| 298 | 299 | 300 | 301 | 302 |
| 1 | 90 | 180 | 269 | 359 |
|
through the agency of thorns, from the uncaged interior of the
dress! These, I say, are things which one may well be pardoned for
disbelieving; yet, taken collectedly, they form, perhaps, less of
reasonable ground for suspicion, than the one startling circumstance of
the articles' having been left in this thicket at all, by any murderers
who had enough precaution to think of removing the corpse. You will not
have apprehended me rightly, however, if you suppose it my design to
deny this thicket as the scene of the outrage. There might have been a
wrong here, or, more possibly, an accident at Madame Deluc's. But, in
fact, this is a point of minor importance. We are not engaged in an
attempt to discover the scene, but to produce the perpetrators of the
murder. What I have adduced, notwithstanding the minuteness with which I
have adduced it, has been with the view, first, to show the folly of the
positive and headlong assertions of Le Soleil, but secondly and chiefly,
to bring you, by the most natural route, to a further contemplation of
the doubt whether this assassination has, or has not been, the work of a
gang.
"We will resume this question by mere allusion to the revolting details
of the surgeon examined at the inquest. It is only necessary to say that
is published inferences, in regard to the number of ruffians, have been
properly ridiculed as unjust and totally baseless, by all the reputable
anatomists of Paris. Not that the matter might not have been as
inferred, but that there was no ground for the inference:--was there not
much for another?
300
Page
Quick Jump
|