gration. He had assisted in removing the furniture, and in a kneading-trough had found the small sum of nine francs and eighty centimes, which he had turned over to the juge de paix. It was he who first suggested the idea that a robbery might have been committed; and he informed oneof.the gendarmes that at the time of his death the old man possessed four casks and two .half-casks of wine. While the authorities were endeavoring to account for the disappearance of the wine and the casks, they discovered in the woods, a short distance from the house, tracks made by the wheels of a cart. Upon repairing to the place indicated, the juge destruction, M. David, found that these tracks were old ones, and could not have been made by a vehicle used to carry away the goods after the murder. The private life of Lesnier, as is usual in such cases, was carefully investigated. They found nothing in it absolutely criminal; but it was ascertained that his relations with the wife of an innkeeper of Fieu, a man named Lespagne, had been of so intimate a nature that her husband had driven her from his house. The mayor of Fieu, on being ques tioned as to the character of the school master, represented him as being heavily in debt; he owed two hundred francs to one man and one hundred francs to another. At the same time the magistrates learned of some singular expressions which had fallen from the lips of Lesnier, and which indi cated that he had entertained the idea that he should not be troubled with paying the annuity for a much longer period. But, after all, this idea was easily to be accounted for, taking into consideration the advanced age of Gay. It was, undoubtedly, an indis creet utterance on the part of Lesnier, but from such an expression to the commission of a crime was a long step. A statement wholly voluntary and carry ing great weight from the character of the witness, was that of M. Joseph Delmas, cure of the parish of Fieu; and it was this state
ment which first drew the suspicions of the authorities upon Lesnier. This witness testified that Gay had com plained bitterly to him of Lesnier's conduct toward him, and that upon speaking to Lesnier of his treatment of the old man, the latter had received the suggestions of the cure with a very bad grace. He also stated that since the tragedy Lesnier had appeared very uneasy, and had acted in a suspicious manner. The force of this evidence of the cure was, however, weakened by the admis sion on his part that he had had trouble with Lesnier concerning some money matters. This statement, as we have said, contrib uted greatly to fixing suspicions upon Les nier. Justice, however, refused to act upon mere suspicions which had apparently so little foundation, when a new occurrence swept away all uncertainty. On Sunday, the 2ist of November, six days after the commission of the crime, about half-past six o'clock in the evening, a man, frightened, trembling in every limb, and unable to speak, his garments in great dis order, rushed into the house of the Teurlays, who lived in a place called Casse-Galoche. On entering, the man (Daignaud by name) sank into a chair. When he finally suffi ciently recovered himself to be able to speak, he said that he had been stopped in the woods by two men who attempted to rob him. He had, with the greatest difficulty, escaped from their hands, after striking one of them with an umbrella. The next day Daignaud made a similar declaration to the mayor; he swore that one of his assailants wore a blue vest and panta loons, and a hat without a visor. The other, who was concealed behind a hedge, and who did not approach him, was a tall man and wore a red vest. Daignaud would not swear that he recognized these two men; but he had his suspicions, and thought that he could identify them if they were presented to him. He told the same story to the brigadier of gendarmes, but this time he added that he had recognized the men as the Lesniers,
