XVI.
M. Folgat and M. Magloire went to the courthouse; and, as they descendedthe steep street from M. de Chandore's house, the Paris lawyer said,--
"M. Galpin must fancy himself wonderfully safe in his position, thathe should grant the defence permission to see all the papers of theprosecution."
Ordinarily such leave is given only after the court has begunproceedings against the accused, and the presiding judge has questionedhim. This looks like crying injustice to the prisoner; and hencearrangements can be made by which the rigor of the law is somewhatmitigated. With the consent of the commonwealth attorney, and uponhis responsibility, the magistrate who had carried on the preliminaryinvestigation may inform the accused, or his counsel, by word of mouth,or by a copy of all or of part, of what has happened during the firstinquiry. That is what M. Galpin had done.
And on the part of a man who was ever ready to interpret the law in itsstrictest meaning, and who no more dared proceed without authority forevery step than a blind man without his staff,--or on the part of sucha man, an enemy, too, of M. de Boiscoran, this permission granted tothe defence was full of meaning. But did it really mean what M. Folgatthought it did?
"I am almost sure you are mistaken," said M. Magloire. "I know thegood man, having practiced with him for many years. If he were sureof himself, he would be pitiless. If he is kind, he is afraid. Thisconcession is a door which he keeps open, in case of defeat."
The eminent counsel was right. However well convinced M. Galpin might beof Jacques's guilt, he was still very much troubled about his means ofdefence. Twenty examinations had elicited nothing from his prisoner butprotestations of innocence. When he was driven to the wall, he wouldreply,--
"I shall explain when I have seen my counsel."
This is often the reply of the most stupid scamp, who only wants to gaintime. But M. Galpin knew his former friend, and had too high an opinionof his mind, not to fear that there was something serious beneath hisobstinate silence.
What was it? A clever falsehood? a cunningly-devised _alibi_? Orwitnesses bribed long beforehand?
M. Galpin would have given much to know. And it was for the purposeof finding it out sooner, that he had given the permission. Before hegranted it, however, he had conferred with the commonwealth attorney.Excellent M. Daubigeon, whom he found, as usual, admiring the beautifulgilt edging of his beloved books, had treated him badly.
"Do you come for any more signatures?" he had exclaimed. "You shall havethem. If you want any thing else, your servant.
"'When the blunder is made,It is too late, I tell thee, to come for advice.'"
However discouraging such a welcome might be, M. Galpin did not give uphis purpose. He said in his bitterest tone,--
"You still insist that it is a blunder to do one's duty. Has not a crimebeen committed? Is it not my duty to find out the author, and to havehim punished? Well? Is it my fault if the author of this crime is an oldfriend of mine, and if I was once upon a time on the point of marryinga relation of his? There is no one in court who doubts M. de Boiscoran'sguilt; there is no one who dares blame me: and yet they are all as coldas ice towards me."
"Such is the world," said M. Daubigeon with a face full of irony. "Theypraise virtue; but they hate it."
"Well, yes! that is so," cried M. Galpin in his turn. "Yes, they blamepeople who have done what they had not the courage to do. The attorneygeneral has congratulated me, because he judges things from on highand impartially. Here cliques are all-powerful. Even those who oughtto encourage and support me, cry out against me. My natural ally, thecommonwealth attorney, forsakes me and laughs at me. The presidentof the court, my immediate superior, said to me this morning withintolerable irony, 'I hardly know any magistrate who would be able asyou are to sacrifice his relations and his friends to the interests oftruth and justice. You are one of the ancients: you will rise high.'"
His friend could not listen any further. He said,--
"Let us break off there: we shall never understand each other. IsJacques de Boiscoran innocent, or guilty? I do not know. But I do knowthat he was the pleasantest man in the world, an admirable host, a goodtalker, a scholar, and that he owned the finest editions of Horace andJuvenal that I have ever seen. I liked him. I like him still; and itdistresses me to think of him in prison. I know that we had the mostpleasant relations with each other, and that now they are broken off.And you, you complain! Am I the ambitious man? Do I want to have myname connected with a world-famous trial? M. de Boiscoran will in allprobability be condemned. You ought to be delighted. And still youcomplain? Why, one cannot have everything. Who ever undertook a greatenterprise, and never repented of it?"
After that there was nothing left for M. Galpin but to go away. He didgo in a fury, but at the same time determined to profit by the rudetruths which M. Daubigeon had told him; for he knew very well that hisfriend represented in his views nearly the whole community. He wasfully prepared to carry out his plan. Immediately after his return, hecommunicated the papers of the prosecution to the defence, and directedhis clerk to show himself as obliging as he could. M. Mechinet was nota little surprised at these orders. He knew his master thoroughly,--thismagistrate, whose shadow he had been now for so many years.
"You are afraid, dear sir," he had said to himself.
And as M. Galpin repeated the injunction, adding that the honor ofjustice required the utmost courtesy when rigor was not to be employed,the old clerk replied very gravely,--
"Oh! be reassured, sir. I shall not be wanting in courtesy."
But, as soon as the magistrate turned his back, Mechinet laughed aloud.
"He would not recommend me to be obliging," he thought, "if he suspectedthe truth, and knew how far I am devoted to the defence. What a furyhe would be in, if he should ever find out that I have betrayed all thesecrets of the investigation, that I have carried letters to and fromthe prisoner, that I have made of Trumence an accomplice, and of Blanginthe jailer an agent, that I have helped Miss Dionysia to visit herbetrothed in jail!"
For he had done all this four times more than enough to be dismissedfrom his place, and even to become, at least for some months, one ofBlangin's boarders. He shivered all down his back when he thought ofthis; and he had been furiously angry, when, one evening, his sisters,the devout seamstresses, had taken it into their heads to say to him,--
"Certainly, Mechinet, you are a different man ever since that visit ofMiss Chandore."
"Abominable talkers!" he had exclaimed, in a tone of voice whichfrightened them out of their wits. "Do you want to see me hanged?"
But, if he had these attacks of rage, he felt not a moment's remorse.Miss Dionysia had completely bewitched him; and he judged M. Galpin'sconduct as severely as she did.
To be sure, M. Galpin had done nothing contrary to law; but he hadviolated the spirit of the law. Having once summoned courage tobegin proceedings against his friend, he had not been able to remainimpartial. Afraid of being charged with timidity, he had exaggerated hisseverity. And, above all, he had carried on the inquiry solely in theinterests of a conviction, as if the crime had been proved, and theprisoner had not protested his innocence.
Now, Mechinet firmly believed in this innocence; and he was fullypersuaded that the day on which Jacques de Boiscoran saw his counselwould be the day of his justification. This will show with whateagerness he went to the court-house to wait for M. Magloire.
But at noon the great lawyer had not yet come. He was still consultingwith M. de Chandore.
"Could any thing amiss have happened?" thought the clerk.
And his restlessness was so great, that, instead of going home tobreakfast with his sisters, he sent an office-boy for a roll and a glassof water. At last, as three o'clock struck, M. Magloire and M. Folgatarrived; and Mechinet saw at once in their faces, that he had beenmistaken, and that Jacques had not explained. Still, before M. Magloire,he did not dare inquire.
"Here are the papers," he said simply, putting upon the table an imme
nsebox.
Then, drawing M. Folgat aside, he asked,--
"What is the matter, pray?"
The clerk had certainly acted so well, that they could have no secretfrom him; and he so was fully committed, that there was no danger inrelying upon his discretion. Still M. Folgat did not dare to mention thename of the Countess Claudieuse; and he replied evasively,--
"This is the matter: M. de Boiscoran explains fully; but he had noproofs for his statement, and we are busy collecting proofs."
Then he went and sat down by M. Magloire, who was already deep in thepapers. With the help of those documents, it was easy to follow step bystep M. Galpin's work, to see the efforts he had made, and to comprehendhis strategy.
First of all, the two lawyers looked for the papers concerning Cocoleu.They found none. Of the statement of the idiot on the night of thefire, of the efforts made since to obtain from him a repetition of thisevidence, of the report of the experts,--of all this there was not atrace to be found.
M. Galpin dropped Cocoleu. He had a right to do so. The prosecution, ofcourse, only keeps those witnesses which it thinks useful, and drops allthe others.
"Ah, the scamp is clever!" growled M. Magloire in his disappointment.
It was really very well done. M. Galpin deprived by this step thedefence of one of their surest means, of one of those incidents in atrial which are apt to affect the mind of the jury so powerfully.
"We can, however, summon him at any time," said M. Magloire.
They might do so, it is true; but what a difference it would make! IfCocoleu appeared for M. Galpin, he was a witness for the prosecution,and the defence could exclaim with indignation,--
"What! You suspect the prisoner upon the evidence of such a creature?"
But, if he had to be summoned by the defence, he became prisoner'sevidence, that is to say, one of those witnesses whom the jury alwayssuspect; and then the prosecution would exclaim,--
"What do you hope for from a poor idiot, whose mental condition is such,that we refused his evidence when it might have been most useful to us?"
"If we have to go into court," murmured M. Folgat, "here is certainly aconsiderable chance of which we are deprived. The whole character of thecase is changed. But, then, how can M. Galpin prove the guilt?"
Oh! in the simplest possible manner. He started from the fact that CountClaudieuse was able to give the precise hour at which the crime wascommitted. Thence he passed on immediately to the deposition of youngRibot, who had met M. de Boiscoran on his way to Valpinson, crossing themarshes, before the crime, and to that of Gaudry, who had seen him comeback from Valpinson through the woods, after the crime. Three otherwitnesses who had turned up during the investigation confirmed thisevidence; and by these means alone, and by comparing the hours, M.Galpin succeeded in proving, almost beyond doubt, that the accused hadgone to Valpinson, and nowhere else, and that he had been there at thetime the crime was committed.
What was he doing there?
To this question the prosecution replied by the evidence taken on thefirst day of the inquiry, by the water in which Jacques had washed hishands, the cartridge-case found near the house, and the identity of theshot extracted from the count's wounds with those seized with the gun atBoiscoran.
Every thing was plain, precise, and formidable, admitting of nodiscussion, no doubt, no suggestion. It looked like a mathematicaldeduction.
"Whether he be innocent or guilty," said M. Magloire to his youngcolleague, "Jacques is lost, if we cannot get hold of some evidenceagainst the Countess Claudieuse. And even in that case, even if itshould be established that she is guilty, Jacques will always be lookedupon as her accomplice."
Nevertheless, they spent a part of the night in going over all thepapers carefully, and in studying every point made by the prosecution.
Next morning, about nine o'clock, having had only a few hours' sleep,they went together to the prison.