COUNSEL. The criminal is the man who seduced little Annette! PRESIDENT. Silence! MME. THOMAS. Yes, where’s he? Where’s he? You haven’t taken him up! Because he’s a man and your laws— PRESIDENT. Guards! MME. THOMAS. And your laws are made by men! PRESIDENT. Guards! MME. THOMAS. And all the men who got with child the girls I delivered, did you prosecute them? _During the following, an anger which becomes a fury seizes the accused. They are all on their feet, except the schoolmistress, who continues to sob and utter words that no one hears. The President is also on his feet; he tries vainly to restore silence by knocking on his desk with a paper-knife, but he cannot make himself heard. The tumult increases till the fall of the curtain, the voices of the counsel for the defence and his clients drowning those of the President and the Procuror._ PRESIDENT. I will have you removed to prison! MME.THOMAS. The fine gentlemen who take mistresses! And the young ones who humbug little work girls! PRESIDENT. I’ll have you removed to prison. PROCUROR. Guards, can’t you keep that crowd of fanatics quiet? COUNSEL. You have no right to insult the defendants! TUPIN. That’s all they’ve done from the beginning! PROCUROR. Make that howling mob be quiet! The defendants have no respect for the Court! COUNSEL. And you, Advocate General, have no respect for justice! PROCUROR. If their crime inspires you with sympathy, it only fills me with indignation. COUNSEL. They are right. They are not guilty! The respect that you lack— PROCUROR. I demand— COUNSEL. The guilt is at the door of the morals that brand the unmarried mother. THE PUBLIC. Bravo! PROCUROR. I ask that counsel for the defence— COUNSEL. Every woman with child ought to be respected in whatever circumstances her child has come into being. _Applause._ PRESIDENT. Maître Verdier, by virtue of Article 43 of the Rules— COUNSEL. Their crime is not an individual, but a social, crime. PROCUROR. It is a crime against nature! COUNSEL. It is not a crime; it is a revolt against nature! PRESIDENT. Guards, remove the defendants! [_The guards do not hear or do not understand_]. Maître Verdier, if I have to employ force— _Tumult in court._ COUNSEL [_succeeding by the force of his voice in imposing a short silence_] It is a revolt against nature! A revolt that fills my heart with pity, at the cause of which all the force of my mind is roused to indignation! Yes; I look forward with eagerness to that hour of freedom when the store-house of science shall give to everyone the means, without a restraint that is only hypocrisy, without the profanation of love, to have none but the children he wants! That will be indeed a victory over nature, that cruel nature which sows with criminal profusion the life that she watches die with indifference. But meanwhile— _The tumult begins again._