SCENE FIRST

(The setting is a drawing-room in the Rousseau mansion. Antoine is
looking through the newspapers.)

Antoine and Justine.

Justine
Well, Antoine, have you read the papers?

Antoine
I am reading them. Isn't it a pity that we servants cannot learn,
excepting through the papers, what is going on in the trial of M.
Jules?

Justine
And yet the master and mistress and Mme. du Brocard, their sister,
know nothing. M. Jules has been for three months—in—what do they
call it?—in close confinement.

Antoine
The arrest of the young man has evidently attracted great attention—

Justine
It seems absurd to think that a young man who had nothing to do but
amuse himself, who would some day inherit his aunt's income of twenty
thousand francs, and his father's and mother's fortune, which is quite
double that amount, should be mixed up in a conspiracy!

Antoine
I admire him for it, for they were plotting to bring back the emperor!
You may cause my throat to be cut if you like. We are alone here—you
don't belong to the police; long live the emperor! say I.

Justine
For mercy's sake, hold your tongue, you old fool!—If any one heard
you, you would get us all arrested.

Antoine
I am not afraid of that, thank God! The answers I made to the
magistrate were non-committal; I never compromised M. Jules, like the
traitors who informed against him.

Justine
Mme. du Brocard with all her immense savings ought to be able to buy
him off.

Antoine
Oh, nonsense! Since the escape of Lavalette such a thing is
impossible! They have become extremely particular at the gates of the
prison, and they were never particularly accommodating. M. Jules will
have to take his dose you see; he will be a martyr. I shall go and see
him executed.

(Some one rings. Exit Antoine.)

Justine
We will go and see him! When one has known a condemned man I don't see
how they can have the heart to—As for me I shall go to the Court of
Assizes. I feel, poor boy, I owe him that!

SCENE SECOND

Dupre, Antoine and Justine.

Antoine (aside, as he ushers in Dupre)
Ah! The lawyer. (Aloud) Justine, go and tell madame that Monsieur
Dupre is waiting. (Aside) The lawyer is a hard nut to crack, I'm
thinking. (Aloud) Sir, is there any hope of saving our poor M. Jules?

Dupre
I perceive that you are very fond of your young master?

Antoine
Naturally enough!

Dupre
What would you do to save him?

Antoine
Anything, sir!

Dupre
That means nothing.

Antoine
Nothing?—I will give whatever evidence you like.

Dupre
If you are caught in contradicting yourself and convicted of perjury,
do you know what you run the risk of?

Antoine
No, sir.

Dupre
The galleys.

Antoine
That is rather severe, sir.

Dupre
You would prefer to serve him without compromising yourself?

Antoine
Is there any other way?

Dupre
No.

Antoine
Well! I'll run the risk of the galleys.

Dupre (aside)
What devotion is here!

Antoine
My master would be sure to settle a pension on me.

Justine
Here is madame.

SCENE THIRD

The same persons and Madame Rousseau.

Mme. Rousseau (to Dupre)
Ah! Monsieur, we have been impatiently expecting this visit. (To
Antoine) Antoine! Quick, inform my husband. (To Dupre) Sir, I trust in
your efforts, alone.

Dupre
You may be sure, madame, that I shall employ every energy—

Mme. Rousseau
Oh! Thank you! But of course Jules is not guilty. To think of him as a
conspirator! Poor child, how could any one suspect him, who trembles
before me at the slightest reproach—me, his mother! Ah, monsieur,
promise that you will restore him to me!

Rousseau (entering the room)
(To Antoine) Yes, carry the letter to General de Verby. I shall wait
for him here. (To Dupre) I am glad to see you, my dear M. Dupre—

Dupre
The battle will doubtless begin to-morrow; to-day preparations are
being made, and the indictment drawn.

Rousseau
Has my poor Jules made any admissions?

Dupre
He has denied everything, and has played to perfection the part of an
innocent man; but we are not able to oppose any testimony to that
which is being brought against him.

Rousseau
Ah! Monsieur, save my son, and the half of my fortune shall be yours!

Dupre
If I had every half of a fortune that has been promised to me, I
should be too rich for anything.

Rousseau
Do you question the extent of my gratitude?

Dupre
We will wait till the result of the trial is known, sir.

Mme. Rousseau
Take pity on a poor mother!

Dupre
Madame, I swear to you nothing so much excites my curiosity and my
sympathy, as a genuine sentiment. And at Paris sincerity is so rare
that I cannot be indifferent to the grief of a family threatened with
the loss of an only son. You may therefore rely upon me.

Rousseau
Ah! Monsieur!

SCENE FOURTH

The same persons, General de Verby and Madame du Brocard.

Mme. du Brocard (showing in De Verby)
Come in, my dear general.

De Verby (bowing to Rousseau)
Monsieur—I simply came to learn—

Rousseau (presenting Dupre to De Verby)
General, M. Dupre.

(Dupre and De Verby exchange bows.)

Dupre (aside, while De Verby talks with Rousseau)
He is general of the antechamber, holding the place merely through the
influence of his brother, the lord chamberlain; he doesn't seem to me
to have come here without some object.

De Verby (to Dupre)
I understand, sir, that you are engaged for the defence of M. Jules
Rousseau in this deplorable affair—

Dupre
Yes, sir, it is a deplorable affair, for the real culprits are not in
prison; thus it is that justice rages fiercely against the rank and
file, but the chiefs are always passed by. You are General Vicomte de
Verby, I presume?

De Verby
Simple General Verby—I do not take the title—my opinions of course.
—Doubtless you are acquainted with the evidence in this case?

Dupre
I have been in communication with the accused only for the last three
days.

De Verby
And what do you think of the affair?

All
Yes, tell us.

Dupre
According to my experience of the law courts, I believe it possible to
obtain important revelations by offering commutation of sentence to
the condemned.

De Verby
The accused are all men of honor.

Rousseau
But—

Dupre
Characters sometime change at the prospect of the scaffold, especially
when there is much at stake.

De Verby (aside)
A conspiracy ought not to be entered upon excepting with penniless
accomplices.

Dupre
I shall induce my client to tell everything.

Rousseau
Of course.

Mme. du Brocard
Certainly.

Mme. Rousseau
He ought to do so.

De Verby (anxiously)
I presume there is no other way of escape for him?

Dupre
None whatever; it can be proved that he was of the number of those who
had begun to put in execution the plot.

De Verby
I would rather lose my head than my honor.

Dupre
I should consider which of the two was worth more.

De Verby
You have your views in the matter.

Rousseau
Those are mine.

Dupre
And they are the opinions of the majority. I have seen many things
done by men to escape the scaffold. There are people who push others
to the front, who risk nothing, and yet reap all the fruits of
success. Have such men any honor? Can one feel any obligation towards
them?

De Verby
No, they are contemptible wretches.

Dupre (aside)
He has well said it. This is the fellow