Was Rey to wait until his master snored? "He fires at six paces, not caring whom he hits;"--and might not this happen too? The night is not so dark but that he can see his master, in HIS USUALPLACE, driving.He fires and hits--whom? Madame Peytel, who had left her place, AND WAS WRAPPED UP WITH PEYTEL IN HIS CLOAK.She screams out, "Husband, take your pistols." Rey knows that his master has a brace, thinks that he has hit the wrong person, and, as Peytel fires on him, runs away.Peytel follows, hammer in hand;as he comes up with the fugitive, he deals him a blow on the back of the head, and Rey falls--his face to the ground.Is there anything unnatural in this story?--anything so monstrously unnatural, that is, that it might not be true?
3.These objections are absurd.Why need a man have change of linen? If he had taken none for the journey, why should he want any for the escape? Why need he drive two carriages?--He might have driven both into the river, and Mrs.Peytel in one.Why is he to go to the douane, and thrust himself into the very jaws of danger? Are there not a thousand ways for a man to pass a frontier? Do smugglers, when they have to pass from one country to another, choose exactly those spots where a police is placed?
And, finally, the gunsmith of Lyons, who knows Peytel quite well, cannot say that he sold the pistol to him; that is, he did NOT sell the pistol to him; for you have only one man's word, in this case (Peytel's), to the contrary; and the testimony, as far as it goes, is in his favor.I say, my lud, and gentlemen of the jury, that these objections of my learned friend, who is engaged for the Crown, are absurd, frivolous, monstrous; that to SUSPECT away the life of a man upon such suppositions as these, is wicked, illegal, and inhuman; and, what is more, that Louis Rey, if he wanted to commit the crime--if he wanted to possess himself of a large sum of money, chose the best time and spot for so doing; and, no doubt, would have succeeded, if Fate had not, in a wonderful manner, caused Madame Peytel TO TAKE HER HUSBAND'S PLACE, and receive the ball intended for him in her own head.
But whether these suspicions are absurd or not, hit or miss, it is the advocate's duty, as it appears, to urge them.He wants to make as unfavorable an impression as possible with regard to Peytel's character; he, therefore, must, for contrast's sake, give all sorts of praise to his victim, and awaken every sympathy in the poor fellow's favor.Having done this, as far as lies in his power, having exaggerated every circumstance that can be unfavorable to Peytel, and given his own tale in the baldest manner possible--having declared that Peytel is the murderer of his wife and servant, the Crown now proceeds to back this assertion, by showing what interested motives he had, and by relating, after its own fashion, the circumstances of his marriage.
They may be told briefly here.Peytel was of a good family, of Macon, and entitled, at his mother's death, to a considerable property.He had been educated as a notary, and had lately purchased a business, in that line, in Belley, for which he had paid a large sum of money; part of the sum, 15,000 francs, for which he had given bills, was still due.
Near Belley, Peytel first met Felicite Alcazar, who was residing with her brother-in-law, Monsieur de Montrichard; and, knowing that the young lady's fortune was considerable, he made an offer of marriage to the brother-in-law, who thought the match advantageous, and communicated on the subject with Felicite's mother, Madame Alcazar, at Paris.After a time Peytel went to Paris, to press his suit, and was accepted.There seems to have been no affectation of love on his side; and some little repugnance on the part of the lady, who yielded, however, to the wishes of her parents, and was married.The parties began to quarrel on the very day of the marriage, and continued their disputes almost to the close of the unhappy connection.Felicite was half blind, passionate, sarcastic, clumsy in her person and manners, and ill educated; Peytel, a man of considerable intellect and pretensions, who had lived for some time at Paris, where he had mingled with good literary society.The lady was, in fact, as disagreeable a person as could well be, and the evidence describes some scenes which took place between her and her husband, showing how deeply she must have mortified and enraged him.
A charge very clearly made out against Peytel, is that of dishonesty;he procured from the notary of whom he bought his place an acquittance in full, whereas there were 15,000 francs owing, as we have seen.He also, in the contract of marriage, which was to have resembled, in all respects, that between Monsieur Broussais and another Demoiselle Alcazar, caused an alteration to be made in his favor, which gave him command over his wife's funded property, without furnishing the guarantees by which the other son-in-law was bound.And, almost immediately after his marriage, Peytel sold out of the funds a sum of 50,000 francs, that belonged to his wife, and used it for his own purposes.
About two months after his marriage, PEYTEL PRESSED HIS WIFE TOMAKE HER WILL.He had made his, he said, leaving everything to her, in case of his death: after some parley, the poor thing consented. This is a cruel suspicion against him; and Mr.
Substitute has no need to enlarge upon it.As for the previous fact, the dishonest statement about the 15,000 francs, there is nothing murderous in that--nothing which a man very eager to make a good marriage might not do.The same may be said of the suppression, in Peytel's marriage contract, of the clause to be found in Broussais's, placing restrictions upon the use of the wife's money.Mademoiselle d'Alcazar's friends read the contract before they signed it, and might have refused it, had they so pleased.