en disposition, his military career, modest and without a stain,
the touching regrets of his employers, are sufficient proofs of his
innocence,--the calm and candid observer, who considers how the crime
was conceived, was executed, and what consequences would have resulted
from it, will likewise acquit him, and free him of the odious imputation
which Peytel endeavors to cast upon his memory.

"But justice has removed the veil, with which an impious hand endeavored
to cover itself. Already, on the night of the 1st of November, suspicion
was awakened by the extraordinary agitation of Peytel; by those
excessive attentions towards his wife, which came so late; by that
excessive and noisy grief, and by those calculated bursts of sorrow,
which are such as Nature does not exhibit. The criminal, whom the public
conscience had fixed upon; the man whose frightful combinations have
been laid bare, and whose falsehoods, step by step, have been exposed,
during the proceedings previous to the trial; the murderer, at whose
hands a heart-stricken family, and society at large, demands an account
of the blood of a wife;--that murderer is Peytel."

When, my dear Briefless, you are a judge (as I make no doubt you
will be, when you have left off the club all night, cigar-smoking of
mornings, and reading novels in bed), will you ever find it in your
heart to order a fellow-sinner's head off upon such evidence as this?
Because a romantic Substitut du Procureur de Roi chooses to compose
and recite a little drama, and draw tears from juries, let us hope that
severe Rhadamanthine judges are not to be melted by such trumpery.
One wants but the description of the characters to render the piece
complete, as thus:--

Personages Costumes.

SEBASTIAN PEYTAL Meurtrier Habillement complet de notaire
perfide: figure pale, barbe
noire, cheveux noirs.

LOUIS REY Soldat retire, bon, Costume ordinaire; il porte sur
brave, franc, jovial ses epaules une couverture de
aimant le vin, les cheval.
femmes, la gaiete,
ses maitres surtout;
vrai Francais, enfin

WOLF Lieutenant de gendarmerie.

FELICITE D'ALCAZAR Femme et victime de Peytel.

Medecins, Villageois, Filles d'Auberge, Garcons d'Ecurie, &c. &c.

La scene se passe sur l