Fualdès was in the wrong:, and that our fortune
would be made. Then Colard raised the knife.
I turned away my head. Fualdès cried out
once or twice, and I heard him say, 'Let me
make my peace with God.' There was a tub
placed to catch the blood, and, as our pig had
had no wash, we gave it the blood. By the light
of the lamp that my wife held, I saw the curtains
of the bed move, and said so, Benoit ran and
found our little Magdeleine asleep. Bastide
offered us four or five hundred francs to allow
her to be killed. My wife made me signs to
consent, but I refused. We had now to dispose
of Fualdès's body. We tied it up in a sheet and
blanket. Bach said he had a porter ready.
Bastide wished to put the package in the closet
(in which, unknown to him, the lady was), in
order that the porter might not see what it was.
On opening the door, he cried out in an awful
voice, 'What's this? We're all discovered.
Don't let's neglect our safety.' The lady cried
out, 'I've seen nothing; I know nothing.'
'That shows,' said Bastide, 'that she's seen and
knows everything.' Bastide and Colard were
for killing her: but Jausion declared that if any
one touched her he would have to answer it to
him. They gave way. Bach was for her taking
an oath. 'Bah!' said Bastide. 'What's an
oath? Words. We must frighten her, and swear
to her that if she ever lets it be supposed that
she came here to-day, she is a dead woman. Do
you hear?' turning round, and in a terrible voice,
' If you speak, you die, either by knife, poison,
water, or fire. You die!' he repeated, in so
dreadful a voice that we were all frightened.
Jausion then led her out. Bach also went out,
both returning shortly, Bach bringing his porter.
The package was still on the table. 'Is that
your bale?' said the porter. *I can't manage if.
by myself.' ' We'll help you,' said Bach, ' but it's
not tobacco.' 'No!' said Bastide, in a big voice,
' it's not tobacco; it's a dead body.' The porter
shuddered. ' You tremble! Be at ease. And let
me tell all, that the first who takes it into his
head to speak of what has passed, is passing, or
is going to pass, will speak his own doom.' Silence
or death!' Colard promised for all; we repeated
the oath after him. Bastide and Jausion made
us repeat it after we had thrown the body into
the river." Bancal's confession concluded with an
account of the transport of the body, in substance
the same as that of Bousquier. He died the
day after making it.

It got to be known in the town that some
unknown female had, probably unintentionally,
witnessed the murder. Who was it? Humour was
busy with several names in a manner not at
all pleasant to the owners. But, on the 29th
of July, M, Clémandot, an officer, let fall expressions
which showed that he knew who it was.
The friends of a lady, whose name had been
mentioned, at once called on him to state all
that he knew, and the matter coming to the
ears of the prefect, Clémandot declared that a
Madame Manzon had herself told him that she
was in the house of the Bancals on the 19th.
This Madame Manzon, separated from her
husband, was living with her only child. The
daughter of M. Enjalran, a respected magistrate,
her conduct had forfeited her her position in the
best society at Rodez, to which, however, she
still held on loosely. At the request of her
father, she was privately questioned by the
prefect. It would be impossible, in anything like a
reasonable space, to give an account of the
strange conduct of this woman. The prayers
and threats of her father, the entreaties of the
prefect, confrontations with Clémandot, and a
visit to the scene of the crime, at last produced
an avowal that, being on the evening of the 19th
in the Hue des Hebdomadiers, she was alarmed
by a noise, and entered the first door she saw—
that of the Bancals—and that from the closet
into which she was thrust on the entry of the
men dragging Fualdès, she had witnessed the
murder; that she was sworn to secresy under
threats of death; and that, after wandering
about all night, she returned home in the morning
so frightened, that for many nights she was
obliged to have a little girl to sleep in her room.
She added, that she was at the time dressed in
man's clothes. Scarcely, however, had she made
this declaration, than she retracted it, and on
inquiry it appeared that the friends of Bastide
had had an interview with her. Day after
day she varied her account, and finished by
asserting that the whole story was a pure invention
of Clémandot's. Thus matters went on: the
interest of the public being constantly kept at a
high pitch by the vagaries of Madame Manzon,
who came to be known as Madame Mensonge:
and by an attempted escape of the principal
prisoners.

At length, on the 18th of August, the trial
came on before the Court of Assizes at Rodez.
The prisoners were Bastide, Jausion, his wife,
the woman Bancal and her daughter Marianne,
Anne Benoit, Colard, Bach, Missonnier, Bousquier,
Fraucoise Galtier, and one other person,
the charge against whom was afterwards
withdrawn. No fewer than three hundred and twenty
witnesses were summoned. The prisoners
adopted what is called "the system of denegation,"
which merely means that they deny their
guilt. Bastide called several witnesses to establish
an alibi, but he appeared to be the only one for
whom a regular defence was attempted. The
interest attaching to the confession of Bousquier
was wholly lost sight of, when, on the fifth day of
the trial, Madame Manzon was called. Expectation
was not disappointed. Half avowals,
theatrical gestures, entreaties of the court, faintings.
At one time a file of soldiers was placed for her
protection between herself and the prisoners.
The judge, to reassure her, also ordered a sentry
to stand guard at the door of her house. But
all in vain. She declared that some woman
had been present and witnessed the murder, but
that she herself never set foot in the house till
taken there by the magistrates. Yet she confirmed