the head was lower than the other portions of the body, and the limbs had been bent nearly double; so the body was buried shortly after death, before the rigor mortis had taken place." "Well, Prisoners Bastien and Robert," said the procureur, " you see : these gentlemen on coming here did not even know why they had been summoned; and in less than two hours they have already drawn a striking portrait of your victim. They have made us witnesses of your crime. To the de scription which they have given me, only the name of the victim is wanting, — that of the Widow Houet." "Wait!" interrupted the anatomist. "This name, which signifies nothing to us, I will tell you what it represented to those who knew the human being whose bones lie here before us. The woman whose head I now hold in my hands was avaricious, suspicious, and passionate. She was also exceedingly timid." These details, given by the savant Dumoutier, seemed for an instant to imbue the skeleton with life. For a moment the illu sion was so great that Robert, the man in the working-man's dress, drew back frozen with terror; a cold perspiration stood upon his brow; his teeth chattered, and he stretched out his hands as if seeking for support. They encountered an arm, — that of the short man with the green spec tacles. At this contact Robert seemed to awaken, as a man recovering from a fright ful nightmare, and he repulsed Bastien's arm with a movement of disgust, horror and hatred. Then, making a violent effort to control himself, he relapsed into a state of mournful impassibility. "The identification is overwhelming; the proof is complete," said the procureur du roi. " Gentlemen of the Faculty, I asked of you a miracle; you have performed it."
On the 13th of September, 1821, the Widow Houet, a woman about sixty-seven
years of age, disappeared from her home in the Rue des Mathurins. At the time of her disappearance she en joyed an income of about 6,000 francs per an num, having received at her brother's death the amount of 43,000 francs, and possessing, besides, property of her own. She had two children, — a son, almost an idiot from his birth, and a daughter, who, in 1813, married one Robert, a dealer in wines. From the time of this marriage a de cided misunderstanding prevailed between the widow and her son-in-law; disputes as to money matters aggravated the antipathy which the former felt for Robert, and she feared her son-in-law to such an extent that she was often heard to exclaim, " When I perish it will be by his hands." On a Thursday, the 13th of September, 1 82 1, about six o'clock in the morning, Ro bert went to the widow's house and invited her to breakfast with him on the same day. "I will go," she replied. About seven o'clock a woman, named Ledion-Jusson, who did the work about the house, arrived; the Widow Houet reproached her for being late, and a few moments afterward left the house. She wore a morning dress and a shawl; she walked rapidly, seemed excited, and talked to herself as she went along. She went down the Rue des Mathurins, and was seen in the Rue de la Harpe, near the house where Robert dwelt. About eleven o'clock Robert's wife went to seek her mother, whom she had expected to breakfast with her. At noon she again returned to the Rue des Mathurins, but the widow had not made her appearance. The next morning the Roberts were noti fied that the Widow Houet had not reap peared. Robert was alone in the house when this news came. " Say nothing to my wife," he said; " it will disturb her. I will tell her myself later." Within two days of this singular disap pearance, the news of which was so singu larly received, one Herolle received, to be handed to the woman Jusson, a letter post
