"Gentlemen of the Court, gentlemen of the jury, after long hesitation, after scruples and doubts which yesterday he admitted to you, the Advocate-General has hardened in his conviction of Mme. Steinheil's guilt."
This is all I hear. There is not one atom of strength left in me. I fall forward with my head on my hands, which rest on the wooden partition... and I wait. Three times my counsel's speech is interrupted by adjournments; three times I am dragged away from my seat to the guards' room; three times I am dragged back to it, wondering when the unspeakable agony will end....
As I write, I have before me, the Plaidoirie of Maître Antony Aubin, extracted from the "Review of Great Contemporary Trials," and I will quote from it a few pages, those dealing with facts which have not yet been fully explained to the reader, and also certain passages containing remarks, which, for reasons that will no doubt appear obvious, I could not have made myself....
"... I am only seeking the truth. Mme. Steinheil does not altogether deserve praise; but still less does she deserve the severe way in which you have been treating her. No pedestal, no pillory!... The Advocate-General exhausted himself during the past five months in the study of the dossier, but he has passed by Mme. Steinheil. He has not studied her.... To speak plainly he knows nothing about her.
"Mme. Steinheil was kind, obliging, attentive, devoted to all... and what is most important of all: to her husband himself.
"Let us prove it.
"To show that she was goodness itself to her family—to Mme. Seyrig, to her brother Julien, and to Mme. Herr—nothing is easier. As regards Mme. Seyrig, one example will be sufficient—the following letter which Mme. Seyrig sent to her sister from Bizerte on September 23rd, 1903.
"'My dear Meg,—I hope that you are better.... My husband has been foolish enough to place money in real estate.... I am sorry to trouble you when you are ill, but I think that you will not hesitate, you who saved Julien, to save us. I don't know how I shall go on. I feel I shall be ill if Henri has not those 20,000 francs.'...
"The money was sent to Mme. Seyrig....
"Here is a recent letter from Mme. Japy to her daughter: