According to the accused, the accusation went on, after Boursier's death the two doctors asked that they might be allowed to perform an autopsy, since they were at a loss to explain the sudden illness.This Mme Boursier refused, in spite of the insistence of the doctors.She refused, she said, in the interest of her children.She insisted, indeed, on a quick burial, maintaining that, as her husband had been tres replet, the body would rapidly putrefy, owing to the prevailing heat, and that thus harm would be done to the delicate contents of the epicerie.
Led by rumours of the bluish stains--almost certain indications of a violent death--the authorities, said the accusation, ordered an exhumation and autopsy.Arsenic was found in the body.It was clear that Boursier,ignorant, as he was, of his wife's bad conduct, had not killed himself.This was a point that the widow had vainly attempted, during the process of instruction, to maintain.She declared that one Clap, a friend of her late husband, had come to her one day to say that a certain Charles, a manservant, had remarked to him, Boursier poisoned himself because he was tired of living.'' Called before the Juge d'instruction, Henri Clap and Charles had concurred in denying this.
The accusation maintained that the whole attitude of Mme Boursier proved her a poisoner.As soon as her husband became sick she had taken the dish containing the remains of the rice soup, emptied it into a dirty vessel, and passed water through the dish.Then she had ordered Blin to clean it, which the latter did, scrubbing it out with sand and ashes.
Questioned about arsenic in the house, Mme Boursier said, to begin with, that Boursier had never spoken to her about arsenic, but later admitted that her husband had mentioned both arsenic and mort aux rats to her.
Asked regarding the people who frequented the house she had mentioned all the friends of Boursier, but neglected to speak of Kostolo.Later she had said she never had been intimate with the Greek.But Kostolo, barefaced enough for anything,'' had openly declared the nature of his relations with her.Then Mme Boursier, after maintaining that she had been no more than interested in Kostolo, finding pleasure in his company, had been constrained to confess that she had misconducted herself with the Greek in the dead man's room.She had given Kostolo the run of her purse, the accusation declared, though she denied the fact, insisting that what she had given him had been against his note.There was only one conclusion, however.Mme Boursier, knowing the poverty of her paramour, had paid him as her cicisbeo, squandering upon him her children's patrimony.
The accusation then dealt with the supposed project of marriage, and declared that in it there was sufficient motive for the crime.Kostolo was Mme Boursier's accomplice beyond any doubt.He had acted as nurse to the invalid, administering drinks and medicines to him.He had had full opportunity for poisoning the grocer.Penniless, out of work, it would bea good thing for him if Boursier was eliminated.He had been blatant in his visits to Mme Boursier after the death of the husband.
Then followed the first questioning of the accused.
Mme Boursier said she had kept tryst with Kostolo in the Champs- Elysees.She admitted having been to his lodgings once.On the mention of the name of Mlle Riene, a mistress of Kostolo's, she said that the woman was partly in their confidence.She had gone with Mlle Riene twice to Kostolo's rooms.Once, she admitted, she had paid a visit to Versailles with Kostolo unknown to her husband.
Asked if her husband had had any enemies, Mme Boursier said she knew of none.
The questioning of Kostolo drew from him the admission that he had had a number of mistresses all at one time.He made no bones about his relations with them, nor about his relations with Mme Boursier.He was quite blatant about it, and seemed to enjoy the show he was putting up.Having airily answered a question in a way that left him without any reputation, he would sweep the court with his eyes, preening himself like a peacock.
He was asked about a journey Boursier had proposed making.At what time had Boursier intended making the trip?
Before his death,'' Kostolo replied.
The answer was unintentionally funny, but the Greek took credit for the amusement it created in court.He conceived himself a humorist, and the fact coloured all his subsequent answers.
Kostolo said that he had called to see Boursier on the first day of his illness at three in the afternoon.He himself had insisted on helping to nurse the invalid.Mme Boursier had brought water, and he had given it to the sick man.
After Boursier's death he had remarked on the blueness of the fingernails.It was a condition he had seen before in his own country, on the body of a prince who had died of poison, and the symptoms of whose illness had been very like those in Boursier's.He had then suspected that Boursier had died of poisoning.
The loud murmurs that arose in court upon his blunt confession ofhaving misconducted himself with Mme Boursier fifteen days after her husband's death seemed to evoke nothing but surprise in Kostolo.He was then asked if he had proposed marriage to Mme Boursier after Boursier's death.
What!'' he exclaimed, with a grin.Ask a woman with five children to marry me--a woman I don't love?''
Upon this answer Kostolo was taken to task by the President of the court.M.Hardouin pointed out that Kostolo lived with a woman who kept and fed him, giving him money, but that at the same time he was taking money from Mme Boursier as her lover, protesting the while that he loved her.What could the Greek say in justification of such conduct?
Excuse me, please, everybody,'' Kostolo replied, unabashed.I don't know quite how to express myself, but surely what I have done is quite the common thing? I had no means of living but from what Mme Boursier gave me.''
