“Good!” said de Grandville, addressing the public prosecutor; “you have done more for my client’s cause than anything I could have said.”

The first day’s session ended with this bold declaration, which surprised the judges and gave an advantage to the defence.  The lawyers of the town and Bordin himself congratulated the young advocate.  The prosecutor, uneasy at the assertion, feared that he had fallen into some trap; in fact he was really caught in a snare that was cleverly set for him by the defence and admirably played off by Gothard.  The wits of the town declared that he had white-washed the affair and splashed his own cause, and had made the accused as white as the plaster itself.  France is the domain of satire, which reigns supreme in our land; Frenchmen jest on a scaffold, at the Beresina, at the barricades, and some will doubtless appear with a quirk upon their lips at the grand assizes of the Last Judgment.

CHAPTER XVIII

TRIAL CONTINUED:  CRUEL VICISSITUDES

On the morrow the witnesses for the prosecution were examined,—­Madame Marion, Madame Grevin, Grevin himself, the senator’s valet, and Violette, whose testimony can readily be imagined from the facts already told.  They all identified the five prisoners, with more or less hesitation as to the four gentlemen, but with absolute certainty as to Michu.  Beauvisage repeated Robert d’Hauteserre’s speech when he met them at daybreak in the park.  The peasant who had bought Monsieur d’Hauteserre’s calf testified to overhearing that of Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne.  The experts, who had compared the hoof-prints with the shoes on the horses ridden by the five prisoners and found them absolutely alike, confirmed their previous depositions.  This point was naturally one of vehement contention between Monsieur de Grandville and the prosecuting officer.  The defence called the blacksmith at Cinq-Cygne and succeeded in proving that he had sold several horseshoes of the same pattern to strangers who were not known in the place.  The blacksmith declared, moreover, that he was in the habit of shoeing in this particular manner not only the horses of the chateau de Cinq-Cygne, but those from other places in the canton.  It was also proved that the horse which Michu habitually rode was always shod at Troyes, and the mark of that shoe was not among the hoof-prints found in the park.

“Michu’s double was not aware of this circumstance, or he would have provided for it,” said Monsieur de Grandville, looking at the jury.  “Neither has the prosecution shown what horses our clients rode.”