with the deceased such suspicious relations, who had occupied in her house so strange a position, ought surely to receive the attention of justice.
An old unfrocked monk, the Abbé Poulard, was designated in the will of Madame Mazel under the name of Father Poulard, a ci-devant friar. Although he was not named for any special legacy, she had requested that after her death he be permitted to enjoy the same advantages which, he had during her life. M. René de Savonnières was charged to look after and provide for the excommunicated monk.
The ex-Dominican had a sister named Madame Chapelain, the widow of a Councillor of Mans. This woman, indigent like her brother, of an attractive person, was admired by M. George de Savonnières, the second son of Madame Mazel. In spite of her poverty she hoped to bring about a marriage with the young treasurer, and by her skilful coquetry had so inflamed M. George that he had shut his eyes to the unsuitableness of such a union. Madame Mazel, very set in her wishes, had opposed this marriage; while the Abbé Poulard ardently desired it.
It was said that some six months before the crime M. George had shown his passion by gifts of great magnificence: he had given the young widow a suit of brocade, the slippers and skirts of which were embroidered in gold and silver. The widow had accepted these gifts, and continued her coquetries towards the infatuated treasurer. M. Barbier saw in these matrimonial intrigues an interest in the death of Madame Mazel far more powerful than any which could have actuated poor Lebrun. The Abbé Poulard, an unscrupulous person, had recently had given to him the pass-key of Lebrun. He had made it a point to announce, during the last meal taken with Madame Mazel, that he was going to sleep that night in his room in the neighborhood. The Abbe had known at the house of Madame one Berry, who had been discharged as a thief, and whose shirt and cravat had been believed to have been recognized in those which the murderer had left behind him.
Another suspicious thing against the monk: since the arrest of Lebrun he had not ceased to make singular charges against him. He affirmed that he alone was guilty of the murder, and mingled with these charges offensive insinuations against the memory of his benefactress. Then he accused Lebrun of complicity with Berry, this man whom the investigation so obstinately ignored. "Madame Mazel," he said, "had in her youth had a child by a great lord, who had given her to educate it a large sum of money. This child was no other than Berry, who afterward became the lackey of his mother. Lebrun, initiated into all the secrets of his mistress, had revealed to Berry the history of his birth, hoping to make him his son-in-law. Lebrun had endeavored to have the bastard, driven from his mother's house, restored to her favor; he had introduced him in the night into her sleeping-chamber, and, supplicating and threatening, Berry had employed, to move Madame Mazel or to frighten her, prayers and entreaties. Passionate as she was, the mother could not listen coolly to his words; she seized him by the throat, and, forced to defend himself, he had drawn a knife and killed her in a fit of rage and without premeditation."
These contradictory assertions, this absurd story, his interest in the death of Madame Mazel, his disreputable past life, all served to arouse the suspicions of the advocate against the monk.
But the magistrates would see nothing, would hear nothing. It was necessary to proceed with caution, for the direction given to the investigation was suggested by M. René de Savonnières. As regarded him, M. Barbier also discovered some facts which set him to thinking.
René de Savonnières had married, some fifteen years before, a young girl, whose scandalous conduct had provoked the harshness of Madame Mazel. She had obtained against her daughter-in-law a lettre de cachet.
