第51章 ARSENIC A LA BRETONNE(8)

Several witnesses, interrupted by denials and explanations from the accused, testified to having heard Helene say that neither the Rabot boy nor his mother would recover.

The evidence of M.Roussell, of the Bout-du-Monde hotel, touched on the illnesses of his mother and Perrotte.He knew nothing of the food prepared by Helene; nor had the idea of poison occurred to him until her arrest.Helene's detestable character, her quarrels with other servants, and, above all, the thefts of wine he had found her out in were the sole causes of her dismissal.He had noticed that Helene never ate with the other domestics.She always found an excuse for not doing so.She said she had stomach trouble and could not hold down her food.

The Veuve Roussell had to be helped into court by her son.She dealt with her own illness and with the death of Perrotte.Her illness did not come on until she had scolded Helene for her bad ways.

Dr Revault, confrere of Guyot, regretted the failure to perform a post- mortem on the body of Perrotte.He had said to Roussell that if Perrotte's illness was analogous to cholera it was, nevertheless, not that disease.He believed it was due to a poison.

The President: Chemical analysis has proved the presence of arsenic in the viscera of Perrotte.Who administered that arsenic, the existence of which was so shrewdly foreseen by the witness? Who gave her the arsenic? Do you know?Was it not you that gave it her, Helene?''

At this Helene murmured something unintelligible, but, gathering her voice, she protested, I have never had arsenic in my hands, Monsieur le President--never!''

Something of light relief was provided by Jean Andre, the cabinet- making ostler of Saint-Gilles, he for whose attention Helene had been a rival with Perrotte Mace.

The service Helene gave was excellent.So was mine.She nursed Perrotte perfectly, but said it was in vain, because the doctors were mishandling the disease.She told me one day that she was tired of service, and that her one wish was to retire.''

Did you attach a certain idea to the confidence about retiring?''

No!'' Andre replied energetically.

You were in hospital.When you came back, did Helene take good care of you?''

She gave me bouillon every morning to build me up.''

The bouillon she gave you did you no harm?''

On the contrary, it did me a lot of good.''

Wasn't the accused jealous of Perrotte--that good-looking girl who gave you so much of her favour?''

In her life Perrotte was a good girl.She never was out of sorts for a moment--never rubbed one the wrong way.''

Didn't Helene say to you that Perrotte would never recover?''

Yes, she said that.`She's a lost woman,' she said; `the doctors are going the wrong way with the disease.'

All the same,'' Andre went on, Helene never ate with us.She worked night and day, but ate in secret, I believe.Anyhow, a friend of mine told me he'd once seen her eating a crust of bread, and chewing some other sort of food at the same time.As for me--I don't know; but I don't think you can live without eating.''

I couldn't keep down what I ate,'' Helene interposed.I took some bouillon here and there; sometimes a mouthful of bread--nothing in secret.I never thought of Andre in marriage--not him more than another.That was all a joke.''

A number of witnesses, friends of Perrotte, who had seen her during her illness, spoke of the extreme dislike the girl had shown for Helene and for the liquids the latter prepared for her.Perrotte would say to Helene,But you're dirty, you ugly Bretonne!''Perrotte had a horror of bouillon:

Ah--these vegetable soups! I've had enough of them! It was what Helene gave me that night that made me ill!'' The witnesses did not understand all this, because the accused seemed to be very good to her fellow-servant.At the bedside Helene cried, Ah! What can I do that will save you, my poor Perrotte?'' When Perrotte was dying she wanted to ask Helene's pardon.Embracing the dying girl, the accused replied,Ah! There's no need for that, my poor Perrotte.I know you didn't mean anything.''

A witness telling of soup Helene had made for Perrotte, which the girl declared to have been poisoned, it was asked what happened to the remainder of it.The President passed the question to Helene, who said she had thrown it into the hearth.

The most complete and important testimony in the trial was given byM.Theophile Bidard, professor to the law faculty of Rennes.

The facts he had to bring forward, he said, had taken no significance in his mind until the last of them transpired.He would have to go back into the past to trace them in their proper order.

He recalled the admission of Helene to his domestic staff and the good recommendations on which he had engaged her.From the first Helene proved herself to have plenty of intelligence, and he had believed that her intelligence was combined with goodness of heart.This was because he had heard that by her work she was supporting two small children, as well as her poor old mother, who had no other means of sustenance.

(The reader will recollect that Helene was orphaned at the age of seven.)Nevertheless, said M.Bidard, Helene was not long in his household before her companion, Rose Tessier, began to suffer in plenty from the real character of Helene Jegado.

Rose had had a fall, an accident which had left her with pains in her back.There were no very grave symptoms but Helene prognosticated dire results.One night, when the witness was absent in the country, Helene rose from her bed, and, approaching her fellow-servant's room,called several times in a sepulchral voice, Rose, Rose!''That poor girl took fright, and hid under the bedclothes, trembling.

Next day Rose complained to witness, who took his domestics to task.Helene pretended it was the farm-boy who had perpetrated the bad joke.She then declared that she herself had heard some one give a loud knock.

I thought,'' she said, that I was hearing the call for poor Rose.''