(Gertrude
returns) Champagne, you are at liberty. (General expression of
satisfaction.) But you see, my friend, to what painful suspicions a
man exposes himself when his home has a bad name.
Champagne
Ask the General, your Honor, if I am not mild as a lamb; but my wife,
God forgive her, was the worst that was ever made. An angel could not
have stood her. If I have sometimes tried to bring her to reason, the
anxious moments you have made me pass here, have been punishment
enough! To be taken up for a prisoner, and to know yourself innocent,
while you are in the hands of justice. (Weeps.)
The General
Well! well! You are acquitted now!
Napoleon
Papa, what is justice?
The General
Gentlemen, justice ought not to commit errors of this kind.
Gertrude
There seems to be always something fatal in this justice! And this
poor man will always bear a bad name from your arrival here.
Ramel
Madame, for the innocent there is nothing fatal in criminal justice.
You see that Champagne has been promptly discharged. (Fixing his eyes
upon Gertrude.) Those who live without reproach, who indulge no
passions, save the noble and the lawful, have nothing to fear from
justice.
Gertrude
Sir, you do not know the people of this country. Ten years from this
time they will say that Champagne poisoned his wife, that the officers
of justice came to investigate and, but for our protection--
The General
Say no more, Gertrude.
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