ed. But he was not safe. The Supreme Court cancelled the
decision of the inferior one, and announced that he was to stand his
trial for murder.

As public feeling ran high, and it was felt that an impartial jury
could not have been secured in Paris, the trial was held at Rouen. The
date was March 26, 1846. Attracted by the special circumstances of
the case, the court was crowded.

"Nearly all those who were present," says Claudin, "belonged to the
world of the boulevards." Albert Vandam was among the spectators; and
with him for a companion was a much more distinguished person, Gustave
Flaubert.

V

All being in readiness, and the stage set for the drama that was about
to be unfolded, the judges, in the traditional red robes, took their
seats, with M. Letendre de Tourville as president of the Court. M.
Salveton, the public prosecutor, and M. Rieff, the advocate-general,
represented the Government; and Maitre Berryer and M. Leon Duval
appeared respectively on behalf of the accused and the dead man's
mother and sister.

As it had been suggested that de Beauvallon had purposely arrived late
on the ground, in order to have some preliminary practice, he was told
to give an account of his movements of the morning of the duel.

"I got up at seven o'clock," he said, "and went downstairs with the
pistols which had been waiting for me at the concierge's when I
returned home on the previous evening."

"The concierge remembers nothing of that," interrupted M. Duval. "This
is a fresh fact. We must certainly consider it. What happened next?"

"I went off in a cab to M. d'Ecquevillez, and handed the pistols to
him. At half-past ten I returned home, to wait for my seconds. We
arrived on the ground at half-past eleven. M. de Boignes received us
coldly, with his hands in his pockets, and said: 'You do well to keep
us waiting like this for you. Name of God! this isn't a summer
morning. We think there is not sufficient motive to fight a duel.' I
answered frigidly, but politely, that I did not agree with him, and
that I was in the hands of my seconds."

"But one of them, M. de Flers," remarked the President, "thought the
quarrel trifling and said so. Another thing. Why did M. d'Ecquevillez
tell us that the pistols belonged to him? Remember, he has given us
details as to where he got them."

"I ignore details," was the lofty response.

"If you do, we don't," returned the judge.

A vigorous denial was made by de Beauvallon t