YANETTA. Pierre! To see you here--my Pierre--a prisoner--like a thief!
My poor husband--my poor husband! Oh, prove you haven't done anything!
Tell his worship--tell him the truth. It'll be best. I beg you tell him
the truth.
ETCHEPARE. It's all no good. I know, I can feel, I'm done for. All that
I can do or say would be no use. Every word I do say turns against me.
The gentleman wants me to be guilty. I must be guilty, according to him.
So you see! What would you have me do, my poor darling? I've got no
strength to go on struggling against him. Let them do what they like
with me; I shan't say anything more.
YANETTA. Yes, yes, you must speak. You must defend yourself. I beg of
you, Pierre. I beg of you, defend yourself.
ETCHEPARE. What's the use?
YANETTA. I beg you to in the name of your children. They don't know
anything yet--but they cry because they see me crying--because, you see,
I can't hide it, I can't control myself always in front of them. I can't
be cheerful, can I? And then they love me, so they notice it. And they
ask me questions, questions. If you only knew! They ask me about you.
Andre was asking me again this morning, "Where's father? Are you going
to look for him? Tell me, are you going to fetch him?" I told him "yes"
and I ran away. You see you must defend yourself so as to get back to
them as soon as possible. If you've anything to reproach yourself with,
even the least thing, tell it. You are rough sometimes--so--I don't
know. But if you went to Irissary, you must say so. Perhaps you had a
quarrel with the poor old man. If that was it, say so, say so. Perhaps
you got fighting together and you--I'm saying perhaps you did--I don't
know--you understand--but his worship promised me just now that if it
was like that they wouldn't punish you--or not very much. My God, what
am I to say to you? What's to be done?
ETCHEPARE. So you believe I'm guilty--you too! Tell me now! Do you
believe me guilty too?
YANETTA. I don't know! I don't know!
ETCHEPARE [_to Mouzon_] Ah, so you've managed that too; you've thought
of that too, to torture me through my wife--and it was you put it into
her head to speak to me about my children. I don't know what you can
have told her, but you've almost convinced her that I'm a scoundrel, and
you hoped she'd succeed in sending me to the guillotine in the name of
my children, because you know I worship them and they are everything to
me. You are right; I dare say there isn't another father living who
loves his little ones more than I love mine. [_To Yanetta_] You know
that, Yanetta! You know that! And you know too that with all my faults
I'm a true Christian, that I believe in God, in an almighty God. Well,
then, listen! My two boys--my little Georges, my little Andre--I pray
God to kill them both if I'm a criminal!
YANETTA [_with the greatest exultation_] He is innocent! I tell you he's
innocent! I tell you he's innocent! [_A pause_] Ah, now you can bring
your proofs, ten witnesses, a hundred if you like, and you might tell me
you saw him do it--I should tell you: It's not true! It's not true! You
might prove to me that he had confessed to it himself, and I would tell
you it wasn't true! Oh, you must feel it, your worship. You have a
heart--you know what it is when one loves one's children--so you must be
certain, you too, that he's innocent. You are going to give him back to
me, aren't you? It's settled now and you will give him back to me?
MOUZON. If he is innocent, why did he lie just now?
ETCHEPARE. It was you who lied--you! You told me you had witnesses who
saw me leave my house that night--and you hadn't anyone!
MOUZON. If I had no one at that moment, I have someone now. Yes, there
is a witness who has declared that you were not at home on the night of
the crime, and that witness is your wife!
ETCHEPARE [_to Yanetta_] You!
MOUZON [_to the recorder_] Give me her interrogatory.
_While Mouzon looks through his papers Yanetta gazes for
some time at her husband, then at Mouzon. She is reflecting
deeply. Finally she seems to have made up her mind._
MOUZON. There. Your wife has just told us that you left the house at ten
o'clock and did not return until five in the morning.
YANETTA [_very plainly_] I did not say that. It is not true.
MOUZON. You went on to say that he returned alone.
YANETTA. I did not say that.
MOUZON. I will read your declaration. [_He reads_] Question: Then he
went out alone? Reply: Yes. Question: At ten o'clock? Reply: At ten
o'clock.
YANETTA. I did not say that.
MOUZON. Come, come! And I was careful to be precise. I said to you, "But
perhaps you are thinking of another night? It was really on the night of
Ascension Day that he went out alone?" And you replied, "Yes."
YANETTA. It's not so!
MOUZON. But I have it written here!
YANETTA. You can write whatever you like.
MOUZON. Then I'm a liar. And the recorder too, he is a liar?
YANETTA. The night old Goyetche was murdered my husband did not leave
the house.
MOUZON. You will sign this paper, and at once. It is your interrogatory.
YANETTA. All that is untrue! I tell you it's untrue! [_Shouting_] The
night old Goyetche was murdered my husband never left the house--he
never left the house.
MOUZON [_pale with anger_] You will pay for this! [_To the recorder_]
Make out immediately an order for the detention of this woman and call
the gendarmes. [_To Yanetta_] Woman Etchepare, I place you under arrest
on a charge of being accessory to murder. [_To the gendarmes_] Take the
man to the cells and return for the woman.
_The gendarmes remove Etchepare._