apprehensive; she began to fear the worst. At length--the widow
always had an itch for writing--she determined to communicate at all
costs with Gaudry and invoke his aid. She wrote appealing to him to
come forward and admit that he was the man the police were seeking, for
sheltering whom she had been thrown into prison. She drew a harrowing
picture of her sufferings in jail. She had refused food and been
forcibly fed; she would like to dash her head against the walls. If any
misfortune overtake Gaudry, she promises to adopt his son and leave him
a third of her property. She persuaded a fellow-prisoner; an Italian
dancer undergoing six months' imprisonment for theft, who was on the
point of being released, to take the letter and promise to deliver it to
Gaudry at Saint Denis. On her release the dancer told her lover of her
promise. He refused to allow her to mix herself up in such a case, and
destroyed the letter. Then the dancer blabbed to others, until her story
reached the ears of the police. Mace sent for her. At first she could
remember only that the name Nathalis occurred in the letter, but after
visiting accidentally the Cathedral at Saint Denis, she recollected that
this Nathalis lived there, and worked in an oil factory. It was easy
after this for the police to trace Gaudry. He was arrested. At his
house, letters from the widow were found, warning him not to come to her
apartment, and appointing to meet him in Charonne Cemetery. Gaudry made
a full confession. It was his passion for the widow, and a promise on
her part to marry him, which, he said, had induced him to perpetrate so
abominable a crime. He was sent to the Mazas Prison.

In the meantime the Widow Gras was getting more and more desperate.
Her complete ignorance tormented her. At last she gave up all hope, and
twice attempted suicide with powdered glass and verdigris. On May 12 the
examining magistrate confronted her with Gaudry. The man told his story,
the widow feigned surprise that the "friend of her childhood" should
malign her so cruelly. But to her desperate appeals Gaudry would only
reply, "It is too late!" They were sent for trial.

The trial of the widow and her accomplice opened before the Paris Assize
Court on July 23, 1877, and lasted three days. The widow was defended by
Lachaud, one of the greatest criminal advocates of France, the defender
of Madame Lafarge, La Pommerais, Troppmann, and Marshal Bazaine. M.
Demange (famous later for his d