e. It
further appeared that, in the evening, just after the close of the
performances at the opera, this young man had come home in company
with an officer of the army. After the lapse of about an hour, the
young man, Belmont, left the house, telling the porter he should
return in a few minutes. But he never reappeared. About ten o'clock in
the morning, the porter went up to his room, and found the door
locked. He knocked and called, without receiving any answer. Looking
through the keyhole, he saw the feet and legs of a man, in military
boots and pantaloons, lying on the floor. Much alarmed and disturbed,
he sought out a commissary of police, and that functionary, breaking
open the door, discovered the body of Colonel Belleville. This tragedy
excited an unusual sensation. Even the emperor heard of it, and, from
his private purse provided a large sum of money to be paid as a reward
to the discoverer of the perpetrator of this fearful crime.

Not many days after this occurrence, and while it yet remained
shrouded in mystery, another murder roused the excitable population of
Paris to a frenzy of anxiety and horror. An army commissary, named
Captain Eugene Descartes, was found dead in his lodgings, in the Rue
Richelieu, with the same fatal purple mark on the left temple.

Yet a third murder was perpetrated in the Boulevard des Italiens. A
banker, named Monval, was, in this instance, the victim. His left
temple bore the fatal discoloration of the size of a five-franc piece;
but, although he had a large sum of money on his person, and wore a
costly watch and many valuable trinkets, and though articles of high
price abounded in his sumptuously-furnished apartment, not an article,
as his steward testified, was missing.

On the morning of the announcement of this last crime in the Moniteur,
the minister of police received a summons from the emperor to attend
him. He found him in his private cabinet, pacing to and fro in high
excitement. His face was more colorless than ever, except that an
angry hectic spot burned upon each cheek. As the minister entered, the
emperor turned upon him, and exclaimed,--

"Fouche, what is the meaning of all this? Is this Paris, and are we
living in the nineteenth century? It appears that there is no security
for life in our capital. Mr. Fouche, if such crimes can be committed
with impunity, there is an end of all things; and if you cannot ferret
out the perpetrators of such atrocities as these,