plorable errors in which the examination abounded. He found Victoire could not be shaken in her statements; she was always faithful to her first account.
The 3d of December, 1784, Victoire through her advocate presented a mémoire to the procureur-général du roi, who referred the matter to M. Simon de Montigny, the oldest of the deputies. This magistrate bestowed upon the matter all the care and attention which this extraordinary case demanded, and made a report which was at that time considered a chef-d'œuvre of logic.
The 12th of March, 1785, a decree was issued ordering a more thorough examination into the case, during which Victoire Salmon was to remain in prison. A curious decree which commuted to an indefinite imprisonment the penalty of death formerly pronounced against her! However it was something gained to have finally disposed of the judgment of 1782.
Finally, in 1785, M. Lecauchois succeeded in having the matter brought before the Council of State, which referred the case to the Parliament of Paris. On the 23d of May, 1786, this tribunal rendered a decree acquitting Victoire Salmon and reserving to her the right to prosecute her denunciators.
The decree which discharged Victoire was received with great enthusiasm. All Paris was interested in this poor servant, who became the heroine of the day. Every one believed in her innocence, and felt that she had been simply a victim to Madame Duparc. The people thronged around her; whenever she was to appear at any place of public entertainment, her presence was announced by posters. She was all the rage.
She received from many charitable persons contributions which would have insured her a comfortable living if her defender, M. Lecauchois, had not made her pay liberally for the services which he had rendered.
After her acquittal Victoire established herself in Paris. She married there, and engaged in a small business from which she managed to make a decent living. It was a happy ending to all her sufferings. All the victims of judicial error have not escaped so fortunately.
ON CIRCUIT IN THE OLDEN TIME.
NEARLY six hundred years have passed away since those high functionaries, the justices of either bench and the barons of the Exchequer, went their first circuits. Times have strangely altered since then; many a good old custom has become obsolete, and many a long-standing iniquity has been plucked up; the judges have been increased in number, yet the circuits, although shorn of much of their original grandeur and ancient importance, still remain, and are likely so to do until, by electric telegraph or some such method, prisoners may be tried and punished with out giving any one the trouble of journeying throughout England to try them.
A fine sight must it have been in years gone by to witness the judicial cavalcade starting on the long and tedious circuit. Steam, coaches, and even carriages were alike unknown in those days; and the equestrian performances of those who wore the judicial ermine would put to shame those of the youngest of their degenerate successors.
First rode the circuit porter, clad in leather jerkin, with huge jack-boots, bearing in his hand a goodly ebony wand capped with silver, and whose duty it was to cause all men of what estate soever, whom they met or overtook, to draw up and do lowly reverence as the sovereign's representative
