La clique dorée. English
Page 33
XXXIII.
The magistrate from Saigon saw his hopes fulfilled, and, thanks to hispromotion, was commissioned to continue the trial which he had so ablycommenced. After the jury had brought in their verdict of guilty, hesentenced Justin Chevassat, alias Maxime de Brevan, to penal servitudefor life.
Crochard, surnamed Bagnolet, got off with twenty years; and the twoChevassats escaped with ten years' solitary confinement.
The trial of Thomas Elgin, which came on during the same term, revealeda system of swindling which was so strikingly bold and daring, that itappeared at first sight almost incredible. It excited especial surprisewhen it was found out that he had issued false shares, which he madeCount Ville-Handry buy in, so as to ruin, by the same process, the countas an individual, and the company over which he presided. He was sentfor twenty years to the penitentiary.
These scandalous proceedings had one good result. They saved the poorcount; but they revealed, at the same time, such prodigious unfitnessfor business, that people began to suspect how dependent he must havebeen on his first wife, Henrietta's mother. He remained, however,relatively poor. They had made Thomas Elgin refund, and had evenobtained possession of Sarah Brandon's fortune; but the count was calledupon to make amends for his want of business capacity. When he hadsatisfied all his creditors, and handed over to his daughter a part ofher maternal inheritance, he had hardly more than six thousand dollars ayear left.
Of the whole "band," Mrs. Brian alone escaped.
Malgat, having surrendered to justice with the prescribed limits of timeto purge himself, was tried, and the whole process begun anew. But thetrial was naturally a mere form. His own lawyer had very little tosay. The state attorney himself made his defense. After having fullyexplained the circumstances which had led the poor cashier to permita crime, rather than to commit it himself, the attorney said to thejury,--
"Now, gentlemen, that you have learned what was the wrong of which he isguilty, you ought also to know how he has expiated his crime.
"When he left the miserable woman who had ruined him, maddened by grief,and determined to end his life, Malgat went home. There he found hissister.
"She was one of those women who have religiously preserved the domesticvirtues of our forefathers, and who know of no compromise in questionsof honor.
"She had soon forced her brother to confess his fatal secret, and,overcoming the horror she naturally felt, she found words, inspiredby her excellent heart, which moved him, and led him to reconsider hisresolve. She told him that suicide was but an additional crime, and thathe was in honor bound to live, so that he might make amends, and restorethe money he had stolen."
"Hope began to rise once more in his heart, and filled him withunexpected energy. And yet what obstacles he had to encounter! How couldhe ever hope to return four hundred thousand francs. How should he goabout to earn so much money? and where? How could he do anything, nowthat he was compelled to live in concealment?
"Do you know, gentlemen, what this sister did in her almost sublimedevotion? She had a moderate income from state bonds; she sold themall, and carried the proceeds to the president of the Mutual DiscountSociety, begging him to be patient as to the remainder, and promisingthat he should be repaid, capital and interest alike. She asked fornothing but secrecy; and he pledged himself to secrecy.
"And from that day, gentlemen of the jury, the brother and the sisterhave lived like the poorest laborers, working incessantly, and denyingthemselves everything but what was indispensable for life itself.
"And this day, gentlemen, Malgat owes nothing to the society; he haspaid everything. He fell once; but he has risen again. And this placein court, where he now sits as a prisoner, will become to him a place ofhonor, in which he will recover his position in society, and his honor."
Malgat was acquitted.
The marriage of Henrietta, Countess Ville-Handry, and Lieut. DanielChampcey, was celebrated at the Church of St. Clothilda. Daniel'sgroomsmen were Malgat and the old chief surgeon of the frigate"Conquest." Several persons noticed that the bride wore, contrary tousage, a dress of embroidered muslin. It was the robe which Henriettahad so often covered with her tears, at the time when, having no breadfor the morrow, she had tried to live by the work of her hands. Malgathad hunted it up, and bought it: the precious dress was his wedding-gift.