"Monsieur the president, I have the honour to request an immediate hearing for this witness.... It is your absolute right, Monsieur the president: you have full discretionary powers."
"And if I oppose it?" growled the commandant behind his desk, with a vicious glance at the defender of his adversary.
Maitre Durul-Burton replied with calm dignity:
"If you oppose it, Monsieur the commissaire, I shall have the honour of immediately deposing on the bureau of this tribunal conclusive evidence which will bring this sitting to a close forthwith."
An animated discussion ensued between the members of the council. It resulted in the colonel"s announcement:
"We will hear this witness."
He addressed Bobinette:
"You are allowed to speak, mademoiselle. Swear then to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Raise your right hand and say: "I swear it!""
With a certain dignity Bobinette obeyed.
"I swear it!"
Then, in a low trembling voice, trembling from excess of emotion but not from timidity, Bobinette began her story.
A child of the people, honestly brought up, she had not always followed the straight path of virtue: there had been lapses.
Intelligent, longing to learn, she had been well educated, and had intended to take a medical degree.... Again, at the hospital, she had succ.u.mbed to temptations, had led a life of idleness, and had renounced all idea of working for her doctor"s diploma. Instead, she had become a hospital nurse.[12]
[Footnote 12: See _Fantomas_: vol. i, Fantomas Series.]
Here the colonel interrupted:
"What can these details matter to us, Mademoiselle? What we want to know is not your own history, but that of the guilty person--information pertinent to the case in hand."
In a strangely solemn voice, Bobinette replied:
"You would know the history of the guilty person?... Listen!"
The tribunal was impressed: the members, silent, attentive, let the witness have her way.
Bobinette touched on the various stages of her life up to the day when she came in contact with the Baron de Naarboveck. The care she had lavished on the youthful Wilhelmine gained the grat.i.tude of the rich diplomat and his daughter. From that time they treated her as one of themselves: she became Mademoiselle de Naarboveck"s companion.
"Ah, cursed be that day!" cried Bobinette.... "Misfortunes, tragedies, date from then. The worst is--I must confess it--I was the cause of them!"
"What do you mean by that?" interrupted Commandant Dumoulin.
"I mean to say that if Captain Brocq died by an a.s.sa.s.sin"s hand, the blame is mine!... I mean to say that if a confidential doc.u.ment disappeared from his rooms, it is because I took it!... I was his mistress!... I am responsible for his death!"
There was a gasping silence: the sensation was intense. Juve, half hidden behind the cast-iron stove, alone remained unmoved.
Bobinette continued:
"My evil genius, gentlemen, was a bandit of the worst kind: you know him under the name of Vagualame. Vagualame, agent of the Second Bureau, and officially a counter-spy. Quite so. But, gentlemen, Vagualame was equally spying on France, a traitor in the pay of a foreign power: worse still, he it was who a.s.sa.s.sinated Captain Brocq: you know he was the murderer of the singer, Nichoune!...
"This Vagualame made of me his thing, his slave! Alas! I cannot pretend that it was under the perpetual menace from this monster I became a traitor! I have so many betrayals that must count against me: betrayal of my country, betrayal of Captain Brocq"s love for me! I robbed him in every kind of way: I stole the doc.u.ment referring to the mobilisation scheme: I stole his money--bank-notes--with the excuse that it was to put the police on the wrong scent and make them believe it was an ordinary burglary.
"These notes, gentlemen, were found in the possession of the unfortunate Jerome Fandor. It seems they const.i.tute an overwhelming charge against him. Know then, that after having been stolen by my hands they were given to Jerome Fandor by one of our agents, for the purpose of compromising the false Corporal Vinson.... But if I have acted thus, it was not so much through a desire for the money they gave me for my treachery, not so much for the fallacious promises of eventual riches which Vagualame was always trying to dazzle me with--it was through rancour, spite, hate, it was through love!"
Maitre Durul-Burton rose and, bending towards the half-fainting Bobinette, cried:
"Speak, speak, Mademoiselle!"
Bobinette went on slowly:
"Through love--yes. And it is an avowal which touches me nearly, wounds me in the depths of my soul, in my most intimate thoughts....
"Yes, I have given away to the vile suggestions of Vagualame, if I have let myself be drawn by him into horrible by-paths of spying and treason, it is owing to the spite and rage of an unrequited love, of an intense pa.s.sion, intense beyond expression, which I have felt for a man--a man whose heart was given to another--for the betrothed of Mademoiselle de Naarboveck--for Lieutenant Henri de Lou----"
The colonel-president, with a brusque gesture, interrupted this confession.
"Enough, Mademoiselle ... enough!... You are not to mention names here!... Be good enough to continue your deposition only as it relates to facts connected with spying."
Bobinette then recounted how she had consented to hide the famous gun piece brought to her one day by Vagualame; how she had helped the bandit to concoct the daring plan by which this piece was to be handed to a foreign power; how she had disguised herself as a priest in order to take Corporal Vinson to Dieppe. She did not know, at first, that she was dealing with Jerome Fandor. Enlightenment came through Vagualame"s telegram. She only then realised that the traitor Vinson and the soldier in her company were two distinct persons.
"And," cried she, "who killed the real Corporal Vinson but a few days ago in the rue du Cherche-Midi? I know. It was the murderer of Captain Brocq, the murderer of the singer, Nichoune--it was Vagualame ...
Vagualame!" Bobinette was working herself up to a paroxysm of exasperation, shouting out her revelations like an apostle who means to convince, shouting his convictions as a martyr might at the worst moment of her anguish.
"Vagualame? You ask who he is, and you search among the thieves, the receivers of stolen goods and light-fingered gentry, you search among the secret agents, among that low unclean crowd which gravitates to your Staff Offices and circulates about them, forever on the watch, on the prowl to surprise some secret, to buy over some conscience, to sell and bargain over some purloined doc.u.ment!... Look higher than that, gentlemen--much higher! Look higher than the Staff Offices, than the leaders in the political world, than members of the Government, even--fix your attention on the accredited representatives of foreign powers."...
Bobinette was unable to continue.... Commandant Dumoulin had been too excited to remain in his seat. He rushed towards the witness, who was making what he considered to be wild and outrageous statements: he put his big hand over her mouth, effectually silencing her....
The commandant turned to the colonel, shouting:
"Colonel! Monsieur the president!... I demand that this case be now heard in camera! Such accusations must not be heard in public!... I beg you to order that the rest of this case be heard behind closed doors!"
The counsel for the defence rose in his turn, and in a calm tone, which contrasted with the violence of Commandant Dumoulin, declared:
"I am in agreement with this demand, Monsieur the President.... Will you order that the further hearing of this case be in camera?"
Here Commandant Dumoulin, to whom Lieutenant Servin had made a suggestion, intervened anew:
"Monsieur the President, gentlemen, having regard to the grave declarations made by this witness, I require her immediate arrest!"
Hardly had this demand been voiced when a loud cry rang out, electrifying the whole court. Bobinette had swallowed the contents of a small phial hidden in her m.u.f.f!
Juve, guessing Bobinette"s intention, had rushed to her, but, in spite of his rapid action, he reached her only in time to receive the fainting girl in his arms.
"She has poisoned herself!" shouted Juve.
The public broke bounds, knocked over chairs and benches, rolled in a surge of excited curiosity to the very feet of the Council of War, crowding round this fresh centre of interest--Bobinette!
Fandor was too stunned by the avalanche of incidents to move.