320 THE IMAGE OF WAR 



careful to specify what animals are protected by this 

 section. On the list of these we do not find the 

 badger any more than the wolf, the boar, or the fox. 

 Who does not know that the badger is a noxious 

 animal ? The man who kills one in the wine districts 

 is a public benefactor." He then quoted statutes and 

 precedents, and went on to the second charge. " My 

 client is also accused of causing game to be trans- 

 ported. But I have already quoted the section 

 defining what is game, and shown that the word 

 ' badger ' does not occur there." After some more 

 precedents he wound up by adjuring the court to 

 dismiss me "without a stain upon my character." 



I certainly did not see how they could do other- 

 wise, and so I was considerably surprised when the 

 president said, "The court will reserve its decision." 



About a week afterwards I received a note from my 

 avocat. I was pronounced guilty and sentenced to a 

 fine of one hundred francs on the first charge, and to a 

 fine of fifty francs on the second charge, and also to 

 pay all costs of the suit. Three £5 notes (which was 

 about what it all came to) were, I admit, an object to 

 me in those days — indeed, they still are — but I can 

 honestly say that it was not the money that influ- 

 enced the decision I came to, but the feeling that 

 the whole thing was a "do," and would never have 

 happened to a native, and, above all, the natural 

 British sensation that I had not had a fair trial, 

 because, whatever element of doubt the complicated 

 code might have involved the first charge in, the 

 second was absolutely clear. My mind was soon 

 made up. Within twenty-fours of receiving the letter 



I had left F , without making a P. P.O. call on 



my friend the Brigadier. A couple of hours later I 



