ACT III
The Cour d’Assises. Only two of the four sides of the hall are visible. The footlights nearly correspond with a line drawn diagonally across it. To the left and in front is the seat of the Ministry of State. Further back, to the left, the Court.
Facing the audience, successively, are seated counsel, above them the defendants and, lastly, the gendarmes. In the middle, in front of a table placed for exhibits in the case, the witness stand.
To the right three or four benches for the accommodation of the audience, but only a small part is visible. The jury, which is unseen, is supposed to occupy the place of the prompter’s box.
There are present the Advocate General, the President of the Court and his assessors, counsel for the defence and his learned friends. In the dock are Madame Thomas, Marie Gaubert, Tupin (Catherine’s husband), Lucie, guarded by gendarmes. Among the public Madame d’Amergueux, Brignac, the clerk.
At the rise of the curtain Madame Thomas is standing in the dock.
PRESIDENT [authoritatively, to counsel for the defence] Maître Verdier, this is not the moment for you to address the Court. And I take this occasion to warn you: I tell you plainly I will use all the authority in my power to prevent you from attempting to set up a theory of justification, as I see you are about to do, for the crimes with which the defendants are charged.
COUNSEL FOR THE DEFENCE. You are mistaken, President. I have no intention of the sort. On the contrary, I declare publicly that in my eyes abortion is a crime because it destroys the existence of a creature virtually in being. To allow it would infallibly lead to allowing infanticide. But what I shall try to shew is that by not permitting affiliation, and by not respecting all motherhood, however it is caused, Society has lost the right to condemn a crime rendered excusable by the hypocrisy of its morals and the indifference of the law.