PRESIDENT. Sit down!
TUPIN. The men who tell us to have other children, while those we have are rotting with hunger!
COUNSEL. The criminal is the man who seduced little Annette!
PRESIDENT. Silence!
MME. THOMAS. Yes, where’s he? Where’s he? You haven’t taken him up! Because he’s a man and your laws—
PRESIDENT. Guards!
MME. THOMAS. And your laws are made by men!
PRESIDENT. Guards!
MME. THOMAS. And all the men who got with child the girls I delivered, did you prosecute them?
During the following, an anger which becomes a fury seizes the accused. They are all on their feet, except the schoolmistress, who continues to sob and utter words that no one hears. The President is also on his feet; he tries vainly to restore silence by knocking on his desk with a paper-knife, but he cannot make himself heard. The tumult increases till the fall of the curtain, the voices of the counsel for the defence and his clients drowning those of the President and the Procuror.