When the advocate-general pronounced his address, it was evident why Saniel’s opinion on the absence of a struggle was not contradicted.  Although the prosecution believed in this struggle, it wished to abandon it a moment, having no need of this hypothesis to prove that the button had not been torn off on falling from a ladder; it had been done in the act of assassination, in the effort made to cut the throat of the victim who had violently extended the right arm, and, by the shock to the suspenders, the button was torn off.  The effect of Saniel’s deposition was destroyed, and that one produced by the testimony of Madame Dammauville’s maids, far less strong, was also destroyed when the advocate-general proved that this gossip turned against the accused.  She had seen, it was said, a man with long hair and curled beard, draw the curtains; very well!  Does this description apply to the accused?  To tell the truth, it was said that she did not recognize him in a portrait published by an illustrated paper.  Well, it was because this portrait did not resemble him.  Besides, was it possible to admit that a woman of Madame Dammauville’s character would not have informed the judge if she believed her testimony important and decisive?  The proof that she considered it insignificant was the fact that she had kept silent.

Nougarede’s eloquent appeal did not destroy these two arguments, any more than it effaced the impression produced by the money-lender relative to the theft of forty-five francs.  The jury brought in a verdict of “Guilty,” but without premeditation, and admitting extenuating circumstances.

On hearing the decree that condemned Florentin to twenty years of forced labor, Phillis, half suffocated, clung to Saniel’s arm; but he could not give her the attention he wished, for Brigard, who came to the trial to assist at the triumph of his disciple, accosted him.

“Receive my felicitations for your deposition, my dear friend; it is an act of courage that does you honor.  If this poor boy could have been saved, it would have been by you; you may well say you are the man of conscience.”

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CONSCIENCE

By Hector Malot

BOOK 4.

CHAPTER XXXVI

CONSCIENCE ASSERTS ITSELF

During the first years of his sojourn in Paris, Saniel had published in a Latin Quarter review an article on the “Pharmacy of Shakespeare”—­the poison of Hamlet, and of Romeo and Juliet; and although since his choice of medicine he read but little besides books of science, at that time he was obliged to study the plays of his author.  From this study there lingered in his memory a phrase that for ten years had not risen to his lips, and which all at once forced itself uppermost in his mind with exasperating persistency.  It was the words of Macbeth: