"But _I_ know _you_!" she cried in a hoarse voice that carried to the farthest corner. "_You are the real cause of the murder!_"
In a moment the audience was on its feet.
"I! I!" cried the blackmailer, stepping back with well-feigned astonishment while the usher hammered at his desk and shouted for order. But even the President was too much absorbed in the sudden dramatic development to heed the excitement in the court.
"Yes, _you_!" she repeated, stabbing at him with her stiff forefinger. "You found out that I was married and that I had left my husband, and you advised Laroque to find him and ask him for the money that I brought him on my marriage!"
M. Perissard had been in many a tight place--in many a situation where self-possession and nerve had saved him--and he quickly recovered from the shock of the denunciation. Ignoring the excitement that had upset the decorum of the court he turned to the President and said suavely:
"M. the President, Laroque told me during our conversation that his wife had had typhoid fever Hast year and that her brain had suffered."
But the woman was not to be silenced by such a trick.
"I nearly died last year, and my head was shaved," she said, slowly, turning and looking straight at Floriot, who was watching her with grief-stricken eyes. "That is why those who used to know me cannot recognize me now!"
Floriot hid his face in his hands and shuddered. Noel, white-faced, was gripping the railing in front of him with both hands.
"But I am not mad!" she cried, her voice rising to a shrill note as she faced Perissard once more. "I begged and prayed Laroque not to follow your hateful advice, and he refused to listen to me. As I would not run the risk of his seeing and speaking to my son, _I killed him_!"
Muttered imprecations and half-smothered exclamations of anger swept through the court, and the throng heaved forward against the railings. Raymond sprang up into the dock and with one arm around the woman's waist and the other resting on the arm nearest him, he gently forced her down into her chair once more. The usher pounded his desk and the gendarmes struggled to push the crowd back from the railing. It was several minutes before order was restored, but the President, hastily consulting his confrères on the bench, paid no heed.