hom he had so much
injured, declaring that he could not die in peace without informing the
multitude who were assembled to behold their execution, of a certain
kind of villainy in which he was particularly concerned. He said it was
his custom to watch about the sides of the road which lay near the
woods, and that having a cord with him, he suddenly threw it about the
neck of any passenger who was coming by, and therewith immediately
strangled him before he was aware, or capable of resisting them, and if
at any time there came by several passengers together who demanded what
he did there, he replied that he was sent thither by his master to catch
a cow; and his going in the habit of a peasant gave such an aspect of
truth to the story that he was never suspected.

Though the concourse of people be generally very great, yet the
assembly on this occasion was much larger than ordinary, and those who
were spectators, contrary to the ordinary custom, showed but very little
compassion at the miserable tortures which those wretches endured. On
the contrary, they continually cried out that they should discover what
was become of Perrier and their other accomplice, Masson. These
unfortunate men continued to assert in their last moments that they knew
nothing of either of them, but supposed that, hearing of their
apprehension, they had immediately made their escape, and were retired
as far as they were able from the danger. The people were infinitely
satisfied with the death of these assassins, and nothing was wanting to
complete the triumph of Justice but the apprehension of Perrier and his
associate, to whose adventures it is now time that we return, in order
to display the severe justice of Providence, and the admirable methods
by which it disappoints all the courses that human wit can invent in
order to frustrate its intent.

Masson had hid himself in a village not far from the city of Tours,
where he concealed himself so effectually that the inhabitants had not
the least suspicion of his being a dishonest man. On the contrary, he
applied himself to an honest way of getting his livelihood, and after
sojourning there for a considerable space, he married a young woman,
with the consent of her parents, and seemed to be now established in a
state of peace and security, if it were possible for a guilty soul to
know either security or peace. A trivial accident, in which no man but
Masson would have had a hand, proved the instrument