As I have stated, my first thoughts on that dreadful morning of May 31st, 1908, was for my mother and my husband.
My next thought was: What has been stolen during the night?—for, I repeat it, I could not guess that a murder had been committed.
Here I must hasten to state a most important point in the events of that fatal night....
One of the men of black gaberdines, the dark, tall man who stood near my bed when I was started out of my sleep, the only man who spoke—he had, or pretended to have, a foreign accent—the man who had asked for the money when he came near me a second time (for I had been left alone at one time with the horrible red-haired woman who pointed a revolver at my head), that man, after the woman had said: "Now then, girl, tell us where the jewels are," asked me in a peremptory tone. "And where are the pearls and the papers?" And I thought the man knew who I was, although from his first question ("Where is your parents' money?") it was clear he took me for my daughter. I was more terrified than ever. I thought of the mysterious German, of my husband's reticence, and also of his indiscretions.... The man knew I had those pearls, and knew about the documents!
When asked where the money was, I had pointed to the boudoir, close to the room where my mother slept. Afterwards the red-haired woman asked me where the jewels were. As I have stated before, quoting from the evidence I gave seven months after the murder to M. André, examining magistrate, "I dreaded to say that the jewels were in my mother's room (that is, in my bedroom, where my mother slept), and that they were in the drawer of the wardrobe...." But, fearing to be killed, I said it, adding: "Don't kill me, and promise to kill no one." When the tall, dark man, with the foreign accent, asked me about "the pearls and the papers:" I said the pearls were with the other jewels, and the papers in the secret drawer of the desk....
I was told, later on, that the drawers, on May 31st, were found in a state of great disorder, and that all the jewel-cases were empty. Three rings had been stolen, and a diamond crescent, and a few other jewels. The pearls had also disappeared from the case in which I kept them. I found this out when all the cases were shown to me.
(As for the talisman, the gold locket which the President had worn, it was in the drawer of a cupboard in the studio, and was not stolen.)
As I have already stated, after the conversation with M. de Balincourt about my husband's indiscretion, I had removed the "papers" from the drawer of the writing-table in the boudoir, where I had so long kept them, and had put them in a place of safety.
The money, the jewels, and the pearls disappeared that night, and also the documents. Not the genuine bundle, of course, but the dummy, on which I had written: "Private papers. To be burned after my death."
Early in the morning, the police-commissary of the district, M. Bouchotte, asked me all kinds of questions. I replied to them all, but I did not speak the whole truth: I said that I had been asked for the money and the jewels, but I did not add that I had further been asked for the pearls and the papers.