o Cinq-Cygne for breakfast
at one o'clock. After that meal, from three to half-past five in the
afternoon, they had returned to the forest. That was the basis of each
testimony; any variations were merely individual circumstances. When
the president asked the Messieurs de Simeuse why they had ridden out so
early, they both declared that wishing, since their return, to buy back
Gondreville and intending to make an offer to Malin who had arrived the
night before, they had gone out early with their cousin and Michu to
make certain examinations of the property on which to base their offer.
During that time the Messieurs d'Hauteserre, their cousin, and Gothard
had chased a wolf which was reported in the forest by the peasantry. If
the director of the jury had sought for the prints of their horses' feet
in the forest as carefully as in the park of Gondreville, he would have
found proof of their presence at long distances from the house.

The examination of the Messieurs d'Hauteserre corroborated this
testimony, and was in harmony with their preliminary dispositions. The
necessity of some reason for their ride suggested to each of them the
excuse of hunting. The peasants had given warning, a few days earlier,
of a wolf in the forest, and on that they had fastened as a pretext.

The public prosecutor, however, pointed out a discrepancy between the
first statements of the Messieurs d'Hauteserre, in which they mentioned
that the whole party hunted together, and the defence now made by the
Messieurs de Simeuse that their purpose on that day was the valuation of
the forest.

Monsieur de Grandville here called attention to the fact that as the
crime was not committed until after two o'clock in the afternoon, the
prosecution had no ground to question their word when they stated the
manner in which they had employed their morning.

The prosecutor replied that the prisoners had an interest in concealing
their preparations for the abduction of the senator.

The remarkable ability of the defence was now felt. Judges, jurors, and
audience became aware that victory would be hotly contested. Bordin and
Monsieur de Grandville had studied their ground and foreseen everything.
Innocence is required to render a clear and plausible account of its
actions. The duty of the defence is to present a consistent and probable
tale in opposition to an insufficient and improbable accusation. To
counsel who regard their client as innocent, an accusatio