y necessity or greed, as in the case of ordinary murderers, who usually
pass through stages of crime and punishment before they commit the
supreme deed. Active and careful search was made in following up this
idea; but the uniform discretion of the prisoner gave no clue whatever
to his prosecutors. The plausible theory of his attachment to a woman of
the upper classes having once been admitted, Jean-Francois was subjected
to the most insidious examination upon it; but his caution triumphed
over all the moral tortures the examining judge applied to him. When,
making a final effort, that official told him that the person for whom
he had committed the crime was discovered and arrested, his face did not
change, and he replied ironically:--

"I should very much like to see him."

When the public were informed of these circumstances, many persons
adopted the suspicions of the magistrates, which seemed to be confirmed
by Tascheron's savage obstinacy in giving no account of himself.
Increased interest was felt in a young man who was now a problem. It is
easy to see how these elements kept public curiosity on the _qui vive_,
and with what eager interest the trial would be followed. But in spite
of every effort on the part of the police, the prosecution stopped short
on the threshold of hypothesis; it did not venture to go farther into
the mystery where all was obscurity and danger. In certain judicial
cases half-certainties are not sufficient for the judges to proceed
upon. Nevertheless the case was ordered for trial, in hopes that the
truth would come to the surface when the case was brought into court, an
ordeal under which many criminals contradict themselves.

Monsieur Graslin was one of the jury; so that either through her husband
or through Monsieur de Grandville, the public prosecutor, Veronique knew
all the details of the criminal trial which, for a fortnight, kept the
department, and we may say all France, in a state of excitement. The
attitude maintained by the accused seemed to justify the theory of the
prosecution. More than once when the court opened, his eyes turned upon
the brilliant assemblage of women who came to find emotions in a real
drama, as though he sought for some one. Each time that the man's
glance, clear, but impenetrable, swept along those elegant ranks, a
movement was perceptible, a sort of shock, as though each woman feared
she might appear his accomplice under the inquisitorial eyes of judge
and