CURTAIN.

ACT III

_The office of the District Attorney. A door to the left, set in a diagonal wall, gives on to a corridor. It opens inwardly, so that the lettering on the outside can be read: "Parquet de Monsieur le Procureur de la Republique." A desk, chairs, and a chest of drawers._

SCENE I:--_Benoit, La Bouzole. As the curtain rises the recorder is removing various papers from the desk and placing them in a cardboard portfolio. Enter La Bouzole._

LA BOUZOLE. Good-day, Benoit.

RECORDER [_hesitating to take the hand which La Bouzole extends to him_]

Your worship. It's too great an honor--

LA BOUZOLE. Come, come, Monsieur Benoit, shake hands with me. From to-day I'm no longer a magistrate; my dignity no longer demands that I shall be impolite to my inferiors. How far have they got with the Etchepare trial?

RECORDER. So far the hearing has been devoted entirely to the indictment and the counsel's address.

LA BOUZOLE. They will finish to-day?

RECORDER. Oh, surely. Even if Monsieur Vagret were to reply, because his Honor the President of a.s.sizes goes hunting to-morrow morning.

LA BOUZOLE. You think it will be an acquittal, Monsieur Benoit?

RECORDER. I do, your worship. [_He is about to go out_]

LA BOUZOLE. Who is the old lady waiting in the corridor?

RECORDER. That is Etchepare's mother, your worship.

LA BOUZOLE. Poor woman! She must be terribly anxious.

RECORDER. No. She is certain of the verdict. She hasn't the slightest anxiety. She was there all yesterday afternoon and she came back to-day, just as calm. Only to-day she wanted at any price to see the District Attorney or one of his a.s.sistants. Monsieur Ardeuil is away and Monsieur Vagret--

LA BOUZOLE. Is in Court.

RECORDER. She seemed very much put out at finding no one.

LA BOUZOLE. Well, send her in here; perhaps I can give her a little advice. Maitre Placat will be some time yet, won't he?

RECORDER. I believe so.

LA BOUZOLE. Well, tell her to come and speak to me, poor woman. That won't upset anybody and it may save her some trouble.

RECORDER. Very well, your worship. [_He goes to the door on the right, makes a sign to old Madame Etchepare, and goes out by the door at the back_]

LA BOUZOLE [_alone_] It's astonishing how benevolent I feel this morning!

_Old Madame Etchepare enters, clad in the costume peculiar to old women of Basque race._

SCENE II:--_La Bouzole, Old Madame Etchepare._

LA BOUZOLE. They tell me, Madame, that you wished to see one of the gentlemen of the Bar.

OLD MADAME ETCHEPARE. Yes, sir.

LA BOUZOLE. You wish to be present at the trial?

OLD MADAME ETCHEPARE. No, sir. I know so well that they cannot condemn my son that what they say in there doesn't interest me in the least. I am waiting for him. I have come because they have turned us out of our house.

LA BOUZOLE. They have turned you out?

OLD MADAME ETCHEPARE. The bailiffs came.

LA BOUZOLE. Then your son owed money?

OLD MADAME ETCHEPARE. Since they arrested him all our men have left us.

We couldn't get in the crops nor pay what was owing. But of course I know they'll make all that good when my son is acquitted.

LA BOUZOLE [_aside_] Poor woman!

OLD MADAME ETCHEPARE. I'm so thankful to see the end of all our troubles. He'll come back and get our house and field again for us.

He'll make them give up our cattle. That's why I wanted to see one of these gentlemen.

LA BOUZOLE. Will you explain?

OLD MADAME ETCHEPARE. A fortnight after the gendarmes came to arrest my boy, Monsieur Claudet turned the waste water from his factory into the brook that pa.s.ses our house where we water the beasts. That was one of the things that ruined us too. If Etchepare finds things like that when he gets back, G.o.d knows what he'll do! I want the law to stop them doing us all this harm.

LA BOUZOLE. The law! Ah, my good woman, it would be far better for you to have nothing to do with the law.

OLD MADAME ETCHEPARE. But why? There is justice, and it's for everybody alike.

LA BOUZOLE. Of course.

OLD MADAME ETCHEPARE. Has Monsieur Claudet the right--

LA BOUZOLE. Certainly not.

OLD MADAME ETCHEPARE. Then I want to ask the judge to stop him.

LA BOUZOLE. It is not so simple as you suppose, Madame. First of all you must go to the bailiff.

OLD MADAME ETCHEPARE. Good.

LA BOUZOLE. He will make a declaration.