nsieur Peytel was not a lawyer merely, but a man of letters
and varied learning; of the noble and sublime science of geology he was,
especially, an ardent devotee."

(Suppose, here, a short panegyric upon geology. Allude to the creation
of this mighty world, and then, naturally, to the Creator. Fancy the
conversations which Peytel, a religious man,* might have with his young
wife upon the subject.)

* He always went to mass; it is in the evidence.

"Monsieur Peytel had lately taken into his service a man named Louis
Rey. Rey was a foundling, and had passed many years in a regiment--a
school, gentlemen, where much besides bravery, alas! is taught; nay,
where the spirit which familiarizes one with notions of battle and
death, I fear, may familiarize one with ideas, too, of murder. Rey,
a dashing reckless fellow, from the army, had lately entered Peytel's
service, was treated by him with the most singular kindness; accompanied
him (having charge of another vehicle) upon the journey before alluded
to; and KNEW THAT HIS MASTER CARRIED WITH HIM A CONSIDERABLE SUM OF
MONEY; for a man like Rey an enormous sum, 7,500 francs. At midnight
on the 1st of November, as Madame Peytel and her husband were returning
home, an attack was made upon their carriage. Remember, gentlemen, the
hour at which the attack was made; remember the sum of money that was in
the carriage; and remember that the Savoy frontier IS WITHIN A LEAGUE OF
THE SPOT where the desperate deed was done."

Now, my dear Briefless, ought not Monsieur Procureur, in common justice
to Peytel, after he had so eloquently proclaimed, not the facts, but the
suspicions, which weighed against that worthy, to have given a similar
florid account of the prisoner's case? Instead of this, you will remark,
that it is the advocate's endeavor to make Peytel's statements as
uninteresting in style as possible; and then he demolishes them in the
following way:--

"Scarcely was Peytel's statement known, when the common sense of the
public rose against it. Peytel had commenced his story upon the bridge
of Andert, over the cold body of his wife. On the 2nd November he
had developed it in detail, in the presence of the physicians, in the
presence of the assembled neighbors--of the persons who, on the day
previous only, were his friends. Finally, he had completed it in his
interrogatories, his conversations, his writings, and letters to the
magistrates and everywhere these words, repeat