LA BOUZOLE. Well, tell her to come and speak to me, poor woman. That won't upset anybody and it may save her some trouble.
RECORDER. Very well, your worship. [_He goes to the door on the right, makes a sign to old Madame Etchepare, and goes out by the door at the back_]
LA BOUZOLE [_alone_] It's astonishing how benevolent I feel this morning!
_Old Madame Etchepare enters, clad in the costume peculiar to old women of Basque race._
SCENE II:--_La Bouzole, Old Madame Etchepare._
LA BOUZOLE. They tell me, Madame, that you wished to see one of the gentlemen of the Bar.
LA BOUZOLE. You wish to be present at the trial?
OLD MADAME ETCHEPARE. No, sir. I know so well that they cannot condemn my son that what they say in there doesn't interest me in the least. I am waiting for him. I have come because they have turned us out of our house.
OLD MADAME ETCHEPARE. Since they arrested him all our men have left us. We couldn't get in the crops nor pay what was owing. But of course I know they'll make all that good when my son is acquitted.
OLD MADAME ETCHEPARE. I'm so thankful to see the end of all our troubles. He'll come back and get our house and field again for us. He'll make them give up our cattle. That's why I wanted to see one of these gentlemen.
OLD MADAME ETCHEPARE. A fortnight after the gendarmes came to arrest my boy, Monsieur Claudet turned the waste water from his factory into the brook that passes our house where we water the beasts. That was one of the things that ruined us too. If Etchepare finds things like that when he gets back, God knows what he'll do! I want the law to stop them doing us all this harm.
LA BOUZOLE. The law! Ah, my good woman, it would be far better for you to have nothing to do with the law.
OLD MADAME ETCHEPARE. But why? There is justice, and it's for everybody alike.
OLD MADAME ETCHEPARE. Has Monsieur Claudet the right--
OLD MADAME ETCHEPARE. Then I want to ask the judge to stop him.
LA BOUZOLE. It is not so simple as you suppose, Madame. First of all you must go to the bailiff.
LA BOUZOLE. He will declare that your water supply is contaminated.
OLD MADAME ETCHEPARE. There is no need to trouble a bailiff, sir. A child could see that.
LA BOUZOLE. Then you must go to a lawyer and get a judgment.
