On being transferred to Bourges, I was thrown into the castle which had
belonged to the old dukes of Berry; this was henceforth to be my prison.
It was a great grief to me to be separated from my faithful sergeant. He
would have been allowed to follow me, but he had a presentiment that he
would soon be arrested at the suggestion of my enemies (for he persisted
in believing that I was the victim of a plot), and thus be unable
to serve me any more. He wished, therefore, to lose no time, and to
continue his investigations as long as they "should not have seized his
person."

Two days after my removal to Bourges, Marcasse produced a document
which had been drawn up at his instance by two notaries of La Chatre. It
contained the depositions of ten witnesses to the effect that for some
days before the attempted assassination, a mendicant friar had been
prowling about Varenne; that he had appeared in different places very
close together; and, notably, that he had slept at Notre-Dame de Poligny
the night before the event. Marcasse maintained that this monk was John
Mauprat. Two women declared that they had thought they recognised him
either as John or Walter Mauprat, who closely resembled him. But Walter
had been found drowned the day after the capture of the keep; and the
whole town of La Chatre, on the day when Edmee was shot, had seen the
Trappist engaged with the Carmelite prior from morning till night in
conducting the procession and services for the pilgrimage of Vaudevant.
These depositions, therefore, so far from being favourable to me,
produced a very bad effect, and threw odium on my defence. The Trappist
conclusively proved his alibi, and the prior of the Carmelites helped
him to spread a report that I was a worthless villain. This was a time
of triumph for John Mauprat; he proclaimed aloud that he had come to
deliver himself up to his natural judges to suffer punishment for his
crimes in the past; but no one could think of prosecuting such a holy