Honore de Balzac (23 page)

Laurence, accepted, and the old man took her with Madame d'Hauteserre
to his house, which became the home of the Cinq-Cygne household and the
lawyers of the defence during the whole time the trial lasted. After
dinner, when the doors were closed, Bordin made Laurence relate every
circumstance of the affair, entreating her to omit nothing, not the most
trifling detail. Though many of the facts had already been told to him
and his young assistant by the marquis on their journey from Paris
to Troyes, Bordin listened, his feet on the fender, without obtruding
himself into the recital. The young lawyer, however, could not help
being divided between his admiration for Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, and
the attention he was bound to give to the facts of his case.

"Is that really all?" asked Bordin when Laurence had related the events
of the drama just as the present narrative has given them up to the
present time.

"Yes," she answered.

Profound silence reigned for several minutes in the salon of the
Chargeboeuf mansion where this scene took place,—one of the most
important which occur in life. All cases are judged by the counsellors
engaged in them, just as the death or life or a patient is foreseen by
a physician, before the final struggle which the one sustains
against nature, the other against law. Laurence, Monsieur and Madame
d'Hauteserre, and the marquis sat with their eyes fixed on the swarthy
and deeply pitted face of the old lawyer, who was now to pronounce the
words of life or death. Monsieur d'Hauteserre wiped the sweat from his
brow. Laurence looked at the younger man and noted his saddened face.

"Well, my dear Bordin?" said the marquis at last, holding out his
snuffbox, from which the old lawyer took a pinch in an absent-minded
way.

Bordin rubbed the calf of his leg, covered with thick stockings of
black raw silk, for he always wore black cloth breeches and a coat made
somewhat in the shape of those which are now termed
a la Francaise
.
He cast his shrewd eyes upon his clients with an anxious expression, the
effect of which was icy.

"Must I analyze all that?" he said; "am I to speak frankly?"

"Yes; go on, monsieur," said Laurence.

"All that you have innocently done can be converted into proof against
you," said the old lawyer. "We cannot save your friends; we can only
reduce the penalty. The sale which you induced Michu to make of his
property will be taken as evident proof of your criminal intentions
against the senator. You sent your servants to Troyes so that you might
be alone; that is all the more plausible because it is actually true.
The elder d'Hauteserre made an unfortunate speech to Beauvisage, which
will be your ruin. You yourself, mademoiselle, made another in your
own courtyard, which proves that you have long shown ill-will to
the possessor of Gondreville. Besides, you were at the gate of the
rond-point
, apparently on the watch, about the time when the abduction
took place; if they have not arrested you, it is solely because they
fear to bring a sentimental element into the affair."

"The case cannot be successfully defended," said Monsieur de Grandville.

"The less so," continued Bordin, "because we cannot tell the whole
truth. Michu and the Messieurs de Simeuse and d'Hauteserre must hold to
the assertion that you merely went for an excursion into the forest and
returned to Cinq-Cygne for luncheon. Allowing that we can show you were
in the house at three o'clock (the exact hour at which the attack was
made), who are our witnesses? Marthe, the wife of one of the accused,
the Durieus, and Catherine, your own servants, and Monsieur and Madame
d'Hauteserre, father and mother of two of the accused. Such testimony
is valueless; the law does not admit it against you, and commonsense
rejects it when given in your favor. If, on the other hand, you were to
say you went to the forest to recover eleven hundred thousand francs in
gold, you would send the accused to the galleys as robbers. Judge, jury,
audience, and the whole of France would believe that you took that gold
from Gondreville, and abducted the senator that you might ransack his
house. The accusation as it now stands is not wholly clear, but tell
the truth about the matter and it would become as plain as day; the jury
would declare that the robbery explained the mysterious features,—for
in these days, you must remember, a royalist means a thief. This very
case is welcomed as a legitimate political vengeance. The prisoners are
now in danger of the death penalty; but that is not dishonoring under
some circumstances. Whereas, if they can be proved to have stolen money,
which can never be made to seem excusable, you lose all benefit of
whatever interest may attach to persons condemned to death for other
crimes. If, at the first, you had shown the hiding-places of the
treasure, the plan of the forest, the tubes in which the gold was
buried, and the gold itself, as an explanation of your day's work, it is
possible you might have been believed by an impartial magistrate, but as
it is we must be silent. God grant that none of the prisoners may reveal
the truth and compromise the defence; if they do, we must rely on our
cross-examinations."

Laurence wrung her hands in despair and raised her eyes to heaven with
a despondent look, for she saw at last in all its depths the gulf into
which her cousins had fallen. The marquis and the young lawyer agreed
with the dreadful view of Bordin. Old d'Hauteserre wept.

"Ah! why did they not listen to the Abbe Goujet and fly!" cried Madame
d'Hauteserre, exasperated.

"If they could have escaped, and you prevented them," said Bordin,
"you have killed them yourselves. Judgment by default gains time; time
enables the innocent to clear themselves. This is the most mysterious
case I have ever known in my life, in the course of which I have
certainly seen and known many strange things."

"It is inexplicable to every one, even to us," said Monsieur de
Grandville. "If the prisoners are innocent some one else has committed
the crime. Five persons do not come to a place as if by enchantment,
obtain five horses shod precisely like those of the accused, imitate the
appearance of some of them, and put Malin apparently underground for the
sole purpose of casting suspicion on Michu and the four gentlemen. The
unknown guilty parties must have had some strong reason for wearing the
skin, as it were, of five innocent men. To discover them, even to get
upon their traces, we need as much power as the government itself, as
many agents and as many eyes as there are townships in a radius of fifty
miles."

"The thing is impossible," said Bordin. "There's no use thinking of it.
Since society invented law it has never found a way to give an innocent
prisoner an equal chance against a magistrate who is pre-disposed
against him. Law is not bilateral. The defence, without spies or
police, cannot call social power to the rescue of its innocent clients.
Innocence has nothing on her side but reason, and reasoning which may
strike a judge is often powerless on the narrow minds of jurymen. The
whole department is against you. The eight jurors who have signed the
indictment are each and all purchasers of national domain. Among the
trial jurors we are certain to have some who have either sold or bought
the same property. In short, we can get nothing but a Malin jury. You
must therefore set up a consistent defence, hold fast to it, and perish
in your innocence. You will certainly be condemned. But there's a court
of appeal; we will go there and try to remain there as long as possible.
If in the mean time we can collect proofs in your favor you must apply
for pardon. That's the anatomy of the business, and my advice. If we
triumph (for everything is possible in law) it will be a miracle; but
your advocate Monsieur de Grandville is the most likely man among all I
know to produce that miracle, and I'll do my best to help him."

"The senator has the key to the mystery," said Monsieur de Grandville;
"for a man knows his enemies and why they are so. Here we find him
leaving Paris at the close of the winter, coming to Gondreville alone,
shutting himself up with his notary, and delivering himself over, as one
might say, to five men who seize him."

"Certainly," said Bordin, "his conduct seems inexplicable. But how
could we, in the face of a hostile community, become accusers when we
ourselves are the accused? We should need the help and good-will of the
government and a thousand times more proof than is wanted in ordinary
circumstances. I am convinced there was premeditation, and subtle
premeditation, on the part of our mysterious adversaries, who must have
known the situation of Michu and the Messieurs de Simeuse towards Malin.
Not to utter one word; not to steal one thing!—remarkable prudence!
I see something very different from ordinary evil-doers behind those
masks. But what would be the use of saying so to the sort of jurors we
shall have to face?"

This insight into hidden matters which gives such power to certain
lawyers and certain magistrates astonished and confounded Laurence; her
heart was wrung by that inexorable logic.

"Out of every hundred criminal cases," continued Bordin, "there are not
ten where the law really lays bare the truth to its full extent; and
there is perhaps a good third in which the truth is never brought to
light at all. Yours is one of those cases which are inexplicable to all
parties, to accused and accusers, to the law and to the public. As for
the Emperor, he has other fish to fry than to consider the case of these
gentlemen, supposing even that they had not conspired against him. But
who the devil
is
Malin's enemy? and what has really been done with
him?"

Bordin and Monsieur de Grandville looked at each other; they seemed in
doubt as to Laurence's veracity. This evident suspicion was the most
cutting of all the many pangs the girl had suffered in the affair; and
she turned upon the lawyers a look which effectually put an end to their
distrust.

The next day the indictment was handed over to the defence, and the
lawyers were then enabled to communicate with the prisoners.
Bordin informed the family that the six accused men were "well
supported,"—using a professional term.

"Monsieur de Grandville will defend Michu," said Bordin.

"Michu!" exclaimed the Marquis de Chargeboeuf, amazed at the change.

"He is the pivot of the affair—the danger lies there," replied the old
lawyer.

"If he is more in danger than the others, I think that is just," cried
Laurence.

"We see certain chances," said Monsieur de Grandville, "and we shall
study them carefully. If we are able to save these gentlemen it will be
because Monsieur d'Hauteserre ordered Michu to repair one of the stone
posts in the covered way, and also because a wolf has been seen in
the forest; in a criminal court everything depends on discussions, and
discussions often turn on trivial matters which then become of immense
importance."

Laurence sank into that inward dejection which humiliates the soul of
all thoughtful and energetic persons when the uselessness of thought
and action is made manifest to them. It was no longer a matter
of overthrowing a usurper, or of coming to the help of devoted
friends,—fanatical sympathies wrapped in a shroud of mystery. She now
saw all social forces full-armed against her cousins and herself. There
was no taking a prison by assault with her own hands, no deliverance of
prisoners from the midst of a hostile population and beneath the eyes of
a watchful police. So, when the young lawyer, alarmed at the stupor of
the generous and noble girl, which the natural expression of her face
made still more noticeable, endeavored to revive her courage, she turned
to him and said: "I must be silent; I suffer,—I wait."

The accent, gesture, and look with which the words were said made this
answer one of those sublime things which only need a wider stage to make
them famous.

A few moments later old d'Hauteserre was saying to the Marquis de
Chargeboeuf: "What efforts I have made for my two unfortunate sons! I
have already laid by in the Funds enough to give them eight thousand
francs a year. If they had only been willing to serve in the army they
would have reached the higher grades by this time, and could now have
married to advantage. Instead of that, all my plans are scattered to the
winds!"

"How can you," said his wife, "think of their interests when it is a
question of their honor and their lives?"

"Monsieur d'Hauteserre thinks of everything," said the marquis.

While the masters of Cinq-Cygne were waiting at Troyes for the opening
of the trial before the Criminal court and vainly soliciting permission
to see the prisoners, an event of the utmost importance had taken place
at the chateau.

Marthe returned to Cinq-Cygne as soon as she had given her testimony
before the indicting jury. This testimony was so insignificant that it
was not thought necessary to summon her before the Criminal court. Like
all persons of extreme sensibility, the poor woman sat silent in the
salon, where she kept company with Mademoiselle Goujet, in a pitiable
state of stupefaction. To her, as to the abbe, and indeed to all others
who did not know how the accused had been employed on that day, their
innocence seemed doubtful. There were moments when Marthe believed
that Michu and his masters and Laurence had executed vengeance on the
senator. The unhappy woman now knew Michu's devotion well enough to
be certain that he was the one who would be most in danger, not only
because of his antecedents, but because of the part he was sure to have
taken in the execution of the scheme.

The Abbe Goujet and his sister and Marthe were bewildered among the
possibilities to which this opinion gave rise; and yet, in the process
of thinking them over, their minds insensibly took hold of them in a
certain way. The absolute doubt which Descartes demands can no more
exist in the brain of a man than a vacuum can exist in nature, and the
mental operation required to produce it would, like the effect of a
pneumatic machine, be exceptional and anomalous. Whatever a case may
be, the mind believes in something. Now Marthe was so afraid that the
accused were guilty that her fear became equivalent to belief; and this
condition of her mind proved fatal to her.