PRES. Kindly tell us about what concerns the woman Thomas. LUCIE [_with growing emotion_] Yes, monsieur. Annette was always reproaching herself with having accepted what she called my sacrifice. She kept saying she was the cause of all my troubles. [_A silence_]. One day they came to fetch me and I found her dead at this woman’s house. [_In a burst of sobs, which become hysterical, she cries out_] My little sister, my poor little sister! PRES [_kindly, to the usher_] Take her back to her place, or, if necessary, take her outside and do all you can for her. [_To the defendants_] Then none of you has any more to say in your defence! TUPIN [_excited_] Oh, if we said all we’ve got to say we should be here until to-morrow morning! MME. TUPIN [_the same_] _That_ we should! TUPIN [_shouting_] We should never stop! PRES. I call upon the counsel for the prosecution for his speech. SCH. But, monsieur, you are not going to condemn me? It’s not possible. I haven’t said everything. TUPIN. _We’re_ not the guilty ones. SCH. I’m afraid of getting a bad name. And we hadn’t the means to bring up another. MME. TUPIN [_violently, much excited_] Shut up! As it’s like that—as that’s what they do to our children—as men have found nothing to change that—we must do it—the women must do it. We must start the great strike—_the_ strike—the strike of the mothers. _Cries in the audience, ‘Yes, yes.’_ PRES. Silence. MME. TUPIN [_shouting_] Why should we kill ourselves to get wage-slaves and harlots for other people? TUPIN. _We’re_ not the guilty ones. PRES. I did not— MME. THOMAS. And all the men that seduced the girls I saved—have you punished _them_? PRES. Sit down. TUPIN. The guilty ones are the people that tell us to have more children when the ones we have are starving. COUN. DEF. The seducers are the guilty ones; and social hypocrisy. _During the proceedings, anger, which rapidly becomes fury, has taken possession of the defendants. They are all on their feet except the schoolmistress, who goes on sobbing and murmuring to herself unintelligibly. The president, also standing, strikes his desk with a paper-knife, trying to impose silence. He shouts, but cannot make himself heard. The tumult increases until the curtain falls. The voices of the counsel for the defence and the defendants drown those of the president and the counsel for the prosecution._ MME. THOMAS. The fine gentlemen that get hold of them and humbug them! PRES. I will have you taken back to prison. MME. THOMAS. And the rich young man, and the old satyrs—and the men! The men! All the men! COUNSEL FOR THE PROSECUTION. Police, can’t you silence these lunatics? COUN. DEF. You have no right to insult the defendants. TUPIN. They’ve been doing nothing else the whole time. COUN. PROS. Keep this rabble quiet! The defendants must respect the law. COUN. DEF. And you, sir, must respect justice. COUN. PROS. You sympathize with their crime. I am outraged by it.