“Why should this good, simple, religious man have killed little children, and the very children whom he seemed to love the most, whom he spoiled and stuffed with sweet things, for whom he spent half his salary in buying toys and bonbons?

“One must consider him insane to believe him guilty of this act.  Now, Moiron seemed so normal, so quiet, so rational and sensible that it seemed impossible to adjudge him insane.

“However, the proofs kept growing!  In none of the candies that were bought at the places where the schoolmaster secured his provisions could the slightest trace of anything suspicious be found.

“He then insisted that an unknown enemy must have opened his cupboard with a false key in order to introduce the glass and the needles into the eatables.  And he made up a whole story of an inheritance dependent on the death of a child, determined on and sought by some peasant, and promoted thus by casting suspicions on the schoolmaster.  This brute, he claimed, did not care about the other children who were forced to die as well.

“The story was possible.  The man appeared to be so sure of himself and in such despair that we should undoubtedly have acquitted him, notwithstanding the charges against him, if two crushing discoveries had not been made, one after the other.

“The first one was a snuffbox full of crushed glass; his own snuffbox, hidden in the desk where he kept his money!

“He explained this new find in an acceptable manner, as the ruse of the real unknown criminal.  But a mercer from Saint-Marlouf came to the presiding judge and said that a gentleman had several times come to his store to buy some needles; and he always asked for the thinnest needles he could find, and would break them to see whether they pleased him.  The man was brought forward in the presence of a dozen or more persons, and immediately recognized Moiron.  The inquest revealed that the schoolmaster had indeed gone into Saint-Marlouf on the days mentioned by the tradesman.

“I will pass over the terrible testimony of children on the choice of dainties and the care which he took to have them eat the things in his presence, and to remove the slightest traces.

“Public indignation demanded capital punishment, and it became more and more insistent, overturning all objections.

“Moiron was condemned to death, and his appeal was rejected.  Nothing was left for him but the imperial pardon.  I knew through my father that the emperor would not grant it.

“One morning, as I was working in my study, the visit of the prison almoner was announced.  He was an old priest who knew men well and understood the habits of criminals.  He seemed troubled, ill at ease, nervous.  After talking for a few minutes about one thing and another, he arose and said suddenly:  ’If Moiron is executed, monsieur, you will have put an innocent man to death.’

“Then he left without bowing, leaving me behind with the deep impression made by his words.  He had pronounced them in such a sincere and solemn manner, opening those lips, closed and sealed by the secret of confession, in order to save a life.