unt of the vigor of the defence and the suspicions of the
prosecution.

Gothard, instructed no doubt by Monsieur de Grandville, for up to that
time he had only wept when they questioned him, admitted that Michu had
told him to carry the plaster.

"Why did neither you nor Gothard take the justice of peace and the
forester to the stone post and show them your work?" said the public
prosecutor, addressing Michu.

"Because," replied the man, "I didn't believe there was any serious
accusation against us."

All the prisoners except Gothard were now removed from the courtroom.
When Gothard was left alone the president adjured him to speak the truth
for his own sake, pointing out that his pretended idiocy had come to an
end; none of the jurors believed him imbecile; if he refused to answer
the court he ran the risk of serious penalty; whereas by telling the
truth at once he would probably be released. Gothard wept, hesitated,
and finally ended by saying that Michu had told him to carry several
sacks of plaster; but that each time he had met him near the farm. He
was asked how many sacks he had carried.

"Three," he replied.

An argument hereupon ensued as to whether the three sacks included the
one which Gothard was carrying at the time of the arrest (which reduced
the number of the other sacks to two) or whether there were three
without the last. The debate ended in favor of the first proposition,
the jury considering that only two sacks had been used. They appeared
to have a foregone conviction on that point, but Bordin and Monsieur de
Grandville judged it best to surfeit them with plaster, and weary them
so thoroughly with the argument that they would no longer comprehend the
question. Monsieur de Grandville made it appear that experts ought to
have been sent to examine the stone posts.

"The director of the jury," he said, "has contented himself with merely
visiting the place, less for the purpose of making a careful examination
than to trap Michu in a lie; this, in our opinion, was a failure of
duty, but the blunder is to our advantage."

On this the Court appointed experts to examine the posts and see if one
of them had been really mended and reset. The public prosecutor, on his
side, endeavored to make capital of the affair before the experts could
testify.

"You seem to have chosen," he said to Michu, who was now brought
back into the courtroom, "an hour when the daylight was waning, from
half-past five to h