“This is a fearful calamity,” he said.
“What is your opinion?”
“Ah! do I know it myself? I have lost my head: the whole thing looks to
me like a nightmare.”
“You cannot really believe that M. de Boiscoran is guilty?”
“I believe nothing. My reason tells me he is innocent. I feel he must be
innocent; and yet I see terrible evidence rising against him.”
The attorney was overwhelmed.
“Alas!” he said, “why did you, contrary to everybody’s opinion, insist
upon examining Cocoleu, a poor idiotic wretch?”