e pont d'Andert, entre Macon et Belley. Il
est minuit. La pluie tombe: les tonnerres grondent. Le ciel est
convert de nuages, et sillonne d'eclairs.

All these personages are brought into play in the Procureur's drama;
the villagers come in with their chorus; the old lieutenant of
gendarmes with his suspicions; Rey's frankness and gayety, the romantic
circumstances of his birth, his gallantry and fidelity, are all
introduced, in order to form a contrast with Peytel, and to call down
the jury's indignation against the latter. But are these proofs? or
anything like proofs? And the suspicions, that are to serve instead of
proofs, what are they?

"My servant, Louis Rey, was very sombre and reserved," says Peytel; "he
refused to call me in the morning, to carry my money-chest to my room,
to cover the open car when it rained." The Prosecutor disproves this by
stating that Rey talked with the inn maids and servants, asked if his
master was up, and stood in the inn-yard, grooming the horses, with his
master by his side, neither speaking to the other. Might he not have
talked to the maids, and yet been sombre when speaking to his master?
Might he not have neglected to call his master, and yet have asked
whether he was awake? Might he not have said that the inn-gates were
safe, out of hearing of the ostler witness? Mr. Substitute's answers to
Peytel's statements are no answer at all. Every word Peytel said might
be true, and yet Louis Rey might not have committed the murder; or every
word might have been false, and yet Louis Rey might have committed the
murder.

"Then," says Mr. Substitute, "how many obstacles are there to the
commission of the crime? And these are--

"1. Rey provided himself with ONE holster pistol, to kill two people,
knowing well that one of them had always a brace of pistols about him.

"2. He does not think of firing until his master's eyes are open: fires
at six paces, not caring at whom he fires, and then runs away.

"3. He could not have intended to kill his master, because he had no
passport in his pocket, and no clothes; and because he must have been
detained at the frontier until morning; and because he would have had to
drive two carriages, in order to avoid suspicion.

"4. And, a most singular circumstance, the very pistol which was found
by his side had been bought at the shop of a man at Lyons, who perfectly
recognized Peytel as one of his customers, though he could not say he
ha