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"We are persuaded that pursuit has hitherto been on a false scent, so
far as it has been directed to the Barrière du Roule. It is impossible
that a person so well known to thousands as this young woman was, should
have passed three blocks without some one having seen her; and any one
who saw her would have remembered it, for she interested all who knew
her. It was when the streets were full of people, when she went out....
It is impossible that she could have gone to the Barrière du Roule, or
to the Rue des Drômes, without being recognized by a dozen persons; yet
no one has come forward who saw her outside of her mother's door, and
there is no evidence, except the testimony concerning her expressed
intentions, that she did go out at all. Her gown was torn, bound round
her, and tied; and by that the body was carried as a bundle. If the
murder had been committed at the Barrière du Roule, there would have
been no necessity for any such arrangement. The fact that the body was
found floating near the Barrière, is no proof as to where it was thrown
into the water..... A piece of one of the unfortunate girl's petticoats,
two feet long and one foot wide, was torn out and tied under her chin
around the back of her head, probably to prevent screams. This was done
by fellows who had no pocket-handkerchief."
A day or two before the Prefect called upon us, however, some important
information reached the police, which seemed to overthrow, at least,
the chief portion of Le Commerciel's argument. Two small boys, sons of a
Madame Deluc, while roaming among the woods near the Barrière du Roule,
chanced to penetrate a close thicket, within which were three or four
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