ETCHEPARE [_without emphasis, hesitation, gazing at the recorder as though to read in his eyes whether he was replying as he should_] Well, I'm going to tell you, Monsieur. You are right--it isn't true--I didn't go up into the mountain. What I said first of all was the truth--I didn't go out at all. Just now I was all muddled. At first I denied everything, even what was true--I was so afraid of you. Then, when you told me--I don't remember what it was--my head's all going like--I don't know--I don't remember--but all the same I know I am innocent. Well, just now, I almost wished I could admit I was guilty if only you'd leave me in peace. What was I saying? I don't remember. Ah, yes--when you told me--whatever it was, I've forgotten--it seemed to me I'd better say I'd gone out--and I told a lie. But [_sincerely_] what I swear to you is that I am not the guilty man. I swear it, I swear it! MOUZON. I repeat, I ask nothing better than to be able to believe it. So now it's understood, is it, that you were at home? ETCHEPARE. Yes, Monsieur. MOUZON. We shall hear your wife directly. You have no other witnesses to call? ETCHEPARE. No, Monsieur. MOUZON. Good. Take the accused away--but remain in the Court. I shall probably need him directly for a confrontation. His interrogatory isn't finished. _The gendarmes lead Etchepare away._ SCENE VIII:--_Mouzon and the recorder._ MOUZON [_to the recorder_] What a rogue, eh? One might have taken him in the act, knife in hand, and he'd say it wasn't true! A crafty fellow too--he defends himself well. RECORDER. I really thought, at one time, that your worship had got him. MOUZON. When I was speaking of his children? RECORDER. Yes, that brought tears to one's eyes. It made one feel one wanted to confess even though one hadn't done anything! MOUZON. Didn't it? Ah, if I hadn't got this headache! [_A pause_] I did a stupid thing just now. RECORDER. Oh, your worship!