‘But justice has removed the veil with which an impious hand endeavoured 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 du 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:-- PERSONNAGES. COSTUMES. { Habillement complet SEBASTIEN } Meurtrier { de notaire perfide: figure PEYTEL } { pâle, barbe noire, cheveux { noirs. { Soldat retiré, bon, } { brave, franc, jovial, aimant } Costume ordinaire; il LOUIS REY{ le vin, les femmes, } porte sur ses épaules une { la gaîté, ses maîtres surtout;} couverture de cheval. { vrai Français, enfin. } WOLFF Lieutenant de Gendarmerie. FÉLICITÉ } Femme et victime de Peytel. D'ALCAZAR } Médecins, Villageois, Filles d’Auberge, Garçons d’Ecurie, etc. etc. La scène se passe sur le pont d’Andert, entre Mâcon et Belley. Il est minuit. La pluie tombe: les tonnerres grondent. Le ciel est couvert de nuages, et sillonné d’éclairs. 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 gaiety, 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?