“The cry was so remarkable that it made a great impression on your mind?”
“A very great impression. I do not think I have ever heard an utterance which affected me so much.”
“You were hurrying forward at the time to interpose in the scuffle. Did you distinguish any words? Did you recognise the voice?”
“It would give an erroneous impression to say that I meant to interpose in the scuffle. There was no scuffle. The man fell at once. He never had a chance of defending himself. I did not recognise the voice, nor can I say that any words were used. It was nothing but a cry.”
“The cry, however, was of such a nature as to induce you to change your mind in respect to what had occurred?”
“I had no time to form any theory. The impression it produced on my mind was that an assault was intended, but not murder; and that all at once it had become apparent to the unfortunate—” Here the doctor paused, and there was a deep sobbing breath of intense attention drawn by the crowd. He stopped for a minute, and then resumed, “It had become apparent to the—assailant that he had—gone too far; that the consequences were more terrible than he had intended. He threw down what he had in his hand, and fled in horror.”
“You were convinced, then, that there was no murderous intention in the act of the unfortunate—as you have well said—assailant?”
“That was my conviction,” said Dr. Barrère.
The effect made upon the assembly was great. And though it was no doubt diminished more or less by the cross-examination of the counsel for the prosecution, who protested vehemently against the epithet of unfortunate applied to the man who had attacked in the dark another man who was proceeding quietly about his own business, who had lain in wait for him and assaulted him murderously with every evidence of premeditation, it still remained the strongest point in the defence. “You say that you had no time to form any theory?” said the prosecutor; “yet you have told us that you rushed forward calling out murder. Was this before or after you heard the cry, so full of meaning, which you have described?”
“It was probably almost at the same moment,” said Dr. Barrère.