those papers you have them in a
legal summary. To-morrow, if you come to me, I will finish telling you
all that relates to Madame de la Chanterie; for you will then know the
general facts so thoroughly that I can end the whole story in a few
words."

IX. THE LEGAL STATEMENT

Monsieur Alain placed the papers, yellowed by time, in Godefroid's hand;
the latter, bidding the old man good-night, carried them off to his
room, where he read, before he slept, the following document:--

THE INDICTMENT

Court of Criminal and Special Justice for the Department of the Orne

The attorney-general to the Imperial Court of Caen, appointed to
fulfil his functions before the Special Criminal Court established
by imperial decree under date September, 1809, and sitting at
Alencon, states to the Imperial Court the following facts which
have appeared under the above procedure.

The plot of a company of brigands, evidently long planned with
consummate care, and connected with a scheme for inciting the
Western departments to revolt, has shown itself in certain
attempts against the private property of citizens, but more
especially in an armed attack and robbery committed on the
mail-coach which transported, May --, 18--, the money in the treasury
at Caen to the Treasury of France. This attack, which recalls the
deplorable incidents of a civil war now happily extinguished,
manifests a spirit of wickedness which the political passions of
the present day do not justify.

Let us pass to the facts. The plot is complicated, the details are
numerous. The investigation has lasted one year; but the evidence,
which has followed the crime step by step, has thrown the clearest
light on its preparation, execution, and results.

The conception of the plot was formed by one Charles-Amedee-Louis-Joseph
Rifoel, calling himself Chevalier du Vissard, born at the Vissard,
district of Saint-Mexme, near Ernee, and a former leader of the rebels.

This criminal, whom H.M. the Emperor and King pardoned at the time
of the general pacification, and who has profited by the
sovereign's magnanimity to commit other crimes, has already paid
on the scaffold the penalty of his many misdeeds; but it is
necessary to recall some of his actions, because his influence was
great on the guilty persons now before the court, and he is
closely connected with the facts of his case.

This dangerous agitator,