d for trial,
and as a testimony of good will, Antoine de Chaulieu was selected by
the injured family to conduct the prosecution.

Here, at last, was the opportunity he had sighed for! So interesting
a case, too, furnishing such ample occasion for passion, pathos,
indignation! And how eminently fortunate that the speech which he set
himself with ardor to prepare, would be delivered in the presence
of the father and brother of his mistress, and perhaps of the lady
herself! The evidence against Jacques, it is true, was altogether
presumptive; there was no proof whatever that he had committed the
crime; and for his own part he stoutly denied it. But Antoine de
Chaulieu entertained no doubt of his guilt, and his speech was
certainly well calculated to carry that conviction into the bosom of
others. It was of the highest importance to his own reputation that he
should procure a verdict, and he confidently assured the afflicted and
enraged family of the victim that their vengeance should be satisfied.
Under these circumstances could anything be more unwelcome than a
piece of intelligence that was privately conveyed to him late on the
evening before the trial was to come on, which tended strongly to
exculpate the prisoner, without indicating any other person as the
criminal. Here was an opportunity lost. The first step of the ladder
on which he was to rise to fame, fortune, and a wife, was slipping
from under his feet!

Of course, so interesting a trial was anticipated with great eagerness
by the public, and the court was crowded with all the beauty and
fashion of Rouen. Though Jacques Rollet persisted in asserting his
innocence, founding his defense chiefly on circumstances which were
strongly corroborated by the information that had reached De Chaulieu
the preceding evening,--he was convicted.

In spite of the very strong doubts he privately entertained respecting
the justice of the verdict, even De Chaulieu himself, in the first
flush of success, amidst a crowd of congratulating friends, and the
approving smiles of his mistress, felt gratified and happy; his speech
had, for the time being, not only convinced others, but himself;
warmed with his own eloquence, he believed what he said. But when
the glow was over, and he found himself alone, he did not feel so
comfortable. A latent doubt of Rollet's guilt now burnt strongly in
his mind, and he felt that the blood of the innocent would be on his
head. It is true there was y