your worship.

MOUZON. Madame, I know how painful this must be to you, but I beg you to
listen to me with the greatest attention. Your husband was pressed for
money, was he not?

YANETTA. No.

MOUZON. Yes.

YANETTA. I tell you no.

MOUZON. Here is the proof. Three months ago he borrowed eight hundred
francs from a cattle-dealer of Mauleon.

YANETTA. He never told me about it.

MOUZON. Moreover, he owed a considerable sum to Goyetche.

YANETTA. I've never heard of that either.

MOUZON. Here is an acknowledgment written by your husband. It is in his
handwriting?

YANETTA. Yes, but I didn't know--

MOUZON. You didn't know of the existence of this debt? That tends to
confirm what I know already--your husband went to Irissary.

YANETTA. No, sir; he tells me everything he does.

MOUZON. But you see very well that he doesn't, since you didn't know of
the existence of this debt. He went to Irissary. Don't you believe me?

YANETTA. Yes, Monsieur, but he didn't kill a man for money; it's a lie,
a lie, a lie!

MOUZON. It's a lie! Now how am I to know that? Your husband begins by
denying everything, blindly, and then he takes up two methods of defence
in succession. You yourself begin by a piece of false evidence. All
this, I tell you again, will do for the man.

YANETTA. I don't know about that, but what I do tell you again is that
he didn't kill a man for money.

MOUZON. Then what did he kill him for? Perhaps after all he isn't as
guilty as I supposed just now. Perhaps he acted without premeditation.
This is what might have happened. Etchepare, a little the worse for
drink, goes to Goyetche in order to ask him once more to wait for the
payment of this debt. There is a dispute between the two men; old
Goyetche was still a strong man; there may have been provocation on his
part, and there may have been a struggle, with the tragic result you
know of. In that case your husband's position is entirely different--he
is no longer a criminal premeditating a crime; and the sentence
pronounced against him may be quite a light one. So you see, my good
woman, how greatly it is in your interest to obtain a complete
confession from him. If he persists in his denials, I am afraid the jury
will be extremely severe upon him. There is no doubt that he killed
Goyetche; but under what conditions did he kill him? Everything depends
on that. By persistently trying to pass for a totally innocent man he
risks being thought more gu