not tell me the truth I shall either set you
at liberty or have you arrested. Now you can't say that I haven't warned
you! And now, if you please, inform me whether you persist in your first
statement, in which you affirm that Etchepare stopped at home on the
night of Ascension Day.
YANETTA. I do.
MOUZON. Well, it is untrue.
YANETTA [_excited_] The night on which Daddy Goyetche was murdered my
husband never left the house.
MOUZON. I tell you that is not the truth.
YANETTA [_as before_] The night Daddy Goyetche was murdered my husband
never left the house.
MOUZON. You seem to have got stuck. You go on repeating the same thing.
YANETTA. Yes, I go on repeating the same thing.
MOUZON. Well, now let us examine into the value of your evidence. Since
your marriage--for the last ten years--your conduct has left nothing to
be desired. You are thrifty, faithful, industrious, honest--
YANETTA. Well?
MOUZON. Wait a moment. You have two children, whom you adore. You are an
excellent mother. One hears of your almost heroic behavior at the time
your eldest child was ill--Georges, I think.
YANETTA. Yes, it was Georges. But what has that to do with the charge
against my husband?
MOUZON. Have patience. You will see presently.
YANETTA. Very well.
MOUZON. It is all the more to your credit that you are what you are, for
your husband does not give us an example of the same virtues. He
occasionally gets drunk.
YANETTA. No, he doesn't.
MOUZON. Come--everyone knows that. He is violent.
YANETTA. He's not violent.
MOUZON. So violent that he has been convicted four times for assault and
battery.
YANETTA. That's possible; at holiday times, in the evening, men get
quarrelling. But that was a long time ago. Now he behaves better, and
I'm very happy with him.
MOUZON. That surprises me.
YANETTA. Anyhow, does that prove he murdered old Goyetche?
MOUZON. Your husband is very grasping.
YANETTA. Poor people are forced to be very grasping or else to die of
starvation.
MOUZON. You defend him well.
YANETTA. Did you suppose I was going to accuse him?
MOUZON. Have you ever been convicted?
YANETTA [_anxious_] Me?
Mouzon. Yes, you.
YANETTA [_weakly_] No, I've never been convicted.
Mouzon. That is curious because there was a girl of your name in Paris
who was sentenced to a month's imprisonment for receiving stolen
property.
YANETTA [_weakly_] For receiving stolen property--
MOUZON. You are not quite so bold now--you are disturbed.
YANETTA [_as before_] No--
MOUZON. You are pale--you are trembling--you are feeling faint. Give her
a chair, Benoit. [_The recorder obeys_] Pull yourself together!
YANETTA. My God, you know that?
MOUZON. Here is the report which has been sent me. "The woman Yanetta
X--was brought to Paris at the age of sixteen as companion or lady's
maid by Monsieur and Madame So-and-so, having been employed by them in
that capacity at Saint-Jean-de-Luz." Is that correct?
YANETTA. Yes.
MOUZON. Here is some more. "Illicit relations were before long formed
between the girl Yanetta and the son of the family, who was twenty-three
years of age. Two years later the lovers fled, taking with them eight
thousand francs which the young man had stolen from his father. On the
information of the latter the girl Yanetta was arrested and condemned to
one month's imprisonment for receiving stolen property. After serving
her sentence she disappeared. It is believed that she returned to her
own district." Are you the person mentioned here?
YANETTA. Yes. My God, I thought that was all so long ago--so completely
forgotten. It is all true, Monsieur, but for ten years now I've given
every minute of my life to making up for it, trying to redeem myself.
Just now I answered you insolently; I beg your pardon. You have not only
my life in your hands now, but my husband's, and the honor of my
children.
MOUZON. Does your husband know of this?
YANETTA. No, Monsieur. Oh, you aren't going to tell him! I beg you on my
knees! It would be wicked, I tell you, wicked! Listen, Monsieur--listen.
I came back to the country; I hid myself; I would rather have died; I
didn't want to stay in Paris--you understand why--and then in a little
while I lost mother. Etchepare was in love with me, and he bothered me
to marry him. I refused--I had the courage to go on refusing for three
years. Then--I was so lonely, so miserable, and he was so unhappy, that
in the end I gave way. I ought to have told him everything. I wanted to,
but I couldn't. It would have hurt him too much. For he's a good man,
Monsieur, I swear he is. [_Mouzon makes a gesture_] Yes, I know,
sometimes when he's been drinking, he's violent. I was going to tell you
about that. I don't want to tell you any more untruths. But it's very
seldom he's violent now. [_Weeping_] Oh, don't let him know, Monsieur,
don't let him know. He'd go away--he'd leave me--he'd take my children
from me. [_She gives a despairing cry_] Ah, he'd take my children from
me! I don't know what to say to you--but it isn't possible--you can't
tell him--now you know all the harm it would do. You won't? Of course I
was guilty--but I didn't understand--I didn't know. I wasn't seventeen,
sir, when I went to Paris. My master and mistress had a son; he forced
me almost--and I loved him--and then he wanted to take me away because
his parents wanted to send him away by himself. I did what he asked me.
That money--I didn't know he had stolen it--I swear I didn't know--
MOUZON. That's all right; control yourself.
YANETTA. Yes, Monsieur.
MOUZON. We'll put that on one side for the moment.
YANETTA. Yes, Monsieur.
MOUZON. Now your husband--
YANETTA. Yes, Monsieur.
MOUZON [_with great sincerity_] You will have need of all your courage,
my poor woman. Your husband is guilty.
YANETTA. It's impossible! It's impossible!
MOUZON [_with great sincerity_] He has not confessed it, but he is on
the point of doing so. I myself know what happened that night after he
left your house--witnesses have told me.
YANETTA. No! No! My God, my God! Witnesses? What witnesses? It isn't
true!
MOUZON. Well, then, don't be so obstinate! In your own interest, don't
be so stubborn! Shall I tell you what will be the end of it? You will
ruin your husband! If you insist on contradicting the evidence, that he
passed the night away from the house, you'll ruin him, I tell you. On
the other hand, if you will only tell me the truth, then if he is not
the murderer, he will tell us what he did do and who his companions
were.
YANETTA. He hadn't any.
MOUZON. Then he went out alone?
YANETTA. Yes.
MOUZON. At ten o'clock?
YANETTA. At ten.
MOUZON. He returned alone at five in the morning?
YANETTA. Yes, all alone.
MOUZON. But perhaps you are thinking of some other night. It was really
the night of Ascension Day when he went out alone?
YANETTA. Yes.
MOUZON. Benoit, have you got that written down?
RECORDER. Yes, your worship.
MOUZON. Madame, I know how painful this must be to you, but I beg you to
listen to me with the greatest attention. Your husband was pressed for
money, was he not?
YANETTA. No.
MOUZON. Yes.
YANETTA. I tell you no.
MOUZON. Here is the proof. Three months ago he borrowed eight hundred
francs from a cattle-dealer of Mauleon.
YANETTA. He never told me about it.
MOUZON. Moreover, he owed a considerable sum to Goyetche.
YANETTA. I've never heard of that either.
MOUZON. Here is an acknowledgment written by your husband. It is in his
handwriting?
YANETTA. Yes, but I didn't know--
MOUZON. You didn't know of the existence of this debt? That tends to
confirm what I know already--your husband went to Irissary.
YANETTA. No, sir; he tells me everything he does.
MOUZON. But you see very well that he doesn't, since you didn't know of
the existence of this debt. He went to Irissary. Don't you believe me?
YANETTA. Yes, Monsieur, but he didn't kill a man for money; it's a lie,
a lie, a lie!
MOUZON. It's a lie! Now how am I to know that? Your husband begins by
denying everything, blindly, and then he takes up two methods of defence
in succession. You yourself begin by a piece of false evidence. All
this, I tell you again, will do for the man.
YANETTA. I don't know about that, but what I do tell you again is that
he didn't kill a man for money.
MOUZON. Then what did he kill him for? Perhaps after all he isn't as
guilty as I supposed just now. Perhaps he acted without premeditation.
This is what might have happened. Etchepare, a little the worse for
drink, goes to Goyetche in order to ask him once more to wait for the
payment of this debt. There is a dispute between the two men; old
Goyetche was still a strong man; there may have been provocation on his
part, and there may have been a struggle, with the tragic result you
know of. In that case your husband's position is entirely different--he
is no longer a criminal premeditating a crime; and the sentence
pronounced against him may be quite a light one. So you see, my good
woman, how greatly it is in your interest to obtain a complete
confession from him. If he persists in his denials, I am afraid the jury
will be extremely severe upon him. There is no doubt that he killed
Goyetche; but under what conditions did he kill him? Everything depends
on that. By persistently trying to pass for a totally innocent man he
risks being thought more guilty than he is. Do you understand?
YANETTA. Yes, Monsieur.
MOUZON. Will you speak to him as I suggest? Shall I send for him?
YANETTA. Yes, Monsieur.
MOUZON. [_to the recorder_] Bring in the accused. Tell the gendarmes I
shall not need them.
_Etchepare enters._