ETCHEPARE. That's true; I said it without thinking of the consequences. MOUZON. Ah, but you ought to think of the consequences; for they may be peculiarly serious for you. ETCHEPARE. I'm not afraid of death. MOUZON. The death of others-- ETCHEPARE. Nor my own. MOUZON. So much the better. But you are a Basque; you are a Catholic. After death there is hell. ETCHEPARE. I'm not afraid of hell; I've done nothing wrong. MOUZON. There is the dishonor that will fall on your children. You love your children, do you not? Eh? They will ask after you--they love you--because they don't know--yet-- ETCHEPARE [_suddenly weeping_] My poor little children! My poor little children! MOUZON. Come, then! All good feeling isn't extinct in you. Believe me, Etchepare, the jury will be touched by your confession, by your repentance--you will escape the supreme penalty. You are still young--you have long years before you in which to expiate your crime. You may earn your pardon and perhaps you may once again see those children, who will have forgiven you. Believe me--believe me--in your own interests even, confess! [_Mouzon has approached Etchepare during the foregoing; he places his hands on the latter's shoulders; he continues, with great gentleness_] Come, isn't it true? If you can't speak, you've only to nod your head. Eh? It's true? Come, since I know it's true. Eh? I can't hear what you say. It was you, wasn't it? It was you! ETCHEPARE [_still weeping_] It was not me, sir! I swear it was not me! I swear it! MOUZON [_in a hard voice, going back to his desk_] Oh, you needn't swear. You have only to tell me the truth. ETCHEPARE. I am telling the truth--I am--I can't say I did it when I didn't! MOUZON. Come, come! We shall get nothing out of you to-day. [_To the recorder_] Read him his interrogatory and let him be taken back to his cell. One minute--Etchepare! ETCHEPARE. Monsieur? MOUZON. There is one way to prove your innocence, since you profess to be innocent. Prove, in one way or another, that you were elsewhere than at Irissary on the night of the crime, and I will set you at liberty. Where were you? ETCHEPARE. Where was I? MOUZON. I ask you where you were on the night of Ascension Day. Were you at home? ETCHEPARE. Yes. MOUZON. Is that really the truth? ETCHEPARE. Yes. MOUZON [_rising, rather theatrically, pointing at Etchepare_] Now, Etchepare, that condemns you. I know that you went out that night. When you were arrested you said to your wife, "Don't for the world admit that I went out last night." Come, I must tell you everything. Someone saw you--a servant. She told the gendarmes that as she was saying good-night to a young man from Iholdy, with whom she had been dancing, at ten o'clock at night, she saw you a few hundred yards from your house. What have you to say to that? ETCHEPARE. It is true--I did go out.