第50章 ARSENIC A LA BRETONNE(7)

M.Ozanne said that Helene, in his house, drank eau de vie in secret, and, to conceal her thefts, filled the bottle up with cider.He discovered the trick, and reproached Helene for it.She denied the accusation with vigour, and angrily announced her intention of leaving.Mme Ozanne took pity on Helene, and told her she might remain several days longer.On the Tuesday following the young child became ill.The illness seemed to be a fleeting one, and the father and mother thought he had recovered.On the Saturday, however, the boy was seized by vomiting, and the parents wondered if they should send for the doctor.If the word was mine,'' said Helene, who had the boy on her knees, and the child as ill as he looks, I should not hesitate.'' The doctor was sent for about noon on Sunday.He thought it only a slight illness.Towards evening the child began to complain of pain all over his body.His handsand feet were icy cold.His body grew taut.About six o'clock the doctor came back.My God!'' he exclaimed.It's the croup!'' He tried to apply leeches, but the boy died within a few minutes.Helene hastened the little body into its shroud.

Helene, said Ozanne, always talked of poison if anyone left their food.

Do you think I'm poisoning you?'' she would ask.

A girl named Cambrai gave evidence that Helene, coming away from the cemetery after the burial of the child, said to her, I am not so sorry about the child.Its parents have treated me shabbily.'' The witness thought Helene too insensitive and reproached her.

That's a lie!'' the accused shouted.I loved the child!''

The doctor, M.Brute, gave evidence next.He still believed the child had died of a croup affection, the most violent he had ever seen.The President questioned him closely on the symptoms he had seen in the child, but the doctor stuck to his idea.He had seen nothing to make him suspect poisoning.

The President: It is strange that in all the cases we have under review the doctors saw nothing at first that was serious.They admit illness and prescribe mild remedies, and then, suddenly, the patients get worse and die.''

M.Victor Rabot was called next.To begin with, he said, Helene's services were satisfactory.He had given her notice because he found her stealing his wine.Upon this Helene showed the greatest discontent, and it was then that Mme Rabot fell ill.A nurse was put in charge of her, but Helene found a way to get rid of her.Helene had no love for his child.The child had a horror of the servant, because she was dirty and took snuff.In consequence Helene had a spite against the boy.Helene had never been seen eating any of the dishes prepared for the family, and even insisted on keeping certain of the kitchen dishes for her own use.

At the request of his father-in-law Helene had gone to get a bottle of violet syrup from the pharmacist.The bottle was not capped.His father-in-law thought the syrup had gone bad, because it was as red as mulberry syrup, and refused to give it to his daughter (Mme Rabot).The bottle was returned to the pharmacist, who remarked that the colour of thesyrup had changed, and that he did not recognize it as his own.

Mme Rabot having corroborated her husband's evidence, and told of Helene's bad temper, thieving, and disorderliness, Dr Vincent Guyot, of Rennes, was called.

Dr Guyot described the illness of the boy Albert and its result.He then went on to describe the illness of Mme Rabot.He and his confreres had attributed her sickness to the fact that she was enceinte, and to the effect of her child's death upon her while in that condition.A miscarriage of a distressing nature confirmed the first prognosis.But later he and his confreres saw reason to change their minds.He believed the boy had been poisoned, though he could not be certain.The mother, he was convinced, had been the victim of an attempt at poisoning, an opinion which found certainty in the case of Mme Briere.If Mme Rabot's pregnancy went some way in explaining her illness there was nothing of this in the illness of her mother.The explanation of everything was in repeated dosing of an arsenical substance.

The witness had also attended Mme Roussell, of the Bout-du-Monde hotel.It was remarkable that the violent sickness to which this lady was subject for twenty days did not answer to treatment, but stopped only when she gave up taking food prepared for her by Helene Jegado.

He had also looked after Perrotte Mace.Here also he had had doubts of the nature of the malady; at one time he had suspected pregnancy, a suspicion for which there were good grounds.But the symptoms that later developed were not consistent with the first diagnosis.When Perrotte died he and M.Revault, his confrere, thought the cause of death would be seen as poison in an autopsy.But the post-mortem was rejected by the parents.His feeling to-day was that Mme Roussell's paralysis was due to arsenical dosage, and that Perrotte had died of poisoning.Helene, speaking to him of Perrotte, had said, She's a chest subject.She'll never get better!'' And she had used the same phrase, never get better,'' with regard to little Rabot.M.Morio, the pharmacist of Rennes from whom the violet syrup was bought, said that Helene had often complained to him about Mme Roussell.During the illness of the Rabot boy she had said that the child was worse than anyone imagined, and that he would neverrecover.In the matter of the violet syrup he agreed it had come back to him looking red.The bottle had been put to one side, but its contents had been thrown away, and he had therefore been unable to experiment with it.He had found since, however, that arsenic in powder form did not turn violet syrup red, though possibly arsenic in solution with boiling water might produce the effect.The change seen in the syrup brought back from M.Rabot's was not to be accounted for by such fermentation as the mere warmth of the hand could bring about.