TRIAL CONTINUED: CRUEL VICISSITUDES
On the morrow the witnesses for the prosecution were examined,--MadameMarion, Madame Grevin, Grevin himself, the senator's valet, andViolette, whose testimony can readily be imagined from the factsalready told. They all identified the five prisoners, with more orless hesitation as to the four gentlemen, but with absolute certaintyas to Michu. Beauvisage repeated Robert d'Hauteserre's speech when hemet them at daybreak in the park. The peasant who had bought Monsieurd'Hauteserre's calf testified to overhearing that of Mademoiselle deCinq-Cygne. The experts, who had compared the hoof-prints with theshoes on the horses ridden by the five prisoners and found themabsolutely alike, confirmed their previous depositions. This point wasnaturally one of vehement contention between Monsieur de Grandvilleand the prosecuting officer. The defence called the blacksmith atCinq-Cygne and succeeded in proving that he had sold severalhorseshoes of the same pattern to strangers who were not known in theplace. The blacksmith declared, moreover, that he was in the habit ofshoeing in this particular manner not only the horses of the chateaude Cinq-Cygne, but those from other places in the canton. It was alsoproved that the horse which Michu habitually rode was always shod atTroyes, and the mark of that shoe was not among the hoof-prints foundin the park.
"Michu's double was not aware of this circumstance, or he would haveprovided for it," said Monsieur de Grandville, looking at the jury."Neither has the prosecution shown what horses our clients rode."
He ridiculed the testimony of Violette so far as it concerned arecognition of the horses, seen from a long distance, from behind, andafter dusk. Still, in spite of all his efforts, the body of theevidence was against Michu; and the prosecutor, judge, jury, andaudience were impressed with a feeling (as the lawyers for the defencehad foreseen) that the guilt of the servant carried with it that ofthe masters. So the vital interest centred on all that concernedMichu. His bearing was noble. He showed in his answers the sagacitywith which nature had endowed him; and the public, seeing him on hismettle, recognized his superiority. And yet, strange to say, the morethey understood him the more certainty they felt that he was theinstigator of the outrage.
The witnesses for the defence, always less important in the eyes of ajury and of the law than the witnesses for the prosecution, seemed totestify as in duty bound, and were listened to with that allowance. Inthe first place neither Marthe, nor Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserretook the oath. Catherine and the Durieus, in their capacity asservants, did not take it. Monsieur d'Hauteserre stated that he hadordered Michu to replace and mend the stone post which had been throwndown. The deposition of the experts sent to examine the fence, whichwas now read, confirmed his testimony; but they helped the prosecutionby declaring they could not fix the exact time at which the repairshad been made; it might have been several weeks or no more than twentydays.
The appearance of Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne excited the liveliestcuriosity; but the sight of her cousins in the prisoners' dock afterthree weeks' separation affected her so much that her emotions gavethe audience an impression of guilt. She felt an overwhelming desireto stand beside the twins, and was obliged, as she afterwardsadmitted, to use all her strength to repress the longing that cameinto her mind to kill the prosecutor so as to stand in the eyes of theworld as a criminal beside them. She testified, with simplicity, thatriding from Cinq-Cygne and seeing smoke in the park of Gondreville,she had supposed there was a fire; at first she thought they were burningweeds or brush; "but later," she added, "I observed a circumstancewhich I offer to the attention of the Court. I found in the froggingof my habit and in the folds of my collar small fragments of whatappeared to be burned paper which were floating in the air."
"Was there much smoke?" asked Bordin.
"Yes," replied Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, "I feared a conflagration."
"This is enough to change the whole inquiry," remarked Bordin. "Irequest the Court to order an immediate examination of that region ofthe park where the fire occurred."
The president ordered the inquiry.
Grevin, recalled by the defence and questioned on this circumstance,declared he knew nothing about it. But Bordin and he exchanged lookswhich mutually enlightened them.
"The gist of the case is there," thought the old notary.
"They've laid their finger on it," thought the notary.
But each shrewd head considered the following up of this pointuseless. Bordin reflected that Grevin would be silent as the grave;and Grevin congratulated himself that every sign of the fire had beeneffaced.
To settle this point, which seemed a mere accessory to the trial andsomewhat puerile (but which is really essential in the justificationwhich history owes to these young men), the experts and Pigoult, whowere despatched by the president to examine the park, reported thatthey could find no traces of a bonfire.
Bordin summoned two laborers, who testified to having dug over, underthe direction of the forester, a tract of ground in the park where thegrass had been burned; but they declared they had not observed thenature of the ashes they had buried.
The forester, recalled by the defence, said he had received from thesenator himself, as he was passing the chateau of Gondreville on hisway to the masquerade at Arcis, an order to dig over that particularpiece of ground which the senator had remarked as needing it.
"Had papers, or herbage been burned there?"
"I could not say. I saw nothing that made me think that papers hadbeen burned there," replied the forester.
"At any rate," said Bordin, "if, as it appears, a fire was kindled onthat piece of ground some one brought to the spot whatever was burnedthere."
The testimony of the abbe and that of Mademoiselle Goujet made afavorable impression. They said that as they left the church aftervespers and were walking towards home, they met the four gentlemen andMichu leaving the chateau on horseback and making their way to theforest. The character, position, and known uprightness of the AbbeGoujet gave weight to his words.
The summing up of the public prosecutor, who felt sure of obtaining averdict, was in the nature of all such speeches. The prisoners werethe incorrigible enemies of France, her institutions and laws. Theythirsted for tumult and conspiracy. Though they had belonged to thearmy of Conde and had shared in the late attempts against the life ofthe Emperor, that magnanimous sovereign had erased their names fromthe list of emigres. This was the return they made for his clemency!In short, all the oratorical declamations of the Bourbons against theBonapartists, which in our day are repeated against the republicansand the legitimists by the Younger Branch, flourished in the speech.These trite commonplaces, which might have some meaning under a fixedgovernment, seem farcical in the mouth of administrators of all epochsand opinions. A saying of the troublous times of yore is stillapplicable: "The label is changed, but the wine is the same as ever."The public prosecutor, one of the most distinguished legal men underthe Empire, attributed the crime to a fixed determination on the partof returned emigres to protest against the sale of their estates. Hemade the audience shudder at the probable condition of the senator;then he massed together proofs, half-proofs, and probabilities with acleverness stimulated by a sense that his zeal was certain of itsreward, and sat down tranquilly to await the fire of his opponents.
Monsieur de Grandville never argued but this one criminal case; and itmade his reputation. In the first place, he spoke with the sameglowing eloquence which to-day we admire in Berryer. He was profoundlyconvinced of the innocence of his clients, and that in itself is amost powerful auxiliary of speech. The following are the chief pointsof his defence, which was reported in full by all the leadingnewspapers of the period. In the first place he exhibited thecharacter and life of Michu in its true light. He made it a nobletale, ringing with lofty sentiments, and it awakened the sympathies ofmany. When Michu heard himself vindicated by that eloquent voice,tears sprang from his yellow eyes and rolled down his terrible face.He appeared then for what he really was,--a man as simple and as wilyas a child; a being whose whole existence had but one thought, oneaim. He was suddenly explained to the minds of all present, moreespecially by his tears, which produced a great effect upon the jury.His able defender seized that moment of strong interest to enter upona discussion of the charges:--
"Where is the body of the person abducted? Where is the senator?" heasked. "You accuse us of walling him up with stones and plaster. Ifso, we alone know where he is; you have kept us twenty-three days inprison, and the senator must be dead by this time for want of food. Weare therefore murderers, but you have not accused us of murder. On theother hand, if he still lives, we must have accomplices. If we havethem, and if the senator is living, we should assuredly have set himat liberty. The scheme in relation to Gondreville which you attributeto us is a failure, and only aggravates our position uselessly. Wemight perhaps obtain a pardon for an abortive attempt by releasing ourvictim; instead of that we persist in detaining a man from whom we canobtain no benefit whatever. It is absurd! Take away your plaster; theeffect is a failure," he said, addressing the public prosecutor. "Weare either idiotic criminals (which you do not believe) or theinnocent victims of circumstances as inexplicable to us as they are toyou. You ought rather to search for the mass of papers which wereburned at Gondreville, which will reveal motives stronger far thanyours or ours and put you on the track of the causes of thisabduction."
The speaker discussed these hypotheses with marvellous ability. Hedwelt on the moral character of the witnesses for the defence, whosereligious faith was a living one, who believed in a future life and ineternal punishment. He rose to grandeur in this part of his speech andmoved his hearers deeply:--
"Remember!" he said; "these criminals were tranquilly dining when toldof the abduction of the senator. When the officer of gendarmesintimated to them the best means of ending the whole affair by givingup the senator, they refused, for they did not understand what wasasked of them!"
Then, reverting to the mystery of the matter, he declared that itssolution was in the hands of time, which would eventually reveal theinjustice of the charge. Once on this ground, he boldly andingeniously supposed himself a juror; related his deliberations withhis colleagues; imagined his distress lest, having condemned theinnocent, the error should be known too late, and drew such a pictureof his remorse, dwelling on the grave doubts which the case presented,that he brought the jury to a condition of intense anxiety.
Juries were not in those days so blase to this sort of allocution asthey are now; Monsieur de Grandville's appeal had the power of thingsnew, and the jurors were evidently shaken. After this passionateoutburst they had to listen to the wily and specious prosecutor, whowent over the whole case, brought out the darkest points against theprisoners and made the rest inexplicable. His aim was to reach theminds and the reasoning faculties of his hearers just as Monsieur deGrandville had aimed at the heart and the imagination. The latter,however, had seriously entangled the convictions of the jury, and thepublic prosecutor found his well-laid arguments ineffectual. This wasso plain that the counsel for the Messieurs d'Hauteserre and Gothardappealed to the judgment of the jury, asking that the case againsttheir clients be abandoned. The prosecutor demanded a postponementtill the next day in order that he might prepare an answer. Bordin,who saw acquittal in the eyes of the jury if they deliberated on thecase at once, opposed the delay of even one night by arguments oflegal right and justice to his innocent clients; but in vain,--thecourt allowed it.
"The interests of society are as great as those of the accused," saidthe president. "The court would be lacking in equity if it denied alike request when made by the defence; it ought therefore to grantthat of the prosecution."
"All is luck or ill-luck!" said Bordin to his clients when the sessionwas over. "Almost acquitted tonight you may be condemned to-morrow."
"In either case," said the elder de Simeuse, "we can only admire yourskill."
Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne's eyes were full of tears. After the doubtsand fears of the counsel for the defence, she had not expected thissuccess. Those around her congratulated her and predicted theacquittal of her cousins. But alas! the matter was destined to end ina startling and almost theatrical event, the most unexpected anddisastrous circumstance which ever changed the face of a criminaltrial.
At five in the morning of the day after Monsieur de Grandville'sspeech, the senator was found on the high road to Troyes, deliveredfrom captivity during his sleep, unaware of the trial that was goingon or of the excitement attaching to his name in Europe, and simplyhappy in being once more able to breathe the fresh air. The man whowas the pivot of the drama was quite as amazed at what was now told tohim as the persons who met him on his way to Troyes were astounded athis reappearance. A farmer lent him a carriage and he soon reached thehouse of the prefect at Troyes. The prefect notified the director ofthe jury, the commissary of the government, and the public prosecutor,who, after a statement made to them by Malin, arrested Marthe, whileshe was still in bed at the Durieu's house in the suburbs.Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, who was only at liberty under bail, wasalso snatched from one of the few hours of slumber she had been ableto obtain at rare intervals in the course of her ceaseless anxiety,and taken to the prefecture to undergo an examination. An order tokeep the accused from holding any communication with each other orwith their counsel was sent to the prison. At ten o'clock the crowdwhich assembled around the courtroom were informed that the trial waspostponed until one o'clock in the afternoon of the same day.
This change of hour, following on the news of the senator'sdeliverance, Marthe's arrest, and that of Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne,together with the denial of the right to communicate with theprisoners carried terror to the hotel de Chargeboeuf. The whole townand the spectators who had come to Troyes to be present at the trial,the short-hand writers for the daily journals, even the populace werein a ferment which can readily be imagined. The Abbe Goujet came atten o'clock to see Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre and the counselfor the defence, who were breakfasting--as well as they could underthe circumstances. The abbe took Bordin and Monsieur Grandville apart,told them what Marthe had confided to him the day before, and gavethem the fragment of the letter she had received. The two lawyersexchanged a look, after which Bordin said to the abbe: "Not a word ofall this! The case is lost; but at any rate let us show a firm front."
Marthe was not strong enough to evade the cross-questioning of thedirector of the jury and the public prosecutor. Moreover the proofagainst her was too overwhelming. Lechesneau had sent for the undercrust of the last loaf of bread she had carried to the cavern, alsofor the empty bottles and various other articles. During the senator'slong hours of captivity he had formed conjectures in his own mind andhad looked for indications which might put him on the track of hisenemies. These he now communicated to the authorities. Michu'sfarmhouse, lately built, had, he supposed, a new oven; the tiles orbricks on which the bread was baked would show their jointed lines onthe bottom of the loaves, and thus afford a proof that the breadsupplied to him was baked on that particular oven. So with the winebrought in bottles sealed with green wax, which would probably befound identical with other bottles in Michu's cellar. These shrewdobservations, which Malin imparted to the justice of peace, who madethe first examination (taking Marthe with him), led to the resultsforeseen by the senator.
Marthe, deceived by the apparent friendliness of Lechesneau and thepublic prosecutor, who assured her that complete confession couldalone save her husband's life, admitted that the cavern where thesenator had been hidden was known only to her husband and theMessieurs de Simeuse and d'Hauteserre, and that she herself had takenprovisions to the senator on three separate occasions at midnight.
Laurence, questioned about the cavern, was forced to acknowledge thatMichu had discovered it and had shown it to her at the time when thefour young men evaded the police and were hidden in it.
As soon as these preliminary examinations were ended, the jury,lawyers, and audience were notified that the trial would be resumed.At three o'clock the president opened the session by announcing thatthe case would be continued under a new aspect. He exhibited to Michuthree bottles of wine and asked him if he recognized them as bottlesfrom his own cellar, showing him at the same time the identity betweenthe green wax on two empty bottles with the green wax on a full bottletaken from his cellar that morning by the justice of peace in presenceof his wife. Michu refused to recognize anything as his own. But theseproofs for the prosecution were understood by the jurors, to whom thepresident explained that the empty bottles were found in the placewhere the senator was imprisoned.
Each prisoner was questioned as to the cavern or cellar beneath theruins of the old monastery. It was proved by all witnesses for theprosecution, and also for the defence, that the existence of thishiding-place discovered by Michu was known only to him and his wife,and to Laurence and the four gentlemen. We may judge of the effect inthe courtroom when the public prosecutor made known the fact that thiscavern, known only to the accused and to their two witnesses, was theplace where the senator had been imprisoned.
Marthe was summoned. Her appearance caused much excitement among thespectators and keen anxiety to the prisoners. Monsieur de Grandvillerose to protest against the testimony of a wife against her husband.The public prosecutor replied that Marthe by her own confession was anaccomplice in the outrage; that she had neither sworn nor testified,and was to be heard solely in the interests of truth.
"We need only submit her preliminary examination to the jury,"remarked the president, who now ordered the clerk of the court to readthe said testimony aloud.
"Do you now confirm your own statement?" said the president,addressing Marthe.
Michu looked at his wife, and Marthe, who saw her fatal error, faintedaway and fell to the floor. It may be truly said that a thunderbolthad fallen upon the prisoners and their counsel.
"I never wrote to my wife from prison, and I know none of the personsemployed there," said Michu.
Bordin passed to him the fragments of the letter Marthe had received.Michu gave but one glance at it. "My writing has been imitated," hesaid.
"Denial is your last resource," said the public prosecutor.
The senator was introduced into the courtroom with all the ceremoniesdue to his position. His entrance was like a stage scene. Malin (nowcalled Comte de Gondreville, without regard to the feelings of thelate owners of the property) was requested by the president to look atthe prisoners, and did so with great attention and for a long time. Hestated that the clothing of his abductors was exactly like that wornby the four gentlemen; but he declared that the trouble of his mindhad been such that he could not be positive that the accused werereally the guilty parties.
"More than that," he said, "it is my conviction that these fourgentlemen had nothing to do with it. The hands that blindfolded me inthe forest were coarse and rough. I should rather suppose," he added,looking at Michu, "that my old enemy took charge of that duty; but Ibeg the gentlemen of the jury not to give too much weight to thisremark. My suspicions are very slight, and I feel no certaintywhatever--for this reason. The two men who seized me put me onhorseback behind the man who blindfolded me, and whose hair was redlike Michu's. However singular you may consider the observation I amabout to make, it is necessary to make it because it is the ground ofan opinion favorable to the accused--who, I hope, will not feeloffended by it. Fastened to the man's back I would naturally have beenaffected by his odor--yet I did not perceive that which is peculiar toMichu. As to the person who brought me provisions on three severaloccasions, I am certain it was Marthe, the wife of Michu. I recognizedher the first time she came by a ring she always wore, which she hadforgotten to remove. The Court and jury will please allow for thecontradictions which appear in the facts I have stated, which I myselfam wholly unable to reconcile."
A murmur of approval followed this testimony. Bordin asked permissionof the Court to address a few questions to the witness.
"Does the senator think that his abduction was due to other causesthan the interests respecting property which the prosecutionattributes to the prisoners?"
"I do," replied the senator, "but I am wholly ignorant of what thereal motives were; for during a captivity of twenty days I saw andheard no one."
"Do you think," said the public prosecutor, "that your chateau atGondreville contains information, title-deeds, or other papers ofvalue which would induce a search on the part of the Messieurs deSimeuse?"
"I do not think so," replied Malin; "I believe those gentlemen to beincapable of attempting to get possession of such papers by violence.They had only to ask me for them to obtain them."
"You burned certain papers in the park, did you not?" said Monsieur deGondreville, abruptly.
Malin looked at Grevin. After exchanging a rapid glance with thenotary, which Bordin intercepted, he replied that he had not burnedany papers. The public prosecutor having asked him to describe theambush to which he had so nearly fallen a victim two years earlier,the senator replied that he had seen Michu watching him from the forkof a tree. This answer, which agreed with Grevin's testimony, produceda great impression.
The four gentlemen remained impassible during the examination of theirenemy, who seemed determined to overwhelm them with generosity.Laurence suffered horrible agony. From time to time the Marquis deChargeboeuf held her by the arm, fearing she might dart forward to therescue. The Comte de Gondreville retired from the courtroom and as hedid so he bowed to the four gentlemen, who did not return thesalutation. This trifling matter made the jury indignant.
"They are lost now," whispered Bordin to the Marquis de Chargeboeuf.
"Alas, yes! and always through the nobility of their sentiments,"replied the marquis.
"My task is now only too easy, gentlemen," said the prosecutor, risingto address the jury.
He explained the use of the cement by the necessity of securing aniron frame on which to fasten a padlock which held the iron bar withwhich the gate of the cavern was closed; a description of which wasgiven in the proces-verbal made that morning by Pigoult. He put thefalsehoods of the accused into the strongest light, and pulverized thearguments of the defence with the new evidence so miraculouslyobtained. In 1806 France was still too near the Supreme Being of 1793to talk about divine justice; he therefore spared the jury allreference to the intervention of heaven; but he said that earthlyjustice would be on the watch for the mysterious accomplices who hadset the senator at liberty, and he sat down, confidently awaiting theverdict.
The jury believed there was a mystery, but they were all persuadedthat it came from the prisoners, who were probably concealing somematter of a private interest of great importance to them.
Monsieur de Grandville, to whom a plot or machination of some kind wasquite evident, rose; but he seemed discouraged,--less, however, by thenew evidence than by the manifest opinion of the jury. He surpassed,if anything, his speech of the previous evening; his argument was morecompact and logical; but he felt his fervor repelled by the coldnessof the jury; he spoke ineffectually, and he knew it,--a chillingsituation for an advocate. He called attention to the fact that therelease of the senator, as if by magic and clearly without the aid ofany of the accused or of Marthe, corroborated his previous argument.Yesterday the prisoners could most surely rely on acquittal, and ifthey had, as the prosecution claimed, the power to hold or to releasethe senator, they certainly would not have released him until aftertheir acquittal. He endeavored to bring before the minds of the Courtand jury the fact that mysterious enemies, undiscovered as yet, couldalone have struck the accused this final blow.
Strange to say, the only minds Monsieur de Grandville reached withthis argument were those of the public prosecutor and the judges. Thejury listened perfunctorily; the audience, usually so favorable toprisoners, were convinced of their guilt. In a court of justice thesentiments of the crowd do unquestionably weigh upon the judges andthe jury, and vice versa. Seeing this condition of the minds abouthim, which could be felt if not defined, the counsel uttered his lastwords in a tone of passionate excitement caused by his conviction:--
"In the name of the accused," he cried, "I forgive you for the fatalerror you are about to commit, and which nothing can repair! We arethe victims of some mysterious and Machiavellian power. Marthe Michuwas inveigled by vile perfidy. You will discover this too late, whenthe evil you now do will be irreparable."
Bordin simply claimed the acquittal of the prisoners on the testimonyof the senator himself.
The president summed up the case with all the more impartialitybecause it was evident that the minds of the jurors were already madeup. He even turned the scales in favor of the prisoners by dwelling onthe senator's evidence. This clemency, however, did not in the leastendanger the success of the prosecution. At eleven o'clock that night,after the jury had replied through their foreman to the usualquestions, the Court condemned Michu to death, the Messieurs deSimeuse to twenty-four years' and the Messieurs d'Hauteserre to tenyears, penal servitude at hard labor. Gothard was acquitted.
The whole audience was eager to observe the bearing of the five guiltymen in this supreme moment of their lives. The four gentlemen lookedat Laurence, who returned them, with dry eyes, the ardent look of themartyrs.
"She would have wept had we been acquitted," said the younger deSimeuse to his brother.
Never did convicted men meet an unjust fate with serener brows orcountenances more worthy of their manhood than these five victims of acruel plot.
"Our counsel has forgiven you," said the eldest de Simeuse to theCourt.
* * * * * * *
Madame d'Hauteserre fell ill, and was three months in her bed at thehotel de Chargeboeuf. Monsieur d'Hauteserre returned patiently toCinq-Cygne, inwardly gnawed by one of those sorrows of old age whichhave none of youth's distractions; often he was so absent-minded thatthe abbe, who watched him, knew the poor father was living over againthe scene of the fatal verdict. Marthe passed away from all blame; shedied three weeks after the condemnation of her husband, confiding herson to Laurence, in whose arms she died.
The trial once over, political events of the utmost importance effacedeven the memory of it, and nothing further was discovered. Society islike the ocean; it returns to its level and its specious calmnessafter a disaster, effacing all traces of it in the tide of its eagerinterests.
Without her natural firmness of mind and her knowledge of her cousins'innocence, Laurence would have succumbed; but she gave fresh proof ofthe grandeur of her character; she astonished Monsieur de Grandvilleand Bordin by the apparent serenity which these terrible misfortunescalled forth in her noble soul. She nursed Madame d'Hauteserre andwent daily to the prison, saying openly that she would marry one ofthe cousins when they were taken to the galleys.
"To the galleys!" cried Bordin, "Mademoiselle! our first endeavor mustbe to wring their pardon from the Emperor."
"Their pardon!--from a Bonaparte?" cried Laurence in horror.
The spectacles of the old lawyer jumped from his nose; he caught themas they fell and looked at the young girl who was now indeed a woman;he understood her character at last in all its bearings; then he tookthe arm of the Marquis de Chargeboeuf, saying:--
"Monsieur le Marquis, let us go to Paris instantly and save themwithout her!"
The appeal of the Messieurs de Simeuse and d'Hauteserre and that ofMichu was the first case to be brought before the new court. Itsdecision was fortunately delayed by the ceremonies attending itsinstallation.