danger, their hearts were broken, so they said. In a word, I've
never seduced an innocent girl. I swear it! Am I therefore to blame
for the emotional sorrows of this young woman, who went out of her
mind? On the contrary, mayn't I count it a virtue that I shrank in
horror from the step that brought about her fall? Who'll cast the
first stone at me? No one! Then I mistake my listeners. Indeed, I
thought I might be an object of scorn, if I were to plead here for
my masculine innocence! Now, however, I feel young again; and
there's something for which I'd like to ask mankind's forgiveness.
If it weren't that I happened to see a cynical smile on the lips of
the woman who seduced me when I was young. Come forward, woman, and
look upon your work of destruction. Observe, how the seed has
grown!

WOMAN (coming forward with dignity and modesty). It was I! Let me
be heard, and let me tell the simple story of my seduction.
(Pause.) Luckily my seducer is here, too. ...

MAGISTRATE. Friends! I must break off the proceedings; otherwise
we'll get back to Eve in Paradise.

TEMPTER. Who was Adam's seducer! That's just where we want to get
back to. Eve! Come forward, Eve. Eve! (He waves his cloak in the
air. The trunk of the tree becomes transparent and EVE appears,
wrapped in her hair and with a girdle about her loins.) Now, Mother
Eve, it was you who seduced our father. You are the accused: what
have you to say in your defence?

EVE (simply and with dignity). The serpent tempted me!