A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Z

The Paris Sketch Book

W >> William Makepeace Thackeray >> The Paris Sketch Book




Having thus primed his audience, and prepared them for the
testimony of the accused party, "Now," says he, with a fine show of
justice, "let us hear Monsieur Peytel;" and that worthy's narrative
is given as follows:--

"He said that he had left Macon on the 31st October, at eleven
o'clock in the morning, in order to return to Belley, with his wife
and servant. The latter drove, or led, an open car; he himself was
driving his wife in a four-wheeled carriage, drawn by one horse:
they reached Bourg at five o'clock in the evening; left it at
seven, to sleep at Pont d'Ain, where they did not arrive before
midnight. During the journey, Peytel thought he remarked that Rey
had slackened his horse's pace. When they alighted at the inn,
Peytel bade him deposit in his chamber 7,500 francs, which he
carried with him; but the domestic refused to do so, saying that
the inn gates were secure, and there was no danger. Peytel was,
therefore, obliged to carry his money up stairs himself. The next
day, the 1st November, they set out on their journey again, at nine
o'clock in the morning; Louis did not come, according to custom, to
take his master's orders. They arrived at Tenay about three,
stopped there a couple of hours to dine, and it was eight o'clock
when they reached the bourg of Rossillon, where they waited half an
hour to bait the horses.

"As they left Rossillon, the weather became bad, and the rain began
to fall: Peytel told his domestic to get a covering for the
articles in the open chariot; but Rey refused to do so, adding, in
an ironical tone, that the weather was fine. For some days past,
Peytel had remarked that his servant was gloomy, and scarcely spoke
at all.

"After they had gone about 500 paces beyond the bridge of Andert,
that crosses the river Furans, and ascended to the least steep part
of the hill of Darde, Peytel cried out to his servant, who was
seated in the car, to come down from it, and finish the ascent on
foot.

"At this moment a violent wind was blowing from the south, and the
rain was falling heavily: Peytel was seated back in the right
corner of the carriage, and his wife, who was close to him, was
asleep, with her head on his left shoulder. All of a sudden he
heard the report of a fire-arm (he had seen the light of it at some
paces' distance), and Madame Peytel cried out, 'My poor husband,
take your pistols;' the horse was frightened, and began to trot.
Peytel immediately drew the pistol, and fired, from the interior of
the carriage, upon an individual whom he saw running by the side of
the road.

"Not knowing, as yet, that his wife had been hit, he jumped out on
one side of the carriage, while Madame Peytel descended from the
other; and he fired a second pistol at his domestic, Louis Rey,
whom he had just recognized. Redoubling his pace, he came up with
Rey, and struck him, from behind, a blow with the hammer. Rey
turned at this, and raised up his arm to strike his master with the
pistol which he had just discharged at him; but Peytel, more quick
than he, gave the domestic a blow with the hammer, which felled him
to the ground (he fell his face forwards), and then Peytel,
bestriding the body, despatched him, although the brigand asked for
mercy.

"He now began to think of his wife and ran back, calling out her
name repeatedly, and seeking for her, in vain, on both sides of the
road. Arrived at the bridge of Andert, he recognized his wife,
stretched in a field, covered with water, which bordered the
Furans. This horrible discovery had so much the more astonished
him, because he had no idea, until now, that his wife had been
wounded: he endeavored to draw her from the water; and it was only
after considerable exertions that he was enabled to do so, and to
place her, with her face towards the ground, on the side of the
road. Supposing that, here, she would be sheltered from any
farther danger, and believing, as yet, that she was only wounded,
he determined to ask for help at a lone house, situated on the road
towards Rossillon; and at this instant he perceived, without at all
being able to explain how, that his horse had followed him back to
the spot, having turned back of its own accord, from the road to
Belley.

"The house at which he knocked was inhabited by two men, of the
name of Thannet, father and son, who opened the door to him, and
whom he entreated to come to his aid, saying that his wife had just
been assassinated by his servant. The elder Thannet approached to,
and examined the body, and told Peytel that it was quite dead; he
and his son took up the corpse, and placed it in the bottom of the
carriage, which they all mounted themselves, and pursued their
route to Belley. In order to do so, they had to pass by Rey's
body, on the road, which Peytel wished to crush under the wheels of
his carriage. It was to rob him of 7,500 francs, said Peytel, that
the attack had been made."

Our friend, the Procureur's Substitut, has dropped, here, the
eloquent and pathetic style altogether, and only gives the unlucky
prisoner's narrative in the baldest and most unimaginative style.
How is a jury to listen to such a fellow? they ought to condemn
him, if but for making such an uninteresting statement. Why not
have helped poor Peytel with some of those rhetorical graces which
have been so plentifully bestowed in the opening part of the act of
accusation? He might have said:--

"Monsieur Peytel is an eminent notary at Belley; he is a man
distinguished for his literary and scientific acquirements; he has
lived long in the best society of the capital; he had been but a
few months married to that young and unfortunate lady, whose loss
has plunged her bereaved husband into despair--almost into madness.
Some early differences had marked, it is true, the commencement of
their union; but these, which, as can be proved by evidence, were
almost all the unhappy lady's fault,--had happily ceased, to give
place to sentiments far more delightful and tender. Gentlemen,
Madame Peytel bore in her bosom a sweet pledge of future concord
between herself and her husband: in three brief months she was to
become a mother.

"In the exercise of his honorable profession,--in which, to
succeed, a man must not only have high talents, but undoubted
probity,--and, gentlemen, Monsieur Peytel DID succeed--DID inspire
respect and confidence, as you, his neighbors, well know;--in the
exercise, I say, of his high calling, Monsieur Peytel, towards the
end of October last, had occasion to make a journey in the
neighborhood, and visit some of his many clients.

"He travelled in his own carriage, his young wife beside him. Does
this look like want of affection, gentlemen? or is it not a mark of
love--of love and paternal care on his part towards the being with
whom his lot in life was linked,--the mother of his coming child,--
the young girl, who had everything to gain from the union with a
man of his attainments of intellect, his kind temper, his great
experience, and his high position? In this manner they travelled,
side by side, lovingly together. Monsieur 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, 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.

"On the very night of the 1st of November, and immediately after
the catastrophe, we remark how Peytel begins to make insinuations
against his servant; and how artfully, in order to render them more
sure, he disseminates them through the different parts of his
narrative. But, in the course of the proceeding, these charges
have met with a most complete denial. Thus we find the disobedient
servant who, at Pont d'Ain, refused to carry the money-chest to his
master's room, under the pretext that the gates of the inn were
closed securely, occupied with tending the horses after their long
journey: meanwhile Peytel was standing by, and neither master nor
servant exchanged a word, and the witnesses who beheld them both
have borne testimony to the zeal and care of the domestic.

"In like manner, we find that the servant, who was so remiss in the
morning as to neglect to go to his master for orders, was ready for
departure before seven o'clock, and had eagerly informed himself
whether Monsieur and Madame Peytel were awake; learning from the
maid of the inn, that they had ordered nothing for their breakfast.
This man, who refused to carry with him a covering for the car,
was, on the contrary, ready to take off his own cloak, and with it
shelter articles of small value; this man, who had been for many
days so silent and gloomy, gave, on the contrary, many proofs of
his gayety--almost of his indiscretion, speaking, at all the inns,
in terms of praise of his master and mistress. The waiter at the
inn at Dauphin, says he was a tall young fellow, mild and good-
natured; 'we talked for some time about horses, and such things; he
seemed to be perfectly natural, and not pre-occupied at all.' At
Pont d'Ain, he talked of his being a foundling; of the place where
he had been brought up, and where he had served; and finally, at
Rossillon, an hour before his death, he conversed familiarly with
the master of the port, and spoke on indifferent subjects.

"All Peytel's insinuations against his servant had no other end
than to show, in every point of Rey's conduct, the behavior of a
man who was premeditating attack. Of what, in fact, does he accuse
him? Of wishing to rob him of 7,500 francs, and of having had
recourse to assassination, in order to effect the robbery. But,
for a premeditated crime, consider what singular improvidence the
person showed who had determined on committing it; what folly and
what weakness there is in the execution of it.

"How many insurmountable obstacles are there in the way of
committing and profiting by crime! On leaving Belley, Louis Rey,
according to Peytel's statement, knowing that his master would
return with money, provided himself with a holster pistol, which
Madame Peytel had once before perceived among his effects. In
Peytel's cabinet there were some balls; four of these were found in
Rey's trunk, on the 6th of November. And, in order to commit the
crime, this domestic had brought away with him a pistol, and no
ammunition; for Peytel has informed us that Rey, an hour before his
departure from Macon, purchased six balls at a gunsmith's. To gain
his point, the assassin must immolate his victims; for this, he has
only one pistol, knowing, perfectly well, that Peytel, in all his
travels, had two on his person; knowing that, at a late hour of the
night, his shot might fail of effect; and that, in this case, he
would be left to the mercy of his opponent.

"The execution of the crime is, according to Peytel's account,
still more singular. Louis does not get off the carriage, until
Peytel tells him to descend. He does not think of taking his
master's life until he is sure that the latter has his eyes open.
It is dark, and the pair are covered in one cloak; and Rey only
fires at them at six paces' distance: he fires at hazard, without
disquieting himself as to the choice of his victim; and the
soldier, who was bold enough to undertake this double murder, has
not force nor courage to consummate it. He flies, carrying in his
hand a useless whip, with a heavy mantle on his shoulders, in spite
of the detonation of two pistols at his ears, and the rapid steps
of an angry master in pursuit, which ought to have set him upon
some better means of escape. And we find this man, full of youth
and vigor, lying with his face to the ground, in the midst of a
public road, falling without a struggle, or resistance, under the
blows of a hammer!

"And suppose the murderer had succeeded in his criminal projects,
what fruit could he have drawn from them?--Leaving, on the road,
the two bleeding bodies; obliged to lead two carriages at a time,
for fear of discovery; not able to return himself, after all the
pains he had taken to speak, at every place at which they had
stopped, of the money which his master was carrying with him; too
prudent to appear alone at Belley; arrested at the frontier, by the
excise officers, who would present an impassable barrier to him
till morning, what could he do, or hope to do? The examination of
the car has shown that Rey, at the moment of the crime, had neither
linen, nor clothes, nor effects of any kind. There was found in
his pockets, when the body was examined, no passport, nor
certificate; one of his pockets contained a ball, of large calibre,
which he had shown, in play, to a girl, at the inn at Macon, a
little horn-handled knife, a snuff-box, a little packet of
gunpowder, and a purse, containing only a halfpenny and some
string. Here is all the baggage, with which, after the execution
of his homicidal plan, Louis Rey intended to take refuge in a
foreign country.* Beside these absurd contradictions, there is
another remarkable fact, which must not be passed over; it is
this:--the pistol found by Rey is of antique form, and the original
owner of it has been found. He is a curiosity-merchant at Lyons;
and, though he cannot affirm that Peytel was the person who bought
this pistol of him, he perfectly recognizes Peytel as having been a
frequent customer at his shop!


* This sentence is taken from another part of the "Acte
d'accusation."


"No, we may fearlessly affirm that Louis Rey was not guilty of the
crime which Peytel lays to his charge. If, to those who knew him,
his mild and open disposition, his military career, modest and
without a stain, the touching regrets of his employers, are
sufficient proofs of his innocence,--the calm and candid observer,
who considers how the crime was conceived, was executed, and what
consequences would have resulted from it, will likewise acquit him,
and free him of the odious imputation which Peytel endeavors to
cast upon his memory.

"But justice has removed the veil, with which an impious hand
endeavored to cover itself. Already, on the night of the 1st of
November, suspicion was awakened by the extraordinary agitation of
Peytel; by those excessive attentions towards his wife, which came
so late; by that excessive and noisy grief, and by those calculated
bursts of sorrow, which are such as Nature does not exhibit. The
criminal, whom the public conscience had fixed upon; the man whose
frightful combinations have been laid bare, and whose falsehoods,
step by step, have been exposed, during the proceedings previous to
the trial; the murderer, at whose hands a heart-stricken family,
and society at large, demands an account of the blood of a wife;--
that murderer is Peytel."

When, my dear Briefless, you are a judge (as I make no doubt you
will be, when you have left off the club all night, cigar-smoking
of mornings, and reading novels in bed), will you ever find it in
your heart to order a fellow-sinner's head off upon such evidence
as this? Because a romantic Substitut du Procureur de Roi chooses
to compose and recite a little drama, and draw tears from juries,
let us hope that severe Rhadamanthine judges are not to be melted
by such trumpery. One wants but the description of the characters
to render the piece complete, as thus:--


Personages Costumes.

SEBASTIAN PEYTAL Meurtrier Habillement complet de notaire
perfide: figure pâle, barbe
noire, cheveux noirs.

LOUIS REY Soldat rétiré, bon, Costume ordinaire; il porte sur
brave, franc, jovial ses épaules une couverture de
aimant le vin, les cheval.
femmes, la gaieté,
ses maîtres surtout;
vrai Français, enfin

WOLF Lieutenant de gendarmerie.

FÉLICITÉ D'ALCAZAR Femme et victime de Peytel.

Médecins, Villageois, Filles d'Auberge, Garçons d'Ecurie, &c. &c.

La scène se passe sur le pont d'Andert, entre Macon et Belley. Il
est minuit. La pluie tombe: les tonnerres grondent. Le ciel est
convert de nuages, et sillonné d'éclairs.


All these personages are brought into play in the Procureur's
drama; the villagers come in with their chorus; the old lieutenant
of gendarmes with his suspicions; Rey's frankness and gayety, the
romantic circumstances of his birth, his gallantry and fidelity,
are all introduced, in order to form a contrast with Peytel, and to
call down the jury's indignation against the latter. But are these
proofs? or anything like proofs? And the suspicions, that are to
serve instead of proofs, what are they?

"My servant, Louis Rey, was very sombre and reserved," says Peytel;
"he refused to call me in the morning, to carry my money-chest to
my room, to cover the open car when it rained." The Prosecutor
disproves this by stating that Rey talked with the inn maids and
servants, asked if his master was up, and stood in the inn-yard,
grooming the horses, with his master by his side, neither speaking
to the other. Might he not have talked to the maids, and yet been
sombre when speaking to his master? Might he not have neglected to
call his master, and yet have asked whether he was awake? Might he
not have said that the inn-gates were safe, out of hearing of the
ostler witness? Mr. Substitute's answers to Peytel's statements
are no answer at all. Every word Peytel said might be true, and
yet Louis Rey might not have committed the murder; or every word
might have been false, and yet Louis Rey might have committed the
murder.

"Then," says Mr. Substitute, "how many obstacles are there to the
commission of the crime? And these are--

"1. Rey provided himself with ONE holster pistol, to kill two
people, knowing well that one of them had always a brace of pistols
about him.

"2. He does not think of firing until his master's eyes are open:
fires at six paces, not caring at whom he fires, and then runs
away.

"3. He could not have intended to kill his master, because he had
no passport in his pocket, and no clothes; and because he must have
been detained at the frontier until morning; and because he would
have had to drive two carriages, in order to avoid suspicion.

"4. And, a most singular circumstance, the very pistol which was
found by his side had been bought at the shop of a man at Lyons,
who perfectly recognized Peytel as one of his customers, though he
could not say he had sold that particular weapon to Peytel."

Does it follow, from this, that Louis Rey is not the murderer, much
more, that Peytel is? Look at argument No. 1. Rey had no need to
kill two people: he wanted the money, and not the blood. Suppose
he had killed Peytel, would he not have mastered Madame Peytel
easily?--a weak woman, in an excessively delicate situation,
incapable of much energy, at the best of times.

Copyright (c) 2007. famouswriterz.com. All rights reserved.