She testified, with simplicity, that riding from Cinq-Cygne and seeing smoke in the park of Gondreville, she had supposed there was a fire; at first she thought they were burning weeds or brush; "but later," she added, "I observed a circumstance which I offer to the attention of the Court.

I found in the frogging of my habit and in the folds of my collar small fragments of what appeared to be burned paper which were floating in the air." "Was there much smoke ?" asked Bordin.
"Yes," replied Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, "I feared a conflagration." "This is enough to change the whole inquiry," remarked Bordin.

"I request the Court to order an immediate examination of that region of the park where the fire occurred." The president ordered the inquiry.
Grevin, recalled by the defence and questioned on this circumstance, declared he knew nothing about it.

But Bordin and he exchanged looks which mutually enlightened them.
"The gist of the case is there," thought the old notary.
"They've laid their finger on it," thought the notary.
But each shrewd head considered the following up of this point useless.
Bordin reflected that Grevin would be silent as the grave; and Grevin congratulated himself that every sign of the fire had been effaced.
To settle this point, which seemed a mere accessory to the trial and somewhat puerile (but which is really essential in the justification which history owes to these young men), the experts and Pigoult, who were despatched by the president to examine the park, reported that they could find no traces of a bonfire.
Bordin summoned two laborers, who testified to having dug over, under the direction of the forester, a tract of ground in the park where the grass had been burned; but they declared they had not observed the nature of the ashes they had buried.
The forester, recalled by the defence, said he had received from the senator himself, as he was passing the chateau of Gondreville on his way to the masquerade at Arcis, an order to dig over that particular piece of ground which the senator had remarked as needing it.
"Had papers, or herbage been burned there ?" "I could not say.

I saw nothing that made me think that papers had been burned there," replied the forester.
"At any rate," said Bordin, "if, as it appears, a fire was kindled on that piece of ground some one brought to the spot whatever was burned there." The testimony of the abbe and that of Mademoiselle Goujet made a favorable impression.