o the suggestion that he
was familiar with the pistols used in the duel. To convince the jury
that he was not to be believed, the opposing counsel then told them
that he had once pawned a watch belonging to somebody else. When the
judge expressed himself shocked at such depravity, de Beauvallon, says
a report, "hung his head and wept."

Nor did d'Ecquevillez, the other defendant, cut a very happy figure.
His real name was said to be Vincent, and aspersions were cast on his
right to dub himself a "Count." He swore he had never admitted that
the pistols belonged to him, and that de Beauvallon had borrowed them
from the gunsmith, Desvismes. The latter, however, calling on heaven
for support, declared the statement to be a "wicked invention."

Believing in the efficacy of numbers in getting up their case,
forty-six witnesses were assembled by the prosecution. Mlle Lievenne,
the first of them to be examined, brought with her an atmosphere of
the theatre, "adopting a flashy costume, in deplorably bad taste."
"This," says a chronicler, "took the form of a blue velvet dress, a
scarlet shawl, and a pearl-grey mantle." Altogether, a striking
colour-scheme. But it did not help her. To the indignation of the
examining-counsel, she affected to remember nothing, declaring that
she had been "too busy at the supper-table, looking after the
company."

The other young women, described as "more or less actresses," who had
also been present, appeared to be suffering from a similar loss of
memory. Their minds, they protested, were absolutely blank as to what
had happened at the restaurant and very little could be extracted
from them. When they had given their evidence, they looked for seats
in the body of the court. The Rouen ladies, however, having somewhat
rigid standards, would not permit them to sit between the wind and
their propriety.

"Things are coming to a pretty pass," they declared, "when
play-actresses imagine they can sit beside respectable women like
ourselves."

Thereupon, the discomfited damsels withdrew to the hard benches of the
public gallery.

Dumas, subpoenaed as a witness, drove all the way from Paris in a
four-horsed carriage, with Mery as a travelling companion. When he
took his place on the stand, M. de Tourville, affecting judicial
ignorance, enquired his profession.

"If," returned the other, striking an attitude, "I did not here happen
to find myself in the country of the illustrious Corneille, I should