Causes Celbbres. Duclos at once sent a postilion to Melun to advise the public prosecutor of that town of the crime. This officer and the juge de paix of Melun at once repaired to the place. The spectacle which met their eyes was horrible. The body of the unfortunate pos tilion was frightfully mutilated; the head had been split by the blow of a sabre, the breast was pierced with three enormous wounds, and one hand had been severed from the arm. Around this first victim the trodden grass still preserved the marks of numerous footprints, and there were evi dences of a vigorous resistance. At a distance of a few steps an overcoat was found, gray with a blue border, which had not belonged to either the postilion or the courier. Near the coat was a broken sabre and its scabbard. The blade, stained with blood, had upon one side this inscrip tion, " L 'honnenr me conduit',' and upon the other, " Pour le salnt de ma patrie." They found also, in the grass, another scabbard and the sheath of a knife, as well as a spur with silver links tied together with coarse thread. The magistrates then went toward the Pont du Pouilly and viewed the body of Excoffon. The neck bore two deep wounds made with a sharp instrument, and upon the body were three other wounds evidently made by the same weapon. The two bodies were rigid, and the crime must have been committed many hours be fore, without doubt on the previous evening about nine or half-past, after the relay at Lieursaint. Under the Pont du Pouilly they found the boots of the postilion, one of which was filled with blood. Everything indicated that these assassina tions had been committed for the purpose of robbery. Among the letters and papers scattered upon the ground were found the list of Excoffon, and on it the imprint of a bloody finger marked certain places, show ing that one of the murderers had consulted this list of the packages carried by the courier, while the others probably sought out and
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opened the desired ones. The list showed that the courier had in his care a large amount of money and drafts. An inquiry was at once commenced which developed two evident facts : first, that four men on horseback had been seen on the road from Paris to Lieursaint on the afternoon of April 27, riding back and forth, and that they reappeared in the evening accompanied by another companion. The second important fact was the disappearance of an individual who had been observed by several persons riding on the carriage beside the courier. It was very probable that this traveller was a fifth assassin. The overcoat abandoned at the place of the crime answered the de scription of the one said to have been worn by this person as testified to by several witnesses who saw him. For a time the investigation was without important result, but at length the authorities got upon the right track. It was ascertained that, on the morning of the discovery of the crime, four horses covered with sweat had been taken by a certain Etienne to the house of an innkeeper named Aubry in the Rue des Fosses-Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois; at about seven o'clock Etienne returned for them, accompanied by one of his comrades named Bernard, and took them to the house of Citizen Muiron, where the two men re mained until evening and then departed. Following up this trail, it was presently found that this Etienne was named Courriol; that he had lived up to April 27 in the Rue du Petit-Reposoir; that he slept there on the night of the 26th; that he had not been seen at this house since the crime, and that he lived with a woman named Madelaine Breban, who passed as his wife. The authorities succeeded in getting upon the track of Courriol. From the Rue du PetitReposoir, he went with his mistress to lodge at the house of a man named Richard, No. 27 Rue de la Bucherie; both remained there until the 6th of May, when, having procured a passport for Troyes, they departed. The man who furnished the carriage was a Jew
