s play-acting.

MOUZON. I tell you sooner or later you will change your tune. Already
you admit facts which constitute a serious charge against you.

ETCHEPARE. That's true; I said it without thinking of the consequences.

MOUZON. Ah, but you ought to think of the consequences; for they may be
peculiarly serious for you.

ETCHEPARE. I'm not afraid of death.

MOUZON. The death of others--

ETCHEPARE. Nor my own.

MOUZON. So much the better. But you are a Basque; you are a Catholic.
After death there is hell.

ETCHEPARE. I'm not afraid of hell; I've done nothing wrong.

MOUZON. There is the dishonor that will fall on your children. You love
your children, do you not? Eh? They will ask after you--they love
you--because they don't know--yet--

ETCHEPARE [_suddenly weeping_] My poor little children! My poor little
children!

MOUZON. Come, then! All good feeling isn't extinct in you. Believe me,
Etchepare, the jury will be touched by your confession, by your
repentance--you will escape the supreme penalty. You are still
young--you have long years before you in which to expiate your crime.
You may earn your pardon and perhaps you may once again see those
children, who will have forgiven you. Believe me--believe me--in your
own interests even, confess! [_Mouzon has approached Etchepare during
the foregoing; he places his hands on the latter's shoulders; he
continues, with great gentleness_] Come, isn't it true? If you can't
speak, you've only to nod your head. Eh? It's true? Come, since I know
it's true. Eh? I can't hear what you say. It was you, wasn't it? It was
you!

ETCHEPARE [_still weeping_] It was not me, sir! I swear it was not me! I
swear it!

MOUZON [_in a hard voice, going back to his desk_] Oh, you needn't
swear. You have only to tell me the truth.

ETCHEPARE. I am telling the truth--I am--I can't say I did it when I
didn't!

MOUZON. Come, come! We shall get nothing out of you to-day. [_To the
recorder_] Read him his interrogatory and let him be taken back to his
cell. One minute--Etchepare!

ETCHEPARE. Monsieur?

MOUZON. There is one way to prove your innocence, since you profess to
be innocent. Prove, in one way or another, that you were elsewhere than
at Irissary on the night of the crime, and I will set you at liberty.
Where were you?

ETCHEPARE. Where was I?

MOUZON. I ask you where you were on the night of Ascension Day. Were you
at home?

ETCHEPARE. Yes.

MOUZON. Is that really