PRESIDENT. This is not the moment for your speech. The defendant Thomas: we shall now pass to the second part of your examination. [He hunts in his notes, says a word or two in an undertone to the assessor on his right, then to Madame Thomas] So you admit the abominable crimes with which you are charged?
MME. THOMAS. I must admit them, as you have the proofs.
PRESIDENT. And you feel no remorse for the lives of human beings you have destroyed from the sole motive of gain! The jury will appreciate your attitude.
COUNSEL. Except that you have spared them the trouble!
PRESIDENT. Maître Verdier, I cannot hear you now. [To Madame Thomas] You have crippled the work of nature, you have offended against the principle of life, and you never said to yourself that among the beings you stifled before their birth might be one destined to benefit humanity by his greatness. Did you? Well?
MME. THOMAS. No.
PRESIDENT. You did not say so. Very well.
MME. THOMAS. If I had thought about that, I should have perhaps said that there was as much chance—more, perhaps—that he might be a thief or a murderer.
PRESIDENT. Indeed! I will not argue with you; I am not going to give you the chance to expound your criminal ideas here.