me it was the judge's turn to be astonished. He was so accustomed
to the cheap triumphs that judges look to win in court that he had
expected to make mincemeat of this poor, broken old man whom the law had
delivered to his tender mercy. But he discovered that the old man had
fine courage and replied with spirit to his malevolent remarks.

"We will discuss your right to take the law into your own hands
presently," he said, "but that is not the question now: there are other
points which it would be well for you to explain to the jury. Why, in
the first place, did you obstinately decline to speak to the examining
magistrate?"

"I had no answer to make to the examining magistrate," Etienne Rambert
answered slowly, as if he were weighing his words, "because in my
opinion he had no questions to put to me! I do not admit that I am
charged with anything contrary to the Code, or that any such charge can
be formulated against me. The indictment charges me with having killed
my son because I believed him to be guilty of the murder of Mme. de
Langrune and would not hand him over to the gallows. I have never
confessed to that murder, sir, and nothing will ever make me do so. And
that is why I would not reply to the examining magistrate, because I
would not admit that there was anything before the court concerning
myself: because, since the dreadful tragedy in my private life was
exposed to public opinion, I desired that I should be judged by public
opinion, which, sir, is not represented by you who are a professional
judge, but by the jury here who will shortly say whether I am really a
criminal wretch: by the jury, many of whom are fathers themselves and,
when they think of their own sons, will wonder what appalling visions
must have passed through my mind when I was forced to believe that my
boy, my own son, had committed a cowardly murder! What sort of tragedy
will they think that must have been for a man like me, with sixty years
of honour and of honourable life behind him?"

The outburst ended on a sob, and the whole court was moved with
sympathy, women wiping their eyes, men coughing, and even the jury
striving hard to conceal the emotion that stirred them.

The judge glared round the court, and after a pause addressed the
defendant again with sarcastic phrases.

"So that is why you stood mute during the enquiry, was it, sir? Odd!
very odd! I admire the interpretation you place upon your duty as an
honourable man. It is--