ATTORNEY-GENERAL.—There is no question of politics here. We speak of the life of a man who has been an apostle of strife.
M. MAGLOIRE.—Does the attorney-general fancy he is preaching peace?
PRESIDENT.—I request counsel for the defence not to interrupt.
ATTORNEY-GENERAL.—And it is in this ambition of the accused that we must look for a key to that terrible hatred which has led him to commit such crimes. That lawsuit about a stream of water is a matter of comparatively little importance. But Jacques de Boiscoran was preparing to become a candidate for election.
A.—I never dreamed of it.
ATTORNEY-GENERAL.—(Not noticing the interruption.) He did not say so; but his friends said it for him, and went about everywhere, repeating that by his position, his wealth, and his opinions, he was the man best worthy of the votes of Republicans. And he would have had an excellent chance, if there had not stood between him and the object of his desires Count Claudieuse, who had already more than once succeeded in defeating similar plots.
M. MAGLOIRE.—(Warmly.) Do you refer to me?
ATTORNEY-GENERAL.—I allude to no one.
M. MAGLOIRE.—You might just as well say at once, that my friends as well as myself are all M. de Boiscoran’s accomplices; and that we have employed him to rid us of a formidable adversary.
ATTORNEY-GENERAL.—(Continues.) Gentlemen, this is the real motive of the crime. Hence that hatred which the accused soon is unable to conceal any longer, which overflows in invectives, which breaks forth in threats of death, and which actually carries him so far that he points his gun at Count Claudieuse.