accorded marvellously well with her peculiar tastes and rather masculine
frame. At first Quennebert had instituted an active but fruitless search
for his missing wife, but soon became habituated to his state of enforced
single blessedness, enjoying to the full the liberty it brought with it.
But his business had thereby suffered, and once having made the
acquaintance of Madame Rapally, he cultivated it assiduously, knowing her
fortune would be sufficient to set him straight again with the world,
though he was obliged to exercise the utmost caution and reserve in has
intercourse with her, as she on her side displayed none of these
qualities. At last, however, matters came to such a pass that he must
either go to prison or run the risk of a second marriage. So he
reluctantly named a day for the ceremony, resolving to leave Paris with
Madame Rapally as soon as he had settled with his creditors.

In the short interval which ensued, and while Trumeau was hugging the
knowledge of the discovery he had made, a stroke of luck had brought the
pretended chevalier to La Constantin. As Quennebert had kept an eye on
de Jars and was acquainted with all his movements, he was aware of
everything that happened at Perregaud's, and as Charlotte's death
preceded his second marriage by one day, he knew that no serious
consequences would ensue from the legal proceedings taken against him.
He produced the declarations made by Mademoiselle de Guerchi and the
commander, and had the body exhumed. Extraordinary and improbable as his
defence appeared at first to be, the exhumation proved the truth of his
assertions. These revelations, however, drew the eye of justice again on
Perregaud and his partner in crime, and this time their guilt was brought
home to them. They were condemned by parliamentary decree to "be hanged
by the neck till they were dead, on a gallows erected for that purpose at
the cross roads of the Croix-du-Trahoir; their bodies to remain there for
twenty-four hours, then to be cut down and brought back to Paris, where