The trial of Madame Therese Humbert and her presumed accomplices
began last Saturday, and will, it is believed, end next Wednesday. She defends herself with great vigour, but not as yet with much skill, the audience in Court being chiefly amused by the coolness of her assumptions. She affirms that the hundred millions of francs to which she claimed to be heiress exist; that the Crawfords, who were the donors, exist, though they bear another name ; and that she possesses " a secret," which she has communicated to Maitre Labori, her counsel, and which will be revealed on the conclusion of the trial, that will at once prove her innocence. As yet nothing she has brought forward tells in the least in her favour, and one of her admissions has greatly injured her cause. She pledged a property named " Marcotte " for a considerable sum, but she did not know in Court where the property lay, and was only sure of its existence because her father, " who never lied," told her of it. It begins to be believed on the evidence that no others of her family were closely implicated in her pro- ceedings except her brother, Romain d'Aurignac, who in Court gives evidence with cynical hardihood. The Judge, as usual on the Continent, is principal counsel for the prosecution, and keeps asking where " Marcotte " is and where the millions are ; but Maitre Labori, the able counsel who defended Dreyfus, still apparently has a belief in his client's innocence.' One cannot even think of a " secret " which would account either for the existence of the millions or their disappearance from the famous safe.
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