since my arrival at Paris, but I did not--I could not
anticipate the misfortune which has befallen me to-day. You
know me--and you know whether I am capable of sullying myself
with a crime--yet the most atrocious crime is imputed to me.
The mere thought of it makes me tremble. I find myself
implicated in the murder of the Lyons' courier. Three women and
two men, whom I know not--whose residence I know not--(for you
well know that I have not left Paris)--have had the impudence
to swear that they recognise me, and that I was the first of
the four who presented himself at their houses on horseback.
You know, also, that I have not crossed a horse's back since my
arrival in Paris. You may understand the importance of such an
accusation, which tends at nothing less than my judicial
assassination. Oblige me by lending me the assistance of your
memory, and endeavour to recollect where I was and what persons
I saw at Paris, on the day when they impudently assert they saw
me out of Paris, (I believe it was the 7th or 8th,) in order
that I may confound these infamous calumniators, and make them
suffer the penalty of the law."

In a postscript he enumerates the persons he saw on that day: Citoyen
Tixier, General Cambrai, 'Demoiselle Eugenie, Citoyen Hilaire Ledru, his
wife's hairdresser, the workmen in his apartments, and the porter of
the house.


V.--THE TRIAL, AND THE BLINDNESS OF ZEAL.


MM. Lesurques, Guesno, Couriol, Bernard, Richard, and Bruer, were