The Hour of the Pig Page #2

---

was disturbed

in the act of theft...

and in the struggle which followed,

his drunken skull

banged against the hearth...

and he expired.

The accused

had nothing to gain...

and everything to lose

from the death of a scoundrel.

It is your privilege now,

gentlemen, to set him free.

It is in

your capable hands.

So avowed

on the part of Valliere.

Not as sharp as you thought,

the famous Pincheon.

I owe you my life, monseigneur.

I won't forget it.

They had a bad case.

The maitre did his best with it.

No, they'd have strung me up

if you'd not been here...

and all for that bastard!

I should've done him

years ago.

Anything you ever want,

Maitre, ask for Valliere.

- Mathieu, do you think, uh--

- Yes, Maitre.

That the man really screwed his wife,

that little church mouse?

I gather the deceased

screwed quite a few wives...

including those of several members

of the judiciary.

''Just country gossip.''

- We should see the witch.

They could burn her.

- They hang them here.

Where is your glory,

Babylon?

Where is now Nebuchadnezzar?

Where the evil doers of times past?

The death by hanging only this

past month of Roger Landrier...

and the miraculous reprieve

of his own she-ass by the grace of God.

See how worms devour

the fair Absalom.

Her flesh was soft.

But alas, her belly...

- gapes with the cruel wounds of death.

- ##[ Man Chanting ]

##[ Chanting Continues ]

- What is it?

- Oh, the poor little boy.

The blood on him!

What happened?

- Must've had a bad fall.

He looked terrible.

- He looked dead.

LittleJewish boy.

Shame, though.

- How do you know he was Jewish?

- The mother.

White circle on the breast.

They make them wear it.

- How long have we been here, Mathieu?

- All of five days, Maitre.

The devil's mark,

Maitre.

You see?

The third nipple.

- The witch's teat.

- I was a wet-nurse, monseigneur.

That was a birth mark before you stuck

your damn needles in it.

And you keep her naked,

do you, like an animal?

She's pricked twice a day,

Maitre.

In cases of witchery,

evidence may be obtained by duress...

and the prisoner

will be stripped for the ordeal.

Labatier says I've got tits

like a milk cow.

Labatier, you're not

an officer of the Inquisition.

You've no right.

Oh, yes.

I'm a licensed pricker.

Loose her...

and bring her clothes now.

Yes,

I suckled Lucifer.

But since then I've tasted

of the blood of Christ

from his five wounds.

You don't have to talk to me like that.

I want her dressed now.!

I'm not with them.

Do you understand?

Put down:
The body

is badly marked...

there are signs of torture

in the second and third degree.

Maitre, I flew on beams

and kissed the devil's ass...

- and I'll be hanged for it.

- No.

Church has made you excommunicate,

and passed you over to the civil court.

The court is not concerned

with witchery.

What you're accused of is maleficium:

that your witchery

caused injury to your neighbors.

It's not a civil offense

to do magic.

- You understand?

- I helped them.

When the women

couldn't stop their bleeding...

- or when the children were dying--

- You put a curse on your neighbor...

- Jehan Lours.

- He pulled down my fence!

- Caused him to be impotent.

- He hadn't had it up for years!

Well, that counts as injury.

And you ''procured and suborned rats...

to bite and infectJehan Perrinot

so that he died of a fatal miasma.''

It was the falling sickness.

Everybody knows that.

Well, that's the charge

we have to worry about.

If I can get you clear

of the business with the rats,

you'll confess to the other counts.

- They're not capital.

- I done no harm.

Trust me, it's an arrangement.

It's how we do it.

I'm going to tell you

what you have to say.

You've another one come in, Maitre:

a child killer.

- Murdered a littleJewish boy.

- Murder, was it?

The worst, Maitre.

- Let's see him.

- Her, Maitre.

I'll take you

to her.

- What is this?

- Your client, Maitre.

[ Squealing ]

Courtois, are you telling me

you're innocent of this whole process...

- the arraignment of beasts?

- No, sir.

It's just that in the city, I've never

had the occasion to be involved.

Maitre Pincheon,

are you with all this?

Do you go along with being

the learned prosecutor of a pig?

- Do you have witnesses?

- [ Labatier ] Yes.

[ Courtois ]

They saw the child killed?

I gather when the body was found,

a pig was seen running off.

- A sign of its guilt, do you suppose?

- Indeed, Maitre!

You know they keep

the animal in the jail

with the other prisoners?

It's all according

to the book, Maitre:

- same quarters, same food

three times a day.

- Think on it, Courtois.

The animal has to have counsel,

the state pays your fee.

Now, gentlemen--

On the matter of the woman,

the one charged with witchery.

If I can satisfy the court

on the maleficium,

the business with the rats...

- do we have an arrangement?

- If you can disprove the rats...

then I think things would go

better for her on the other counts.

She would lose her land,

of course, and, uh--

What else can I say?

Not a great deal of witchery

in the city either, eh, Courtois?

Have you read the text?

The Ponthieu law

can be rather confounding.

Oh, I think the city lawyer

will adapt, a day at a time, Maitre.

[ Woman ]

Maria? Maria.!

[ Man ]

Excuse us, Maitre.

It's our pig.

They took our pig.

I, I thought

you couldn't, um--

I thought your religion

didn't allow it.

The maitre should not think

we eat only children.

We lost our religion many years ago,

and 1,000 miles away.

I am Mahmoud.

My sister is Samira.

- I can't help you.

- But we go to the court--

- I am not in their employ,

and I don't defend pigs.

- Maitre, this could work if we--

- God preserve us! They can't stay here.

- All right, Mathieu.

Our pig does not run free.

She is tied up all the time.

- Then they come to take her away.

- A black sow, prick ears...

marked on the nether part

of the eye and the mouth.

- Three witnesses saw your pig

by the church.

- They are lying to you.!

- [ Whispering In Arabic ]

- My sister says if it's money...

-she can get some little money.

- I'll bet she can.

Mathieu.! You've lost

your pig, that's all.

Leave the town, go away,

buy another one.

I did not go through all this

to become an advocate for pigs.

Do you want to talk about

the rats now, Maitre?

[ Albertus ] As long as I live,

I'll not believe a woman...

can fly through the air

like a blackbird or a hawk.

And when the poor creature

lies down in her bed to sleep...

the enemy who never sleeps

comes to her side

to call up illusions before her.

He does it so subtlety

that she thinks she does...

what she only dreams

she does.

She might dream she goes for a ride

on a broom or a beam...

but there's neither

broom nor beam can hold her.

Father Ignatius proved there was not

a single case of witchcraft...

in 50 years in Arras

based on any real evidence.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes