Conscience -- Volume 3

blunder which sooner or later would show itself, and in that case would turn against him. He would have liked, with the aut

s of an explanation N

us accept this, such as it may be, whence it comes. It is the business of the prosecution to prove that our witness could not see what she relates that she saw, or that her ment

ieved it a duty, in his quality of physician, to indicat

e; it should be presented in such a way that no one could raise anything against it, so that it would compel the acquittal in the same moment that it is presented. It was between a quarter past and half past five o'clock that Caffie was assassinated; at exactly a quarter past five, a woman of respectable position, and whose intellectual as well as physical faculties render her worthy of being believed, saw in Caffies office a man, with whom it is materially impossible to confound Florentin Cormier, draw the curtains of

had any busin

, and who will come to an opposite conclusion. So much for the witness herself; now for the testimony. This testimony does not say that the man who drew the curtains at a quarter past five was built in such a way that it is materially impossible to confound him with Florentin Cormier, because he was small or hunchbacked or

Saniel e

e of twelve or fifteen metres, through a window, whose panes were obscured by the dust of papers and the mist, that this sick woman, whose eyes are affected, whose mind is weakened by suffering, was able, in a very short space of time, when she had no interest to imprint upon her memory what she saw, to

ppy to lend himself to this view

own to the law, or, if something transpires, we will arrange that this something is so vague that the prosecution will attach but little importance to it. And this is possible if we do not base a new defence on this testimony. We arrive at the judgment, and when the prosecution has listened to its witnesses which have overwhelmed us-the agent of affairs Savoureux, the tailor Valerius,-it is Madame Dammauville's turn. She simply relates what she saw, and declares that the man who is on the prison

bination which brought Florentin's acquittal more surely, it seemed to him, than all that they had arranged for

uville had kept silent on so grave a matte

should she have revealed to the prosecution? That the man who committed the crime was tall, with a curled blond beard? This man the law held, or it held one the description of whom answered to this, which to Madame Dammauville was the same thing. She did not need, therefore, to call the police or the judge to tell them these insignificant things for her own comfort; and,

do you

ed it up. In that case there will be no 'coup de theatre'. She will be questioned, her deposition examined, and we will have only a suspected t

t easy, it

y of the inner consciousness. For the rest, I need not sound her praises, since you know her better than I; and what I say has no other object but to explain the confidence that I place in

Madame Dammauville, and that she

rite to her to come

for you so see her thi

he Batignolles w

t perfectly, I am certain, a

e 'coup de theatre' of the non-recognition of Florentin by Ma

end up

d h

ll exam

ve to go to

y n

am not he

ll beco

impos

our thesis was on the paralyses due to the affection of the spinal cord, and it was remarkable enough for

my of medullary lesions, and especially on the alterations of the spinal gangli

the way in which you passed your examinations made you famous. Every one talks of you. So it is not impossible that Mademoiselle Phillis, relatin

ll not

should I

a moment in silence, and S

much as to appear t

d you can do a kind deed and aid us. You examine Madame Dammauville; you see with which paralysis she is afflicted, and consequently, what

ved that she cann

that is why it is of capital importance-you know that

he judge receive

d I shall call upon her physician to explain that he would not permit his patient to come to