go to bed. In support of his deposition he produced his _billet de
garde_, dated the 8th.

Finally, the workmen employed in the apartment that Lesurques was having
fitted up, deposed that they saw him at various times during the 8th and
9th Floreal.

No further doubt of his innocence now remained; the _alibi_ was so
distinctly proved, and on such unquestionable testimony, that the jury
showed in their manner that they were ready to acquit him, when a fatal
circumstance suddenly changed the whole face of the matter.

The jeweller Legrand, who had manifested such zeal in the establishment
of his friend's innocence, had, with an anxiety to avail himself of
every trifle, declared, that to prove the sincerity of his declaration,
he would cite a fact which prevented his being mistaken. On the 8th
Floreal, he had made before dinner an exchange of jewellery with the
witness, Aldenof. He proposed that his ledger should be sent for, as its
entry there would serve to fix all recollections.

As a matter of form, the ledger was sent for. At the first glance,
however, it was evident that the _date_ of the transaction, mentioned by
Legrand, had been _altered!_ The exchange had taken place on the 9th,
and an alteration, badly dissimulated by an erasure, had substituted the
figure 8 for the original figure 9.

Murmurs of surprise and indignation followed this discovery, and the
President, pressing Legrand with questions, and unable to obtain from
him any satisfactory answer, ordered his arrest. Legrand then, trembling
and terrified, retracted his former deposition, and declared that he was