ed so often, were only
received with a painful incredulity. The fact was that, besides the
singular character which Peytel's appearance, attitude, and talk had
worn ever since the event, there was in his narrative an inexplicable
enigma; its contradictions and impossibilities were such, that calm
persons were revolted at it, and that even friendship itself refused to
believe it."

Thus Mr. Attorney speaks, not for himself alone, but for the whole
French public; whose opinions, of course, he knows. Peytel's statement
is discredited EVERYWHERE; the statement which he had made over the cold
body of his wife--the monster! It is not enough simply to prove that the
man committed the murder, but to make the jury violently angry against
him, and cause them to shudder in the jury-box, as he exposes the horrid
details of the crime.

"Justice," goes on Mr. Substitute (who answers for the feelings of
everybody), "DISTURBED BY THE PRE-OCCUPATIONS OF PUBLIC OPINION,
commenced, without delay, the most active researches. The bodies of the
victims were submitted to the investigations of men of art; the wounds
and projectiles were examined; the place where the event took place
explored with care. The morality of the author of this frightful
scene became the object of rigorous examination; the exigeances of the
prisoner, the forms affected by him, his calculating silence, and his
answers, coldly insulting, were feeble obstacles; and justice at length
arrived, by its prudence, and by the discoveries it made, to the most
cruel point of certainty."

You see that a man's demeanor is here made a crime against him; and that
Mr. Substitute wishes to consider him guilty, because he has actually
the audacity to hold his tongue. Now follows a touching description of
the domestic, Louis Rey:--

"Louis Rey, a child of the Hospital at Lyons, was confided, at a very
early age, to some honest country people, with whom he stayed until he
entered the army. At their house, and during this long period of time,
his conduct, his intelligence, and the sweetness of his manners were
such, that the family of his guardians became to him as an adopted
family; and his departure caused them the most sincere affliction. When
Louis quitted the army, he returned to his benefactors, and was received
as a son. They found him just as they had ever known him" (I acknowledge
that this pathos beats my humble defence of Peytel entirely), "except
that he had learned to r