ed; at exactly a quarter past five, a woman of respectable
position, and whose intellectual as well as physical faculties render
her worthy of being believed, saw in Caffies office a man, with whom
it is materially impossible to confound Florentin Cormier, draw the
curtains of the window, and thus prepare for the crime. She would make
her deposition in these conditions, and in these terms, and the affair
would be finished. There would not be a judge, after this confrontation,
who would send Florentin Cormier before the assizes, and, assuredly,
there would not be two voices in the jury for conviction. But things
will not happen like this. Without doubt, Madame Dammauville bears a
name that is worth something; her husband was an estimable attorney, a
brother of the one who was notary at Paris."

"Have you ever had any business with her?"

"Never. I tell you what is well known to every one, morally she is
irreproachable. But is she the same physically and mentally? Not at all,
unfortunately. If a physician can be found who will declare that her
paralysis does not give her aberrations or hallucinations, another one
will be found who will contest these opinions, and who will come to
an opposite conclusion. So much for the witness herself; now for
the testimony. This testimony does not say that the man who drew the
curtains at a quarter past five was built in such a way that it is
materially impossible to confound him with Florentin Cormier, because
he was small or hunchbacked or bald, or dressed like a workman; while
Florentin is tall, straight, with long hair and beard, and dressed like
a gentleman. It says, simply, that the man who drew the curtains
was tall, with long hair, and curled blond beard, and dressed like a
gentleman. But this description is exactly Florentin Cormier's, as it is
yours--"

"Mine!" Saniel exclaimed.

"Yours, as well as that of many others. And it is this, unfortunately
for us, which destroys the irrefutability that we must have. How is
it certain that this tall man, with long hair and curled beard, is not
Florentin Cormier, since these are his chief characteristics? And it was
at night, at a distance of twelve or fifteen metres, through a window,
whose panes were obscured by the dust of papers and the mist, that
this sick woman, whose eyes are affected, whose mind is weakened by
suffering, was able, in a very short space of time, when she had no
interest to imprint upon her memory what she saw,