e Bompard was taken to prison. There
she soon recovered her spirits, which had at no time been very gravely
depressed by her critical situation.

According to Eyraud's letters, if anyone knew anything about Gouffe's
murder, it was Gabrielle Bompard; according to the woman's statement,
it was Eyraud, and Eyraud alone, who had committed it. As they were both
liars--the woman perhaps the greater liar of the two--their statements
are not to be taken as other than forlorn attempts to shift the blame on
to each other's shoulders.

Before extracting from their various avowals, which grew more complete
as time went on, the story of the crime, let us follow Eyraud in his
flight from justice, which terminated in the May of 1890 by his arrest
in Havana.

Immediately after the arrest of Gabrielle, two French detectives set out
for America to trace and run down if possible her deserted lover. For
more than a month they traversed Canada and the United States in search
of their prey. The track of the fugitive was marked from New York to San
Francisco by acts of thieving and swindling. At the former city he had
made the acquaintance of a wealthy Turk, from whom, under the pretence
of wishing to be photographed in it, he had borrowed a magnificent
oriental robe. The photograph was taken, but Eyraud forgot to return the
costly robe.

At another time he was lodging in the same house as a young American
actor, called in the French accounts of the incident "Sir Stout."
To "Sir Stout" Eyraud would appear to have given a most convincing
performance of the betrayed husband; his wife, he said, had deserted him
for another man; he raved and stormed audibly in his bedroom, deploring
his fate and vowing vengeance. These noisy representations so impressed
"Sir Stout" that, on the outraged husband declaring himself to be a
Mexican for the moment without funds, the benevolent comedian lent him
eighty dollars, which, it is almost needless to add, he never saw
again. In narrating this incident to the French detectives, "Sir Stout"
describes Eyraud's performance as great, surpassing even those of
Coquelin.

Similar stories of theft and debauchery met the detectives at every
turn, but, helped in a great measure by the publicity the American
newspapers gave to the movements of his pursuers, Eyraud was able to
elude them, and in March they returned to France to concert further
plans for his capture.

Eyraud had gone to Mexico. From there he had wri