undred people who have asked me; I have been offered glasses of brandy
and liquors, fried fish, matelotes,[16] to make me tell! But just go and
try whether the chub will come. Ah! they have patted my stomach to get
at my secret, my recipe.... Only my wife knows ... and she will not tell
it, any more than I shall!... Is not that so Melie?"

The President of the Court interrupted him.

"Just get to the facts as soon as you can," and the accused continued:
"I am getting to them; I am getting to them. Well, on Saturday July 8,
we left by the twenty-five past five train, and before dinner we went to
ground-bait as usual. The weather promised to keep fine, and I said to
Melie: 'All right for to-morrow!' And she replied: 'It looks like it.'
We never talk more than that together.

"And then we returned to dinner. I was happy and thirsty, and that was
the cause of everything. I said to Melie: 'Look here Melie, it is fine
weather, so suppose I drink a bottle of _Casque a meche_.' That is a
little white wine which we have christened so, because if you drink too
much of it it prevents you from sleeping and takes the place of a
nightcap. Do you understand me?

"She replied: 'You can do as you please, but you will be ill again, and
I will not be able to get up to-morrow.' That was true, sensible and
prudent, clear-sighted, I must confess. Nevertheless, I could not
withstand it, and I drank my bottle. It all comes from that.

"Well, I could not sleep. By Jove! It kept me awake till two o'clock in
the morning, and then I went to sleep so soundly that I should not have
heard the angel shouting at the last Judgment.

"In short, my wife woke me at six o'clock, and I jumped out of bed,
hastily put on my trousers and jersey, washed my face and jumped on
board _Delila_. But it was too late, for when I arrived at my hole it
was already taken! Such a thing had never happened to me in three years,
and it made me feel as if I were being robbed under my own eyes. I said
to myself, 'Confound it all! confound it!' And then my wife began to nag
at me. 'Eh! What about your _Casque a meche_! Get along, you drunkard!
Are you satisfied, you great fool?' I could say nothing, because it was
all quite true, and so I landed all the same near the spot and tried to
profit by what was left. Perhaps after all the fellow might catch
nothing, and go away.

"He was a little thin man, in white linen coat and waistcoat, and with a
large straw hat, and his wif