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Updated: May 26, 2025
But the proceedings are suspended for fifteen minutes; and in the meantime the lamps are lit, for night begins to fall. When the president resumes his chair, the attorney-general claims his right to speak. "I shall not reply as I had at first proposed. Count Claudieuse is about to pay with his life for the effort which he has made to place his evidence before you.
M. Magloire shook his head as if he were not fully convinced. "Then," he asked again, "you declare that the Countess Claudieuse has been at this house?" "More than fifty times in three years." "If that is so, she must be known there." "No." "But" "Paris is not like Sauveterre, my dear friend; and people are not solely occupied with their neighbors' doings.
What would I do? I would prove the truth of M. de Boiscoran's statement. Can that be done? I hope so. He tells us that there are no proofs or witnesses of his intimacy with the Countess Claudieuse. I am sure he is mistaken. She has shown, he says, extraordinary care and prudence. That may be.
The magistrate, on the other hand, was standing in the centre of the room, his arms crossed, his eyes fixed upon the infinite, apparently. It may be he was thinking of his star which had at last brought him that famous criminal case for which he had ardently longed many a year. Count Claudieuse, however, was very far from sharing their reserve.
And, without minding the ruts and the stones in the road, M. Seneschal went on repeating all he knew about the owners of Valpinson. Count Trivulce Claudieuse was the last scion of one of the oldest families of the county. At sixteen, about 1829, he had entered the navy as an ensign, and for many years he had appeared at Sauveterre only rarely, and at long intervals.
In my state of mind, war had nothing fearful for me: every excitement was welcome that made me forget the past. There was, consequently, no merit in my courage. Nevertheless, as the weeks passed, and then the months, without my hearing a word about the Countess Claudieuse, I began secretly to hope that she had forgotten me; and that, time and absence doing their work, she was giving me up.
He was an idiot, to be sure; but it was nevertheless through his evidence alone that suspicions had been aroused against M. de Boiscoran. Why had he not been summoned either by the prosecution or by the defence? The evidence given by Count Claudieuse, also, although apparently so conclusive at the moment, was now severely criticised. The most indulgent said, "That was not well done.
"But I heard a great deal more," Mechinet said, "from the watchman who was on guard last night. He told me that when the trial was over, and it became known that Count Claudieuse was likely to die, the priest from Brechy came there, and asked to be allowed to offer him the last consolations of his church. The countess refused to let him come to the bedside of her husband.
There have been ten witnesses present at the examination. My honor is at stake. I must establish either the guilt or the innocence of the man whom Cocoleu accuses." Immediately, walking up to the count's bed, he asked, "Will you have the kindness, Count Claudieuse, to tell me what your relations are to M. de Boiscoran?" Surprise and indignation caused the wounded man to blush deeply.
He went and leaned against the mantelpiece; and, when the others had taken their seats around him, he began, "In the first place, I will admit the allegations made by M. de Boiscoran. He is innocent. He has been the lover of Countess Claudieuse; but he has no proof. This being granted, what is to be done? Shall I advise him to send for the magistrate, and to confess it all?"
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