Captain Herail then aimed point-blank at his wife with his revolver and
fired three shots at her. She fell to the ground dead, all three of the
bullets having passed through her head. Major Bouchez rushed in, saw
the body, and, as he testified at the trial, found Captain Herail in
tears and out of his mind with remorse.
Witnesses said that the sorrow of Captain Herail was intense. He was
continually weeping, calling on the dead woman, and asking for his
three children. It was proved that during the eleven years they were
married he had shown the deepest affection for his wife, and it was
only the military disgrace she had brought upon him that could have
caused him to commit the act.
He was married to his wife in 1904 when he was a lieutenant in the
First Regiment of Cuirassiers. She was then Mlle. Henriette Courel.
They both belonged to wealthy families and their marriage was an event
in fashionable society. They began life under the happiest auspices.
They were apparently a well-matched couple. He was very good-tempered
and easy-going, while she was a devoted wife and a model housekeeper,
but very jealous and extremely exacting.
She required that her husband should have no interest in life apart
from her. At the annual military manoeuvres she insisted on following
him around, and he, from fear of being made ridiculous, asked her to
stay away, but she would not do so. His comrades called her his colonel.
During the testimony relating to these facts Captain Herail's eyes were
wet with tears, and finally, when it came to the description of the
scene of the killing, he could not restrain himself at all and broke
into heartrending sobs.
Then the presiding officer ordered him to stand up and relate what he
had to say in defence of his act. His tears continued to flow and at
first he was unable to utter an intelligible sentence. He could be
heard sobbing:
"My poor wife! My poor wife!"
After a time he was able to make a statement concerning his
difficulties with his wife, of which these were the most striking
passages:
"If she had only let me fulfill my military duties we should have been
the happiest family possible. She was very good and very clever, but
she never would permit me to be away from her."
The unfortunate captain, who had faced death from bullets, day after
day for months, without a tremor, while his comrades were falling all
around him, broke down as he spoke of his dead wife and buried his
nails in his flesh, unable to continue. The spectacle was an intensely
painful one and caused nearly everybody in the audience to weep,
including some of the officers on the bench.
"What could I do?" went on the poor captain when he had recovered some
self-control. "I thought of handing in my resignation, and yet, I loved
my calling, although my promotion had been slow. I remained thirteen
years a simple lieutenant.
"Naturally, I appeared a careless officer, without ardor, constantly
trying to get away from my daily duties. The truth is that my wife,
every time I went out, urged me to return home as soon as possible,
complaining that I was leaving her alone.
"I wished to give my resignation, although it was a hard prospect for
me to leave the army a simple lieutenant without getting the Cross of
the Legion of Honor. I did not tell my conjugal difficulties to any one.
"Then I was forced to abandon the idea of resigning, because my wife
would not agree to such a solution. She was proud of the service I was
in.
"Our third child had just been born when my squadron was ordered to
start for the frontier of Morocco, where the war had just broken out.
Suddenly my wife, though still in delicate health, announced that she
would go with me, that she would make the campaign."