My Memoirs Part 38

CHAPTER XXI

MY ARREST

To resume my own recital.

Marthe rested in my arms during the hour of sleep which we s.n.a.t.c.hed out of the mad turmoil of that night. When I was awakened everything came back to me. It was decided that I should go to M. Hamard, and I kept repeating to myself: "I must tell him exactly what the journalists told me, I must not change a word. Otherwise, they have said, I shall be lost and Marthe too." I had suffered so much that I was numb, and had hardly any feeling in my body. I was calm. Nothing mattered.... Still I had one fear, the terrible mob outside, the mob that wanted to kill us all, to set fire to the house. I kissed Mme. Chabrier and gave her some money to look after Marthe, in case anything happened to me.... I had been told so many times during the night that I should be arrested!... I said to Mariette: "Now, you must speak the truth...." She replied: "I will deny everything."... The fresh air in the garden did me good. When I stepped out into the Impa.s.se with Marthe and M. Chabrier, I was surprised to see that no one was there, not even a policeman! Those two men had lied then.... A taxi from the _Matin_ was waiting outside the gate.

"Where are we going?" the driver asked.

"To the _Surete_," I replied.

M. Hamard was not yet up, of course. It was then about 4.20.... We waited awhile; then he arrived, hastily dressed, his hair unbrushed, wearing a night-shirt under his coat, and a pair of black slippers.

Utter bewilderment was written on his face.

Some one told me: "M. Hamard is going to write down everything you say."

I said, or rather repeated, everything I had been made to say during the night: no men in black gowns; no stolen jewels; M. Bdl., my friend; Alexandre Wolff, the murderer.

M. Hamard said to me: "You and Wolff will be confronted."

M. Leydet arrived. "You have made a laughing-stock of me," he exclaimed; "why did you not tell me the truth?"... I said: "Forgive me."

Why did he weep?... I wondered, and said to myself: "If he had had greater tenacity, if he had searched with greater diligence, he would have found the three men and the woman...."

Then Maitre Aubin arrived. "What do I hear!" he exclaimed wildly. "You have accused Wolff!"

Wolff was then brought in. (He had been arrested at seven in the morning.) My declaration was read to him. He turned pale with anger and vehemently denied everything. I certainly had serious suspicions against Wolff, but, of course, my declaration, the new story of the crime, had been directly inspired by the anonymous letters and also by the two journalists, who had told me to "drop" the men in the black gowns and the stolen jewels--and to find something else. I did not know what to say, and thought that the only thing to do was to repeat the so-called "Confession" I had made during the night.

Mariette was present, and she spoke of her devotion to me. Wolff now explained his movements on the night of May 30th. He had sold a mare in the morning, and taken her to the Eastern Station in the afternoon. He had had a few "drinks" with the buyer, dined with his partner, and spent the evening with him in a cafe. The two men parted at 11.30 P.M. On the way home Wolff met a friend or two and had other "drinks," and went to bed at 1.30 or 2 A.M. On the 31st, he had sold a horse in a small place outside Paris, and had not heard of the murder until June 1st.

When first interrogated by M. Hamard--M. Leydet being present--I had firmly declared before Mariette: "It is your son Alexandre, whom I saw enter my room on the night of the crime. He gagged and bound me...." and now, after Wolff's explanations, I repeated: "It was Wolff who came into my room.... _Or else it was some one whose figure and face are just like his._"

Later in the day, before M. Leydet and in the presence of Wolff, I said: "I can say nothing more than what I have said to you.... I have no material proofs to corroborate my statements," and I added: "Alexandre, since you were in my room on the night of the crime, _you might help us to discover the criminal_." And I apologised to him.

I quote these three different statements of mine, made at intervals, on that 26th day of November, from the _Dossier_, Cote 65 and Cote 70.

All day long questions were asked me and confrontations took place....

And I had had less than two hours rest during the past five days.

Wolff called me a "mad and hysterical woman...." He was not far from the truth, alas. But I remembered the warning, "This time don't change a word of what you have told us, or else you and Marthe are lost."

I thought: If I am arrested, Wolff and Couillard are arrested too. And since they know something, they will speak. Couillard has already made a few revelations. Now it will be Wolff's turn. The whole truth will come out. I did not know that that very day Couillard would be released and that Wolff was only in custody for a few hours.

Maitre Aubin once or twice took me to another room and entreated me not to accuse Wolff.... Then both he and M. Hamard besought me to reflect: "You have lost your reason," they said. "Retract your accusation against Wolff...." They spoke kindly, and I thought: "They want to arrange matters to stop this whole affair, because of the political mystery in it. But I must resist to the end. The three men and the woman must be found. I have gone too far, suffered too much, to give up the fight and the search."

Some one told me: "If you persist in your accusations, they will arrest both you and your daughter!"

My poor Marthe again. Journalists, the Law... everybody thought to silence me by making use of my love for my child! I was indignant. Let them arrest me! What did it matter! What did anything matter so long as the murderers were sought--and found! She was innocent; they could but recognise that at once. And as for me, what had I done? I had accused Couillard and placed a pearl in his pocket-book to have him arrested, to make him say what he knew.... I deserved to be punished for that. But since I had been urged in every conceivable way to denounce the valet, they would understand and soon forgive me.... Besides, he and Wolff would perhaps speak. The letters were unanimous: they knew--and the truth would at last be revealed.

And now Marthe arrived, accompanied by M. Chabrier. How pale she was!

How tear-stained and frightened her dear eyes! She sank on my breast, clutched my arms, and sobbed. "Mother, mother," she cried, "they want to put us in prison.... Can nothing be done? Say everything you know, if you know everything!"....

Then M. Grandjean, _Subst.i.tut_ of the _Procureur_, tore my daughter away from me and said: "Ah! you love your daughter! Well, we shall make her suffer in order to make you talk!"

Since then, my daughter has told me that during the afternoon of that dreadful day the same M. Grandjean had threatened to arrest her, and also M. Chabrier, who had burst into tears.

From 4.30 A.M. till 7 P.M., with brief intervals, and one hour (2 P.M.) during which I was allowed to talk with Marthe and have some tea, I was subjected to endless examinations, in M. Hamard's _Cabinet_, by him, and by M. Grandjean and M. Leydet.

It was towards 5 P.M. when it was decided that I should be arrested.

But, before that, I was once more interrogated by M. Leydet. We went from the _Surete_ to the Palace of Justice, through a long chain of staircases and pa.s.sages. I was accompanied by inspectors, the judge, the chief of the _Surete_, Maitre Aubin, his two secretaries, and others. We hurried along, for there were swarms of journalists everywhere, whom the inspectors had to repel.

Alexandre Wolff, brought in by two munic.i.p.al guards, was again confronted with me, and it was then that I ceased to accuse him as firmly as before, and asked him to "help me discover the murderer."

"Well, it was time you spoke like that," Wolff exclaimed. "I wasn't going to be guillotined just to please you!"

Many things were said to me or before me; but I did not hear them. I had no longer the strength or will to hear, or the power to reason....

M. Leydet said to me: "You are arrested." I did not mind at all. I could not understand the terrible meaning of those three words.

I left the room. Maitre Aubin was outside, in the corridor, with Marthe.

I saw that she was crying.

"Are you arrested too?" I asked her.

"No, no," said my counsel. "She is free."

I dried Marthe's tears, and said to her (she told me all this afterwards, when she visited me in prison, and that is how I am able to complete this narrative): "You must not weep. You know very well I am not the only one.... Marie Antoinette was arrested, and others...."

My daughter embraced me and we parted. She has told me that I smiled, and that my eyes were no longer like "living" eyes.

I followed Maitre Aubin back to the _Surete_, where we entered the _Cabinet_ of M. Hamard, and my counsel has told me since that I sat down quietly and waited. M. Hamard, it appears, asked me whether I would like to eat something. It was past nine o'clock then. "Oh, yes," I replied.

"Some ham and tea, please." When the tray was brought in, I settled down before a little table, and said to the Chief of the _Surete_, "Surely you are not going to let me eat by myself? Won't you have some tea with me?" M. Hamard said gently, "I have too much to do...."

Then I heard some one sob behind me. It was an inspector, a good man, who for months had done all he could to help me trace the murderers of my husband and my mother.

When I had finished eating, M. Hamard said, "Madame, it is time to go now. _Bon courage!_..."

My counsel's last words were, "In a week's time you will be back in your daughter's arms."

I went down the staircase between the inspectors, whom I knew so well.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"To Saint-Lazare."

I had never heard of Saint-Lazare before. I only knew of the station of that name. I supposed they referred to a kind of home for women, a kind of infirmary. We entered a taxi and drove away. We pa.s.sed by the Chatelet. I recognised it.... The inspectors looked very sad. They spoke kind words to me....

"Is it very far, Saint-Lazare?" I asked.