ad she been
strong enough, she would soon have done this abominable deed herself.
'God,' she added, 'will forgive us because He knows how poor we are.'"
When he came to do the murder, this determined woman plied her lover
with brandy and put rouge on his cheeks lest his pallor should betray
him.(7)

(7) Case of Albert and the woman Lavoitte, Paris, 1877.

There are occasions when those feelings of compunction which troubled
Macbeth and his wife are wellnigh proof against the utmost powers of
suggestion, or, as in the case of Hubert and Prince Arthur, compel the
criminal to desist from his enterprise.

A man desires to get rid of his father and mother-in-law. By means of
threats, reproaches and inducements he persuades another man to commit
the crime. Taking a gun, the latter sets out to do the deed; but he
realises the heinousness of it and turns back. "The next day," he says,
"at four o'clock in the morning I started again. I passed the village
church. At the sight of the place where I had celebrated my first
communion I was filled with remorse. I knelt down and prayed to God to
make me good. But some unknown force urged me to the crime. I started
again--ten times I turned back, but the more I hesitated the stronger
was the desire to go on." At length the faltering assassin arrived at
the house, and in his painful anxiety of mind shot a servant instead of
the intended victims.(8)

(8) Case of Porcher and Hardouin cited in Despine. "Psychologie
Naturelle."

In a town in Austria there dwelt a happy and contented married couple,
poor and hard-working. A charming young lady, a rich relation and an
orphan, comes to live with them. She brings to their modest home wealth
and comfort. But as time goes on, it is likely that the young lady will
fall in love and marry. What then? Her hosts will have to return
to their original poverty. The idea of how to secure to himself the
advantages of his young kinswoman's fortune takes possession of the
husband's mind. He revolves all manner of means, and gradually murder
presents itself as the only way. The horrid suggestion fixes itself
in his mind, and at last he communicates it to his wife. At first she
resists, then yields to the temptation. The plan is ingenious. The wife
is to disappear to America and be given out as dead. The husband will
then marry his attractive kinswoman, persuade her to make a will in his
favour, poison her and, the fortune secured, rejoi