ch extraction. Calas and his wife were protestants, and had five
sons, whom they educated in the same religion; but Lewis, one of the
sons, became a Roman catholic, having been converted by a maid-servant,
who had lived in the family about thirty years. The father, however, did
not express any resentment or ill-will upon the occasion, but kept the
maid in the family and settled an annuity upon the son. In October,
1761, the family consisted of John Calas and his wife, one woman
servant, Mark Antony Calas, the eldest son, and Peter Calas, the second
son. Mark Antony was bred to the law, but could not be admitted to
practise, on account of his being a protestant; hence he grew
melancholy, read all the books he could procure relative to suicide, and
seemed determined to destroy himself. To this may be added, that he led
a dissipated life, was greatly addicted to gaming, and did all which
could constitute the character of a libertine; on which account his
father frequently reprehended him and sometimes in terms of severity,
which considerably added to the doom that seemed to oppress him.

On the 13th of October, 1761, Mr. Gober la Vaisse, a young gentleman
about 19 years of age, the son of La Vaisse, a celebrated advocate of
Thoulouse, about five o'clock in the evening, was met by John Calas, the
father, and the eldest son Mark Antony, who was his friend. Calas, the
father, invited him to supper, and the family and their guest sat down
in a room up one pair of stairs; the whole company, consisting of Calas
the father and his wife, Antony and Peter Calas, the sons, and La Vaisse
the guest, no other person being in the house, except the maid-servant
who has been already mentioned.

It was now about seven o'clock; the super was not long; but before it
was over, Antony left the table, and went into the kitchen, which was on
the same floor, as he was accustomed to do. The maid asked him if he was
cold? He answered, "Quite the contrary, I burn;" and then left her. In
the mean time his friend and family left the room they had supped in,
and went into a bed-chamber; the father and La Vaisse sat down together
on a sofa; the younger son Peter in an elbow chair; and the mother in
another chair; and, without making any inquiry after Antony, continued
in conversation together till between nine and ten o'clock, when La
Vaisse took his leave, and Peter, who had fallen asleep, was awakened to
attend him with a light.

On the ground floor