Woman on Her Own, False Gods and The Red Robe Part 81

YANETTA. Yes, Monsieur.

MOUZON. Will you speak to him as I suggest? Shall I send for him?

YANETTA. Yes, Monsieur.

MOUZON. [_to the recorder_] Bring in the accused. Tell the gendarmes I shall not need them.

_Etchepare enters._

SCENE X:--_The same, Etchepare._

YANETTA. Pierre! To see you here--my Pierre--a prisoner--like a thief!

My poor husband--my poor husband! Oh, prove you haven't done anything!

Tell his wors.h.i.+p--tell him the truth. It'll be best. I beg you tell him the truth.

ETCHEPARE. It's all no good. I know, I can feel, I'm done for. All that I can do or say would be no use. Every word I do say turns against me.

The gentleman wants me to be guilty. I must be guilty, according to him.

So you see! What would you have me do, my poor darling? I've got no strength to go on struggling against him. Let them do what they like with me; I shan't say anything more.

YANETTA. Yes, yes, you must speak. You must defend yourself. I beg of you, Pierre. I beg of you, defend yourself.

ETCHEPARE. What's the use?

YANETTA. I beg you to in the name of your children. They don't know anything yet--but they cry because they see me crying--because, you see, I can't hide it, I can't control myself always in front of them. I can't be cheerful, can I? And then they love me, so they notice it. And they ask me questions, questions. If you only knew! They ask me about you.

Andre was asking me again this morning, "Where's father? Are you going to look for him? Tell me, are you going to fetch him?" I told him "yes"

and I ran away. You see you must defend yourself so as to get back to them as soon as possible. If you've anything to reproach yourself with, even the least thing, tell it. You are rough sometimes--so--I don't know. But if you went to Irissary, you must say so. Perhaps you had a quarrel with the poor old man. If that was it, say so, say so. Perhaps you got fighting together and you--I'm saying perhaps you did--I don't know--you understand--but his wors.h.i.+p promised me just now that if it was like that they wouldn't punish you--or not very much. My G.o.d, what am I to say to you? What's to be done?

ETCHEPARE. So you believe I'm guilty--you too! Tell me now! Do you believe me guilty too?

YANETTA. I don't know! I don't know!

ETCHEPARE [_to Mouzon_] Ah, so you've managed that too; you've thought of that too, to torture me through my wife--and it was you put it into her head to speak to me about my children. I don't know what you can have told her, but you've almost convinced her that I'm a scoundrel, and you hoped she'd succeed in sending me to the guillotine in the name of my children, because you know I wors.h.i.+p them and they are everything to me. You are right; I dare say there isn't another father living who loves his little ones more than I love mine. [_To Yanetta_] You know that, Yanetta! You know that! And you know too that with all my faults I'm a true Christian, that I believe in G.o.d, in an almighty G.o.d. Well, then, listen! My two boys--my little Georges, my little Andre--I pray G.o.d to kill them both if I'm a criminal!

YANETTA [_with the greatest exultation_] He is innocent! I tell you he's innocent! I tell you he's innocent! [_A pause_] Ah, now you can bring your proofs, ten witnesses, a hundred if you like, and you might tell me you saw him do it--I should tell you: It's not true! It's not true! You might prove to me that he had confessed to it himself, and I would tell you it wasn't true! Oh, you must feel it, your wors.h.i.+p. You have a heart--you know what it is when one loves one's children--so you must be certain, you too, that he's innocent. You are going to give him back to me, aren't you? It's settled now and you will give him back to me?

MOUZON. If he is innocent, why did he lie just now?

ETCHEPARE. It was you who lied--you! You told me you had witnesses who saw me leave my house that night--and you hadn't anyone!

MOUZON. If I had no one at that moment, I have someone now. Yes, there is a witness who has declared that you were not at home on the night of the crime, and that witness is your wife!

ETCHEPARE [_to Yanetta_] You!

MOUZON [_to the recorder_] Give me her interrogatory.

_While Mouzon looks through his papers Yanetta gazes for some time at her husband, then at Mouzon. She is reflecting deeply. Finally she seems to have made up her mind._

MOUZON. There. Your wife has just told us that you left the house at ten o'clock and did not return until five in the morning.

YANETTA [_very plainly_] I did not say that. It is not true.

MOUZON. You went on to say that he returned alone.

YANETTA. I did not say that.

MOUZON. I will read your declaration. [_He reads_] Question: Then he went out alone? Reply: Yes. Question: At ten o'clock? Reply: At ten o'clock.

YANETTA. I did not say that.

MOUZON. Come, come! And I was careful to be precise. I said to you, "But perhaps you are thinking of another night? It was really on the night of Ascension Day that he went out alone?" And you replied, "Yes."

YANETTA. It's not so!

MOUZON. But I have it written here!

YANETTA. You can write whatever you like.

MOUZON. Then I'm a liar. And the recorder too, he is a liar?

YANETTA. The night old Goyetche was murdered my husband did not leave the house.

MOUZON. You will sign this paper, and at once. It is your interrogatory.

YANETTA. All that is untrue! I tell you it's untrue! [_Shouting_] The night old Goyetche was murdered my husband never left the house--he never left the house.

MOUZON [_pale with anger_] You will pay for this! [_To the recorder_]

Make out immediately an order for the detention of this woman and call the gendarmes. [_To Yanetta_] Woman Etchepare, I place you under arrest on a charge of being accessory to murder. [_To the gendarmes_] Take the man to the cells and return for the woman.

_The gendarmes remove Etchepare._

SCENE XI:--_Mouzon, Yanetta, the recorder._

YANETTA. Ah, you are angry, aren't you--furious--because you haven't got your way! Although you've done everything, everything you possibly could, short of killing us by inches! You pretend to be kind. You spoke kindly to us. You wanted to make me send my husband to the scaffold!

[_Mouzon has taken up his brief and affects to be studying it with indifference_] It's your trade to supply heads to the guillotine. You must have criminals, guilty men, you must have them at any cost. When a man falls into your clutches he's a dead man. They come in here innocent and they've got to go out again guilty. It's your trade; it's a matter of vanity with you to succeed! You ask questions which don't seem to mean anything in particular, and yet they may send a man to the next world; and when you've forced the poor wretch to condemn himself you're delighted, like a savage would be!

MOUZON [_to the gendarmes_] Take her away--be quick!

YANETTA. Yes, a savage! You call that justice! [_To the gendarmes_] You don't take me like that, I tell you! [_She clings to the furniture_]

You're a butcher! You are as cruel as the people in history who broke one's bones to make one confess! [_The gendarmes have dragged her free; she lets herself fall to the ground and shouts the rest of her speech while the men drag her to the door at the back_] Brute! Savage brute!

No, you don't think so--you think yourself a fine fellow, I haven't a doubt, and you're a butcher--

MOUZON. Take her away, I tell you! What, the two of you can't rid me of that madwoman?

_The gendarmes make a renewed effort._

YANETTA. Butcher! Coward! Judas! Pitiless beast! Yes, pitiless, and you are all the more dishonest and brutal when you've got poor folk like us to do with. [_She is at the door, holding to the frame_] Ah, the brutes, they are breaking my fingers! Yes, the poorer one is the wickeder you are! [_They carry her away. Her cries are still heard as the curtain falls_] The poorer one is the more wicked you are--the poorer one is the more wicked you are--