t understand your
obstinacy. I repeat, I really do not understand it.

ETCHEPARE. Well, if I didn't do it, am I to say all the same that I did?

MOUZON. So you persist in your story of the phantom horse? You persist
in it, do you?

ETCHEPARE. How do I know? How should I know what I ought to say? I
should do better not to say anything at all--everything I say is turned
against me!

MOUZON. Because the stories you invent are altogether too
improbable--because you think me more of a fool than I am in thinking
that I am going to credit such absurd inventions. I preferred your first
method; at least you had two witnesses to speak for you--two witnesses
who were not worth very much, it's true, but witnesses all the same.
You've made a change; well, you are within your rights. Let us stick to
the lost horse.

ETCHEPARE. Well, then? [_A long pause_]

MOUZON. Come! Out with it!

ETCHEPARE [_without emphasis, hesitation, gazing at the recorder as
though to read in his eyes whether he was replying as he should_] Well,
I'm going to tell you, Monsieur. You are right--it isn't true--I didn't
go up into the mountain. What I said first of all was the truth--I
didn't go out at all. Just now I was all muddled. At first I denied
everything, even what was true--I was so afraid of you. Then, when you
told me--I don't remember what it was--my head's all going like--I don't
know--I don't remember--but all the same I know I am innocent. Well,
just now, I almost wished I could admit I was guilty if only you'd leave
me in peace. What was I saying? I don't remember. Ah, yes--when you told
me--whatever it was, I've forgotten--it seemed to me I'd better say I'd
gone out--and I told a lie. But [_sincerely_] what I swear to you is
that I am not the guilty man. I swear it, I swear it!

MOUZON. I repeat, I ask nothing better than to be able to believe it. So
now it's understood, is it, that you were at home?

ETCHEPARE. Yes, Monsieur.

MOUZON. We shall hear your wife directly. You have no other witnesses to
call?

ETCHEPARE. No, Monsieur.

MOUZON. Good. Take the accused away--but remain in the Court. I shall
probably need him directly for a confrontation. His interrogatory isn't
finished.

_The gendarmes lead Etchepare away._

SCENE VIII:--_Mouzon and the recorder._

MOUZON [_to the recorder_] What a rogue, eh? One might have taken him in
the act, knife in hand, and he'd say it wasn't true! A crafty fellow
too--he defends hi