"A perfect model of those idle young men who spend in riotous living a fortune painfully amassed by their fathers, Jacques de Boiscoran had not even a profession. Useless to society, a burden to himself, he passed through life like a ship without rudder and without compass, indulging in all kinds of unhealthy fashions in order to spend the hours that were weighing heavily upon him.
"And yet he was ambitious; but his ambition lay in the direction of those dangerous and wicked intrigues which inevitably lead men to crime.
"Hence we see him mixed up with all those sterile and wanton party movements which discredit our days, uttering over and over again hollow phrases in condemnation of all that is noble and sacred, appealing to the most execrable passions of the multitude"--M. MAGLOIRE.--If this is a political affair, we ought to be informed beforehand.
ATTORNEY-GENERAL.--There is no question of politics here. We speak of the life of a man who has been an apostle of strife.
M. MAGLOIRE.--Does the attorney-general fancy he is preaching peace?
PRESIDENT.--I request counsel for the defence not to interrupt.
ATTORNEY-GENERAL.--And it is in this ambition of the accused that we must look for a key to that terrible hatred which has led him to commit such crimes. That lawsuit about a stream of water is a matter of comparatively little importance. But Jacques de Boiscoran was preparing to become a candidate for election.
A.--I never dreamed of it.
ATTORNEY-GENERAL.--(Not noticing the interruption.) He did not say so; but his friends said it for him, and went about everywhere, repeating that by his position, his wealth, and his opinions, he was the man best worthy of the votes of Republicans. And he would have had an excellent chance, if there had not stood between him and the object of his desires Count Claudieuse, who had already more than once succeeded in defeating similar plots.
M. MAGLOIRE.--(Warmly.) Do you refer to me?
ATTORNEY-GENERAL.--I allude to no one.
M. MAGLOIRE.--You might just as well say at once, that my friends as well as myself are all M. de Boiscoran's accomplices; and that we have employed him to rid us of a formidable adversary.
ATTORNEY-GENERAL.--(Continues.) Gentlemen, this is the real motive of the crime. Hence that hatred which the accused soon is unable to conceal any longer, which overflows in invectives, which breaks forth in threats of death, and which actually carries him so far that he points his gun at Count Claudieuse.
The attorney-general next passes on to examine the charges, which, he declares, are overwhelming and irrefutable. Then he goes on,--"But what need is there of such questions after the crushing evidence of Count Claudieuse? You have heard it,--on the point of appearing before God!
"His first impulse was to follow the generous nature of his heart, and to pardon the man who had attempted his life. He desired to save him; but, as he felt death come nearer, he saw that he had no right to shield a criminal from the sword of justice: he remembered that there were other victims beside himself.
"And then, rising from his bed of agony, he dragged himself here into court, in order to tell you. 'That is the man! By the light of the fire which he had kindled, I saw him and recognized him. He is the man!'
"And could you hesitate after such evidence? No! I can not and will not believe it. After such crimes, society expects that justice should be done,--justice in the name of Count Claudieuse on his deathbed,--justice in the name of the dead,--justice in the name of Bolton's mother, and of Guillebault's widow and her five children."A murmur of approbation accompanied the last words of M.
Gransiere, and continued for some time after he had concluded.
There is not a woman in the whole assembly who does not shed tears.
P.--The counsel for the defence.
[Pleading.]