ing the city behind
them, hoping to find some deserted spot along the coast where they could
conceal the evidence of their crime. Their nerves were shaken by meeting
with a custom-house officer, who asked them what it was they had in
the cart. Vitalis answered that it was a traveller's luggage, and the
officer let them pass on. But soon after, afraid to risk another such
experience, the guilty couple turned out the parcels into a ditch,
covered them with stones and sand, and hurried home.

The next day, the shop-boy and the inquisitive neighbour having
consulted together, went to the Commissary of Police and told him of
the mysterious disappearance of Madame Boyer. The Commissary promised to
investigate the matter, and had just dismissed his informants when word
was brought to him of the discovery, in a ditch outside Marseilles, of
two parcels containing human remains. He called back the boy and took
him to view the body at the Morgue. The boy was able, by the clothes,
to identify the body as that of his late mistress. The Commissary went
straight to the shops in the Rue de la Republique, where he found the
young lovers preparing for flight. At first they denied all knowledge of
the crime, and said that Madame Boyer had gone to Montpellier. They were
arrested, and it was not long before they both confessed their guilt to
the examining magistrate.

Vitalis and Marie Boyer were tried before the Assize Court at Aix
on July 2, 1877. Vitalis is described as mean and insignificant in
appearance, thin, round-backed, of a bilious complexion; Marie Boyer
as a pretty, dark girl, her features cold in expression, dainty and
elegant. At her trial she seemed to be still so greatly under the
influence of Vitalis that during her interrogatory the President sent
him out of court. To the examining magistrate Marie Boyer, in describing
her mother's murder, had written, "I cannot think how I came to take
part in it. I, who wouldn't have stayed in the presence of a corpse for
all the money in the world." Vitalis was condemned to death, and was
executed on August 17. He died fearful and penitent, acknowledging
his miserable career to be a warning to misguided youth. Extenuating
circumstances were accorded to Marie Boyer, and she was sentenced to
penal servitude for life. Her conduct in prison was so repentant and
exemplary that she was released in 1892.

M. Proal, a distinguished French judge, and the author of some important
works on cri