He ridiculed the testimony of Violette so far as it concerned a recognition of the horses, seen from a long distance, from behind, and after dusk.  Still, in spite of all his efforts, the body of the evidence was against Michu; and the prosecutor, judge, jury, and audience were impressed with a feeling (as the lawyers for the defence had foreseen) that the guilt of the servant carried with it that of the masters.  So the vital interest centred on all that concerned Michu.  His bearing was noble.  He showed in his answers the sagacity with which nature had endowed him; and the public, seeing him on his mettle, recognized his superiority.  And yet, strange to say, the more they understood him the more certainty they felt that he was the instigator of the outrage.

The witnesses for the defence, always less important in the eyes of a jury and of the law than the witnesses for the prosecution, seemed to testify as in duty bound, and were listened to with that allowance.  In the first place neither Marthe, nor Monsieur and Madame d’Hauteserre took the oath.  Catherine and the Durieus, in their capacity as servants, did not take it.  Monsieur d’Hauteserre stated that he had ordered Michu to replace and mend the stone post which had been thrown down.  The deposition of the experts sent to examine the fence, which was now read, confirmed his testimony; but they helped the prosecution by declaring they could not fix the exact time at which the repairs had been made; it might have been several weeks or no more than twenty days.

The appearance of Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne excited the liveliest curiosity; but the sight of her cousins in the prisoners’ dock after three weeks’ separation affected her so much that her emotions gave the audience an impression of guilt.  She felt an overwhelming desire to stand beside the twins, and was obliged, as she afterwards admitted, to use all her strength to repress the longing that came into her mind to kill the prosecutor so as to stand in the eyes of the world as a criminal beside them.  She testified, with simplicity, that riding from Cinq-Cygne and seeing smoke in the park of Gondreville, she had supposed there was a fire; at first she thought they were burning weeds or brush; “but later,” she added, “I observed a circumstance which I offer to the attention of the Court.  I found in the frogging of my habit and in the folds of my collar small fragments of what appeared to be burned paper which were floating in the air.”

“Was there much smoke?” asked Bordin.

“Yes,” replied Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, “I feared a conflagration.”

“This is enough to change the whole inquiry,” remarked Bordin.  “I request the Court to order an immediate examination of that region of the park where the fire occurred.”

The president ordered the inquiry.

Grevin, recalled by the defence and questioned on this circumstance, declared he knew nothing about it.  But Bordin and he exchanged looks which mutually enlightened them.