execution took place, Couriol, placed beside Lesurques in the cart,
cried out to the people in a loud voice, "Citoyens, I am guilty! I am
guilty! but Lesurques is innocent."

On arriving at the platform of the guillotine, already stained with the
blood of Bernard, Lesurques exclaimed, "I pardon my judges; I pardon the
witnesses through whose error I die; and I pardon Legrand, who has not a
little contributed to my judicial assassination. I die protesting my
innocence." In another instant he was no more.

Couriol continued his declarations of Lesurques's innocence to the foot
of the scaffold; and, after a final appeal, he, too, delivered himself
to the executioner. The drop fell on a guilty neck, having before been
stained with the blood of two innocent men.

The crowd retired with a general conviction that Lesurques had perished
guiltless; and several of the judges were seriously troubled by the
doubts which this day had raised in their minds. Many of the jury began
to repent having relied so on the affirmations of the witnesses from
Mongeron and Lieursaint, precise as they had been. M. Daubenton, the
magistrate who had first ordered the arrest, went home a thoughtful man,
and determined to lose no opportunity of getting at the truth, which the
arrest of the three accomplices mentioned by Couriol could alone
bring to light.


VII.--THE PROOFS


Two years passed on without affording any clue to the conscientious