f 400 francs,--how much money was Rey likely to have?

"Your servant had to assassinate two persons." This I have mentioned
before. Why had he to assassinate two persons,* when one was enough?
If he had killed Peytel, could he not have seized and gagged his wife
immediately?

* M. Balzac's theory of the case is, that Rey had intrigued
with Madame Peytel; having known her previous to her
marriage, when she was staying in the house of her brother-
in-law, Monsieur de Montrichard, where Rey had been a
servant.

"Your domestic ran straight forward, instead of taking to the woods, by
the side of the rood: this is very unlikely." How does his worship know?
Can any judge, however enlightened, tell the exact road that a man will
take, who has just missed a coup of murder, and is pursued by a man who
is firing pistols at him? And has a judge a right to instruct a jury in
this way, as to what they shall, or shall not, believe?

"You have to run after an active man, who has the start of you: to jump
out of a carriage; to take your pistols; and THEN, your hammer. THIS IS
IMPOSSIBLE." By heavens! does it not make a man's blood boil, to read
such blundering, blood-seeking sophistry? This man, when it suits him,
shows that Rey would be slow in his motions; and when it suits him,
declares that Rey ought to be quick; declares ex cathedra, what pace Rey
should go, and what direction he should take; shows, in a breath, that
he must have run faster than Peytel; and then, that he could not run
fast, because the cloak clogged him; settles how he is to be dressed
when he commits a murder, and what money he is to have in his pocket;
gives these impossible suppositions to the jury, and tells them that the
previous statements are impossible; and, finally, informs them of the
precise manner in which Rey must have stood holding his horse-cloth in
one hand, his whip and pistol in the other, when he made the supposed
attempt at murder. Now, what is the size of a horse-cloth? Is it as big
as a pocket-handkerchief? Is there no possibility that it might hang
over one shoulder; that the whip should be held under that very arm?
Did you never see a carter so carry it, his hands in his pockets all the
while? Is it monstrous, abhorrent to nature, that a man should fire a
pistol from under a cloak on a rainy day?--that he should, after firing
the shot, be frightened, and run; run straight before him, with the
cloak on his shoulde