“Do you need that assurance from me?”
“I would like to have it.”
“Why? Are you not satisfied on that point in your own mind?”
“Not exactly. I know that I did not do the deed knowingly; but——”
“But what?”
“This: I know what it is to do things when under the influence of liquor, and to have absolutely no recollection afterward of having done them. I have awakened in the morning many a time with no remembrance of places I had visited while I was intoxicated. I have met friends often, on the day succeeding some such spree, and have been told by them of incidents that took place the preceding night—incidents in which I had a part, but of which I retained absolutely no recollection.”
“That is a common experience with men who drink to excess, Danton.”
“Yes, I know; but here is another point connected with it. In the majority of cases of the sort I have described, a rehearsal of the incidents recalls them to mind—I remember them, or rather recall them when reminded of them; but there have been other cases where such periods have remained total blanks in my mind, and which no sort of reminder could recall to my recollection.”
“That is not unusual, either.”
“Well, is it possible that I might have killed Orizaba while drunk and have totally forgotten it?”