_He seizes her. She gives a cry and faints. He carries her towards the bedroom._ ACT III _The Cour d’Assises. Only two of the four sides of the hall are visible. The footlights nearly correspond with a line drawn diagonally across it. To the left and in front is the seat of the Ministry of State. Further back, to the left, the Court._ _Facing the audience, successively, are seated counsel, above them the defendants and, lastly, the gendarmes. In the middle, in front of a table placed for exhibits in the case, the witness stand._ _To the right three or four benches for the accommodation of the audience, but only a small part is visible. The jury, which is unseen, is supposed to occupy the place of the prompter’s box._ _There are present the Advocate General, the President of the Court and his assessors, counsel for the defence and his learned friends. In the dock are Madame Thomas, Marie Gaubert, Tupin (Catherine’s husband), Lucie, guarded by gendarmes. Among the public Madame d’Amergueux, Brignac, the clerk._ _At the rise of the curtain Madame Thomas is standing in the dock._ PRESIDENT [_authoritatively, to counsel for the defence_] Maître Verdier, this is not the moment for you to address the Court. And I take this occasion to warn you: I tell you plainly I will use all the authority in my power to prevent you from attempting to set up a theory of justification, as I see you are about to do, for the crimes with which the defendants are charged. COUNSEL FOR THE DEFENCE. You are mistaken, President. I have no intention of the sort. On the contrary, I declare publicly that in my eyes abortion is a crime because it destroys the existence of a creature virtually in being. To allow it would infallibly lead to allowing infanticide. But what I shall try to shew is that by not permitting affiliation, and by not respecting all motherhood, however it is caused, Society has lost the right to condemn a crime rendered excusable by the hypocrisy of its morals and the indifference of the law. PRESIDENT. This is not the moment for your speech. The defendant Thomas: we shall now pass to the second part of your examination. [_He hunts in his notes, says a word or two in an undertone to the assessor on his right, then to Madame Thomas_] So you admit the abominable crimes with which you are charged? MME. THOMAS. I must admit them, as you have the proofs. PRESIDENT. And you feel no remorse for the lives of human beings you have destroyed from the sole motive of gain! The jury will appreciate your attitude. COUNSEL. Except that you have spared them the trouble! PRESIDENT. Maître Verdier, I cannot hear you now. [_To Madame Thomas_] You have crippled the work of nature, you have offended against the principle of life, and you never said to yourself that among the beings you stifled before their birth might be one destined to benefit humanity by his greatness. Did you? Well? MME. THOMAS. No.