“I never could admit that the countess should have fired at her husband.
I now see that I was right. She has not committed the crime directly;
but she has done it indirectly.”
“Oh!”
“She would not be the first woman who has done so. What I imagine is
this: the countess had made up her mind, and arranged her plan, before
meeting Jacques. The murderer was already at his post. If she had
succeeded in winning Jacques back, her accomplice would have put away
his gun, and quietly gone to bed. As she could not induce Jacques to
give up his marriage, she made a sign, and the fire was lighted, and the
count was shot.”
The young advocate did not seem to be fully convinced.
“In that case, there would have been premeditation,” he objected; “and
how, then, came the gun to be loaded with small-shot?”
“The accomplice had not sense enough to know better.”