CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE

BY ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE

IN EIGHT VOLUMES

LA CONSTANTIN--1660




CHAPTER I

Before beginning our story, we must warn the reader that it will not be
worth his while to make researches among contemporary or other records as
to the personage whose name it bears. For in truth neither Marie Leroux,
widow of Jacques Constantin, nor her accomplice, Claude Perregaud, was of
sufficient importance to find a place on any list of great criminals,
although it is certain that they were guilty of the crimes with which
they were charged. It may seem strange that what follows is more a
history of the retribution which overtook the criminals than a
circumstantial description of the deeds for which they were punished; but
the crimes were so revolting, and so unsuitable for discussion, that it
was impossible for us to enter into any details on the subject, so that
what we offer in these pages is, we confess quite openly, not a full,
true, and particular account of a certain series of events leading up to
a certain result; it is not even a picture wherein that result is
depicted with artistic completeness, it is only an imperfect narrative
imperfectly rounded off. We feel sure, however, that the healthy-minded
reader will be grateful for our reticence and total disregard of