detention. He had gone to the police court to prove and regain his
valise, and found at the bar a young man of genteel address and
remarkable beauty; his costume was in the latest fashion, though
somewhat soiled and torn from his fall and rough handling the previous
night; but his countenance was intelligent and refined, and his bearing
that of a gentleman. Upon a table lay the valise and the contents of the
prisoner's pockets, among them a large penknife; he held convulsively to
the rail and kept his eyes cast down; the judge had taken his seat, and
a crowd of idlers and gens d'armes filled the room. The claimant
immediately satisfied the court that the valise belonged to him by
mentioning several articles it contained and producing the key. In the
mean time the accused, earnestly watching the entrance, started and
turned pale and red by turns as a beautiful girl, in the dress of a
prosperous grisette, pushed her way into the crowd, stood on tiptoe, and
exchanged glances with the prisoner. The latter, when asked his name,
replied, 'I have brought disgrace enough upon it already,' and, seizing
the penknife, thrust it into his heart, and fell dead. He was the
descendant of a noble house in one of the southern provinces, and came
to Paris as a medical student, and, through a devoted attachment to his
mistress, whose costly tastes soon drained his purse, was induced to
steal the trunks of travelers as they left the railway stations at
night. In his apartment was found a large wardrobe; and a month's
purloining was thus summarily expiated. Similar incidents occur
elsewhere, but the details, when the scene is laid in Paris, are more
picturesque and dramatic.

Two instances which I heard related will illustrate this same dramatic
significance in the municipal system. After an _émeute_, the _chef_ of
police in a certain _arrondissement_, while engaged in superintending
the removal of corpses from a barricade, noticed the body of a female