“One day, about a week before I first spoke to Ravalette in the Louvre, I happened to be spending an afternoon in the Palais Royale, along with my friends the Barons di Corvaja and Du P----t, to both of whom I had taken letters from America. On the day alluded to, I met at D----’s room in the Rue Beaujolais, and then and there became acquainted with, an English gentleman of easy means and polished mind, by the name of Carr. This gentleman resided with his family in a splendid mansion in the Rue du Chemin Vert. After a long and interesting conversation, we parted, but not till Mr. Carr had cordially taken me by the hand, expressed a desire to maintain the acquaintance, and invited me to call on him at his residence in the Rue du Chemin Vert. I felt gratified at his frankness, and accepted his polite invitation. Mr. Carr named the day, and I agreed to go; and accordingly had spent the evening and took tea with him, his family and a few select guests, some five or six days before the eventful day, the achievement of which I have just recounted. The thing which I am about to narrate is not only strange, but in many respects horrible, and my mind is agitated to the last degree by the astounding occurrences--things which I beheld with my own eyes, felt with my own senses, realized with my own spirit; and yet I scarcely dare give credit to that which I am sensible _cannot, could not_ have been an illusion. My soul is filled with wonder; and I hasten to give a true version of the affair while all is yet fresh and vivid before me; indeed, it will ever be so, till age shall numb my faculties.” CHAPTER IV. MURDER WILL OUT. “The circumstances were, briefly, these: “I attended, as before observed, the _fête sociale_, at the house of my friend Mr. Carr--Leonard Carr. The party was given in honor of a young literary friend of the family, who had recently gained great renown as a writer of fiction. To this young man I was introduced just before we all sat down to the festive board to partake of the many good things so bounteously set before us. “After the repast was concluded we all adjourned to the parlor and entered into conversation. Topic after topic had been discussed, and at length the ‘Turning tables,’ then so rife in all parts of the world, and Paris especially, became the theme of observation and criticism.