had traced the murderer's name, and for that name the mayor,
according to Colomba, had substituted Agostini's. The magistrate, in
fact, noticed that one sheet was missing from the quire on which the
name was written, but he remarked also that leaves were likewise missing
from other quires in the same note-book, and certain witnesses testified
that the colonel had a habit of tearing out pages when he wanted to
light a cigar--therefore nothing was more probable than that, by an
oversight, he had burned the address he had copied. Further, it was
shown that the mayor could not have read the note-book on receiving it
from Maddalena Pietri, on account of the darkness, and it was proved
that he had not stopped an instant before he went into his house, that
the sergeant of the gendarmes had gone there with him, and had seen him
light a lamp and put the note-book into an envelope which he had sealed
before his eyes.

When this officer had concluded his deposition, Colomba,
half-distracted, cast herself at his feet, and besought him, by all he
held most sacred, to say whether he had not left the mayor alone for a
single moment. After a certain amount of hesitation, the man, who was
evidently affected by the young girl's excitement, admitted that he had
gone into the next room to fetch a sheet of foolscap, but that he had
not been away a minute, and that the mayor had talked to him all the
time he was groping for the paper in a drawer. Moreover, he deposed that
when he came back the blood-stained note-book was still on the table, in
the very place where the mayor had thrown it when he first came in.

Monsieur Barricini gave his evidence with the utmost coolness. He made
allowances, he said, for Mademoiselle della Rebbia's excitement, and was
ready to condescend to justify himself. He proved that he had spent his
whole evening in the village, that his son Vincentello had been with him
in front of the house at the moment when the crime was committed, and
that his son Orlanduccio, who had had an attack of fever that very day,
had never left his bed. He produced every gun in his house, and not one
of them had been recently discharged. He added, that, as regarded the
note-book, he had at once realized its importance; that he had sealed it
up, and placed it in the hands of his deputy, foreseeing that he himself
might be suspected, on account of his quarrel with the colonel. Finally,
he reminded the court that Agostini had threatened to