“I do not say this testimony of Madame Dammauville will not influence the judge, and, above all, the jury; but I must warn you that you will expose yourself to a terrible deception if you believe that her testimony alone will give your brother liberty.  It is not on a testimony of this kind or of this quality that the law decides; better than we, it knows to what illusions people can lend themselves when it is the question of a crime that absorbs and excites the public curiosity.  There are some witnesses who, with the best faith in the world, believe they have seen the most extraordinary things which only existed in their imaginations; and there are people who accuse themselves rather than say nothing.”

He heaped words on words, as if, in trying to convince Phillis, he might hope to convince himself; but when the sound of his words faded, he was obliged to declare to himself that, whatever the paralysis of this woman might be, it had not, in this instance, produced either defect of sight or of mind.  She had seen, indeed, the tall man with long hair and curled beard, dressed like a gentleman, who was not Florentin.  When she related the story of the lamp and the curtain cords, she knew what she was saying.

In his first alarm he had been very near betraying himself.  Without doubt he should have told himself that this incident of the curtains might prove a trap; but all passed so rapidly that he never imagined that, exactly at the moment when Caffie raised the lamp to give him light, there was a woman opposite looking at him, and who saw him so plainly that she had not forgotten him.  He thought to use all precautions on his side in drawing the curtains, when, on the contrary, he would have done better had he left them undrawn.  Without doubt the widow of the attorney would have been a witness of a part of the scene, but in the shadow she would not have distinguished his features as she was able to do when he placed himself before the window under the light.  But this idea did not enter his mind, and, to save himself from an immediate danger, he threw himself into another which, although uncertain, was not less grave.

Little by little Phillis recovered herself, and the hope that Madame Dammauville put in her heart, momentarily crushed by Saniel’s remarks, sprang up again.

“Is it not possible Madame Dammauville really saw what she relates?”

“Without any doubt; and there are even probabilities that it is so, since the man who drew the curtains was not your brother, as we know.  Unfortunately, it is not ourselves who must be convinced, since we are convinced in advance.  It is those who, in advance also, have one whom they will not give up unless he is torn from them by force.”

“But if Madame Dammauville saw clearly?”

“What must be learned before everything is, if she is in a state to see clearly; I have said nothing else.”

“A doctor would surely know on examining her?”