Je rends beaucoup de vents par en bas. Pour la boisson, je ne bois que
de l'eau chaude et de l'eau sucree. (Il n'y a pas eu de fievre encore.)
The Procureur du Roi maintained that this letter showed the invalid had
already been taken with vomiting before it was considered necessary to
call in a doctor. But Mme Lacoste's advocate pointed out that the
letter was written by her, when she had overcome Lacoste's distaste for
doctors.
The President made much of the fact that Mme Lacoste had undertaken even
the lowliest of the attentions necessary in a sick-room, when other,
more mercenary, hands could have been engaged in them. The accusation
from this was that she did these things from a desire to destroy
incriminating evidences. Mme Lacoste replied that she had done
everything out of affection for her husband.
Asked by the court why she had not thought to give Dr Boubee any
explanations of the illness, she replied that she knew her husband was
always ill, but that he hid his maladies and was ashamed of them. He
had, it appeared, hernias, tetters, and other maladies besides. It was
easy for her to gather as much, in spite of the mystery Lacoste made of
them; she had seen him rubbing his limbs at times with medicaments, and
at others she had seen him taking medicines internally. He was always
vexed when she found him at it. She did not know what doctor prescribed
the medicaments, nor the pharmacist who supplied them. Her husband
thought he knew more than the doctors, and usually dealt with quacks.
Mme Lacoste was questioned regarding her husband's will, and on his
longing to have an heir of his own blood. She knew of the will, but did
not hear any word of his desire to alter it until after his death. With
regard to Lacoste's attempts to seduce the servants, she declared this
was a vague affair, and she had found the first girl in question a place
elsewhere.
Her letter to the Procureur du Roi demanding an exhumation and justice
against her slanderers was read. Then a second one, in which she excused
her absence, saying that she would give herself up for judgment at
the right time, and begged him to add her letter to the papers of the
process.
The President then returned to the question of her husband's attempts
to seduce the servants. She denied that this was the cause of quarrels.
There had been no quarrels. She did not know that her husband was
complaining outside about her.
She denied all knowledge of the arsenic found in Lacoste's body, but
suggested that it might have come from one or other of the medicines he
took.
Questioned with regard to her intimacy with Meilhan, she declared that
she knew nothing of his morals. She had intervened in the Lescure affair
at the request of Mme Lescure, who came to deny the accusation made by
Lescure. This woman had never acted as intermediary between herself and
Meilhan. Meilhan had not been her confidant. She looked after her late
husband's affairs herself. She had handed over the Castera note to
Meilhan against his loan of 2000 francs, but she had never given him
money as a present. Nor had she ever spoken to Meilhan of an annuity.
But Meilhan, it was objected, had been showing a deed signed "Euphemie
Lacoste." The accused quickly replied that she never signed herself
"Euphemie," but as "Veuve Lacoste." Upon this the President called for
several letters written by the accused. It was found that they were all
signed "Veuve Lacoste."
The evidence of the Fourcades regarding her conduct in their house at
Tarbes was biased, she said. She had refused to take up some people
recommended by her landlady. The young man who had visited her never
remained longer than after ten o'clock or half-past, and she saw nothing
singular in that.
The examination-in-chief of Mme Lacoste ended with her firm declaration
that she knew nothing of the poisoning of her husband, and that she
had spoken the truth through all her interrogations. Some supplementary
questions were answered by her to the effect that she knew, during
her marriage, that her husband had at one time suffered from venereal
disease; and that latterly there had been recrudescences of the
affection, together with the hernia already mentioned, for which her
husband took numerous medicaments.
Throughout this long examination Mme Lacoste showed complete
self-possession, save that at times she exhibited a Gascon impatience in
answering what she conceived to be stupid questions.