Chapter 37

BUNERAT. Well, your honor, there's another session finished.

THE PRESIDENT [_in red robe_] I've been in a blue funk lest these brutes would make me lose my train. I'm going shooting to-morrow on the Cambo Ponds, you see, my dear fellow, and after to-night's train it's no go. [_Looks at his watch_] Oh, I've an hour and a half yet.

BUNERAT. And what do you think of it, your honor?

THE PRESIDENT. Of what? Of the acquittal? What does it matter to me? I don't care--on the contrary, I prefer it. I am certain the advocate won't ferret out some unintentional defect--some formality gone wrong. Where's my hat-box?

_He is about to stand on a chair to reach the hat-box, which is on the top of a cupboard. Bunerat precedes him._

BUNERAT. Permit me, Monsieur. You are at home here. [_From the chair_] I believe I shall have the pleasure of seeing you here again next session. [_He sighs, holding out the hat-box_]

THE PRESIDENT. A pleasure I shall share, my dear fellow. [_He takes out a small felt hat from the box_]

BUNERAT. Would you like a brush? There's Mouzon's brush. [_A sigh_] Ah, good God, when shall I leave Mauleon? I should so like to live at Pau!

THE PRESIDENT. Pooh! A much overrated city! Come, come!

BUNERAT. I suppose my new duties won't take me there yet?

THE PRESIDENT. Don't you worry yourself. In the winter, yes, it's very well--but the summer--ah, the summer.

BUNERAT. I am not the one appointed?

THE PRESIDENT. Ah! You know already?

BUNERAT. Yes--I--yes--that is to say, I didn't know it was official.

THE PRESIDENT [_brushing his hat and catching sight of a dent_] Dented already. In these days the hats they sell you for felt, my dear chap, they're paste-board, simply--

BUNERAT. True. Yes, I didn't know it was official. Monsieur Mouzon is very lucky.

_Enter Vagret in mufti._

THE PRESIDENT. There, there is our dear Monsieur Vagret. Changed your dress already. Yes, you're at home, you. For my part I must pack up all this. Where the devil is the box I put my gown in? [_Bunerat makes a step to fetch it and then remains motionless_] It's curious--that--what have they done with it? In that cupboard--you haven't seen it, my dear Monsieur Bunerat?

BUNERAT. No.

THE PRESIDENT. Ah, here it is--and my jacket in it. [_He opens the box and takes out his jacket, which he lays aside on the table_] Well, well, you've got them acquitted, my dear sir! Are you satisfied?

VAGRET. I am very glad.

THE PRESIDENT. And if they are the murderers?

VAGRET. I must console myself with Berryer's remark: "It is better to leave ten guilty men at liberty than to punish one innocent man."

THE PRESIDENT. You have a sensitive nature.

VAGRET. Ought one to have a heart of stone, then, to be a magistrate?

THE PRESIDENT [_tying up the box in which he has put his judge's bonnet_] One must keep oneself above the little miseries of humanity.

VAGRET. Above the miseries of others.

THE PRESIDENT. Hang it all--

VAGRET. That is what we call egoism.

THE PRESIDENT. Do you say that for my benefit?

VAGRET. For all three of us.

BUNERAT. Au revoir, gentlemen. Au revoir. [_He shakes hands with each and goes out_]

THE PRESIDENT [_taking off his gown_] My dear Monsieur, I beg you to be more moderate in your remarks.

VAGRET. Ah, I assure you that I am moderate! If I were to speak what is in my mind, you would hear very unpleasant things.

THE PRESIDENT [_in shirt sleeves_] Are you forgetting to whom you are speaking? I am a Councillor of the Court, Monsieur le Procureur.

VAGRET. Once again, I am not speaking to you merely; the disagreeable things I might say would condemn me equally. I am thinking of those poor people.

THE PRESIDENT [_brushing his gown_] What poor people? The late prisoners? But after all, they are acquitted. What more do you want? To provide them with an income?

VAGRET. They are acquitted, true; but they are condemned, all the same. They are sentenced to misery for life.

THE PRESIDENT. What are you talking about?

VAGRET. And through your fault, Monsieur.

THE PRESIDENT [_stopping in his task of folding his gown_] My fault!

VAGRET. And what is so particularly serious is that you didn't know it, you didn't see, you haven't seen the harm you did.

THE PRESIDENT. What harm? I have done no harm! I?

VAGRET. When you informed Etchepare that his wife had long ago been condemned for receiving stolen goods, and that she had been seduced before his marriage with her. When you did that you did a wicked thing.

THE PRESIDENT. You are a Don Quixote. Do you suppose Etchepare didn't know all that?

VAGRET. If you had noticed his emotion when his wife, on your asking her if the facts were correct, replied that they were, you would be certain, as I am, that he knew nothing.

THE PRESIDENT [_packing his gown in its box_] Well, even so! You attribute to people of that sort susceptibilities which they don't possess.

VAGRET. Your honor, "people of that sort" have hearts, just as you and I have.

THE PRESIDENT. Admitted. Didn't my duty force me to do as I did?

VAGRET. I know nothing about that.

THE PRESIDENT [_still in shirt sleeves_] It's the law that is guilty, then, eh? Yes? Well, Monsieur, if I did my duty--and I did--you are lacking in your duty in attacking the law, whose faithful servant you should be, the law which I, for one, am proud to represent.

VAGRET. There's no reason for your pride.

THE PRESIDENT. Monsieur!

VAGRET. It's a monstrous thing, I tell you, that one can reproach an accused person, whether innocent or guilty, with a fault committed ten years ago, and which has been expiated. Yes, Monsieur, it is a horrible thing that, after punishing, the law does not pardon.

THE PRESIDENT [_who has put on his jacket and hat_] If you think the law is bad, get it altered. Enter Parliament.

VAGRET. Alas, if I were a deputy, it is probable that I should be like the rest; instead of thinking of such matters I should think of nothing but calculating the probable duration of the Government.

THE PRESIDENT [_his box under his arm_] In that case--is the doorkeeper--

VAGRET [_touching a bell_] He will come. Then it's Monsieur Mouzon who is appointed in my place?

THE PRESIDENT. It is Monsieur Mouzon.

VAGRET. Because he's the creature of a deputy, a Mondoubleau--

THE PRESIDENT. I cannot allow you to speak ill of Monsieur Mondoubleau--before my face.

VAGRET. You think you may perhaps have need of him.

THE PRESIDENT. Precisely. [_The doorkeeper appears_] Will you carry that to my hotel for me? The hotel by the station. You will easily recognize it; my sentry is at the door. [_He hands the doorkeeper his boxes_] Au revoir, my dear Vagret--no offence taken.

_He goes. Vagret puts on his hat and also makes ready to go. Enter recorder and Etchepare._

THE RECORDER. You are going, your honor?

VAGRET. Yes.

THE RECORDER. You won't have any objection, then, if I bring Etchepare in here? He's in the corridor, waiting for the formalities of his release--and he complains he's an object of curiosity to everyone.

VAGRET. Of course!

THE RECORDER. I'll tell them to bring his wife here too when she leaves the record office.

VAGRET. Very well.

THE RECORDER. I am just going to warn the warders--but the woman Etchepare can't be released immediately.

VAGRET. Why?

THE RECORDER. She's detained in connection with another case. She's charged with abusing a magistrate in the exercise of his duty.

VAGRET. Is that magistrate Monsieur Mouzon?

THE RECORDER. Yes, Monsieur.

VAGRET. I will try to arrange that.

THE RECORDER. Good-day, your honor.

VAGRET. Good-day.