missing man was supposed to be? Was it likely that the old servant, that
the four sisters, his uncle Pierre, many persons to whom he had related
facts known only to himself, that all the community in short, would have
recognised him? And even the very intrigue suspected by Bertrande, which
had aroused her jealous anger, this very intrigue, if it really existed,
was it not another proof of the verity of his claim, since the person
concerned, as interested and as penetrating as the legitimate wife; had
also accepted him as her former lover? Surely here was a mass of
evidence sufficient to cast light on the case. Imagine an impostor
arriving for the first time in a place where all the inhabitants are
unknown to him, and attempting to personate a man who had dwelt there,
who would have connections of all kinds, who would have played his part
in a thousand different scenes, who would have confided his secrets, his
opinions, to relations, friends, acquaintances, to all sorts of people;
who had also a wife--that is to say, a person under whose eyes nearly his
whole life would be passed, a person would study him perpetually, with
whom he would be continually conversing on every sort of subject. Could
such an impostor sustain his impersonation for a single day, without his
memory playing him false? From the physical and moral impossibility of
playing such a part, was it not reasonable to conclude that the accused,
who had maintained it for more than two years, was the true Martin
Guerre?

There seemed, in fact, to be nothing which could account for such an
attempt being successfully made unless recourse was had to an accusation
of sorcery. The idea of handing him over to the ecclesiastical
authorities was briefly discussed, but proofs were necessary, and the
judges hesitated. It is a principle of justice, which has become a
precept in law, that in cases of uncertainty the accused has the benefit
of the doubt; but at the period of which we are writing, these truths