“I will continue.  We used to go to Passy every Saturday evening, so as to begin fishing at daybreak the next morning.  It is a habit which has become second nature with us, as the saying is.  Three years ago this summer I discovered a place, oh! such a spot.  Oh, dear, dear!  In the shade, eight feet of water at least and perhaps ten, a hole with cavities under the bank, a regular nest for fish and a paradise for the fisherman.  I might look upon that fishing hole as my property, Monsieur le President, as I was its Christopher Columbus.  Everybody in the neighborhood knew it, without making any opposition.  They would say:  ‘That is Renard’s place’; and nobody would have gone there, not even Monsieur Plumeau, who is well known, be it said without any offense, for poaching on other people’s preserves.

“Well, I returned to this place of which I felt certain, just as if I had owned it.  I had scarcely got there on Saturday, when I got into Delila, with my wife.  Delila is my Norwegian boat, which I had built by Fournaire, and which is light and safe.  Well, as I said, we got into the boat and we were going to set bait, and for setting bait there is none to be compared with me, and they all know it.  You want to know with what I bait?  I cannot answer that question; it has nothing to do with the accident.  I cannot answer; that is my secret.  There are more than three hundred people who have asked me; I have been offered glasses of brandy and liqueur, fried fish, matelotes, to make me tell.  But just go and try whether the chub will come.  Ah! they have tempted my stomach to get at my secret, my recipe.  Only my wife knows, and she will not tell it any more than I will.  Is not that so, Melie?”

The president of the court interrupted him.

“Just get to the facts as soon as you can,” and the accused continued:  “I am getting to them, I am getting to them.  Well, on Saturday, July 8, we left by the twenty-five past five train and before dinner we went to set bait as usual.  The weather promised to keep fine and I said to Melie:  ‘All right for tomorrow.’  And she replied:  ‘If looks like it,’ We never talk more than that together.

“And then we returned to dinner.  I was happy and thirsty, and that was the cause of everything.  I said to Melie:  ’Look here, Melie, it is fine weather, suppose I drink a bottle of ‘Casque a meche’.’  That is a weak white wine which we have christened so, because if you drink too much of it it prevents you from sleeping and takes the place of a nightcap.  Do you understand me?

“She replied:  ’You can do as you please, but you will be ill again and will not be able to get up tomorrow.’  That was true, sensible and prudent, clear-sighted, I must confess.  Nevertheless I could not resist, and I drank my bottle.  It all came from that.

“Well, I could not sleep.  By Jove! it kept me awake till two o’clock in the morning, and then I went to sleep so soundly that I should not have heard the angel sounding his trump at the last judgment.