"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 HISMASTER 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 ALEAGUE 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, repeated so often, were only received with a painful incredulity.The fact was that, besides the singular character which Peytel's appearance, attitude, and talk had worn ever since the event, there was in his narrative an inexplicable enigma; its contradictions and impossibilities were such, that calm persons were revolted at it, and that even friendship itself refused to believe it."Thus Mr.Attorney speaks, not for himself alone, but for the whole French public; whose opinions, of course, he knows.Peytel's statement is discredited EVERYWHERE; the statement which he had made over the cold body of his wife--the monster! It is not enough simply to prove that the man committed the murder, but to make the jury violently angry against him, and cause them to shudder in the jury-box, as he exposes the horrid details of the crime.
"Justice," goes on Mr.Substitute (who answers for the feelings of everybody), "DISTURBED BY THE PRE-OCCUPATIONS OF PUBLIC OPINION, commenced, without delay, the most active researches.The bodies of the victims were submitted to the investigations of men of art;the wounds and projectiles were examined; the place where the event took place explored with care.The morality of the author of this frightful scene became the object of rigorous examination; the exigeances of the prisoner, the forms affected by him, his calculating silence, and his answers, coldly insulting, were feeble obstacles; and justice at length arrived, by its prudence, and by the discoveries it made, to the most cruel point of certainty."You see that a man's demeanor is here made a crime against him; and that Mr.Substitute wishes to consider him guilty, because he has actually the audacity to hold his tongue.Now follows a touching description of the domestic, Louis Rey:--"Louis Rey, a child of the Hospital at Lyons, was confided, at a very early age, to some honest country people, with whom he stayed until he entered the army.At their house, and during this long period of time, his conduct, his intelligence, and the sweetness of his manners were such, that the family of his guardians became to him as an adopted family; and his departure caused them the most sincere affliction.When Louis quitted the army, he returned to his benefactors, and was received as a son.They found him just as they had ever known him" (I acknowledge that this pathos beats my humble defence of Peytel entirely), "except that he had learned to read and write; and the certificates of his commanders proved him to be a good and gallant soldier.
"The necessity of creating some resources for himself, obliged him to quit his friends, and to enter the service of Monsieur de Montrichard, a lieutenant of gendarmerie, from whom he received fresh testimonials of regard.Louis, it is true, might have a fondness for wine and a passion for women; but he had been a soldier, and these faults were, according to the witnesses, amply compensated for by his activity, his intelligence, and the agreeable manner in which he performed his service.In the month of July, 1839, Rey quitted, voluntarily, the service of M.de Montrichard; and Peytel, about this period, meeting him at Lyons, did not hesitate to attach him to his service.Whatever may be the prisoner's present language, it is certain that up to the day of Louis's death, he served Peytel with diligence and fidelity.
"More than once his master and mistress spoke well of him.
EVERYBODY who has worked, or been at the house of Madame Peytel, has spoken in praise of his character; and, indeed, it may be said, that these testimonials were general.