"Now we have the opportunity we waited
for, we must send him to his family." On
the registers of the seminary the transaction
was mentioned as a seeming impropriety in
money matters. Verger insists in saying—

"I was free to do with the money
whatever I pleased."

The President says: " You are not accused
of theft, only of an impropriety."

Verger: " The word is in the act of
accusation."

This document, indeed, which, far from
confining itself to the murder of the
Archbishop, rakes up the whole life of Verger,
does, in fact, say: " He was sent away from
the seminary for a fault which compromised
his probity " — that is for dishonesty.

Verger left the seminary in eighteen
hundred and forty-four, when eighteen years
of age. M. Dupanloup had recorded that "he
was not fitted for the ecclesiastical state." In
eighteen hundred and forty-six, however, he
entered into the grand seminary of Meaux,
recommended by an ecclesiastic as " an excellent
young man." The curé of his native
parish gave him, in eighteen hundred and
forty-seven, according to the rules of the
grand seminary, a most flattering testimonial.
His protectors gave him letters full of eulogy
in eighteen hundred and forty-eight and
forty-nine, which justified the best hopes. He
was made a professor in the little seminary,
and received the tonsure in eighteen hundred
and forty-eight; he received the subdeaconate
and deaconate in eighteen hundred and forty-nine,
and although too young, the priesthood
in eighteen hundred and fifty with a
dispensation in regard to the required age. The
curé of Neuilly begged the superior of the
grand seminary, on the seventeenth of May,
eighteen hundred and fifty, to send him, if
not contrary to the rules, as soon as possible
after his ordination, the good Verger — le bon
Verger—whom he regarded as one of his
children, to whom he had given the first
communion, and whom he would be happy
to assist in his first mass. The directors of
the little seminary, M. Sibon and M. Millaut,
said also:

"Since his superiors have made him a
priest, after an examination, he is no doubt
improved, let us go to his first mass and
make an amende honorable for the judgment
we have passed upon him."

Verger: " An amende honorable! You hear
it, gentlemen of the jury!"

On his return from England in eighteen
hundred and fifty-two, Sister Milanie, at
three different times, requested the curé of
Saint Germain l'Auxerrois to receive him as
one of his assistants; M. Sibour, the vicaire-général,
requested, and the Archbishop consented,
to his reception into the presbytre or
manse. Legrand made himself his sole
creditor by lending him eight hundred francs
to pay his debts.

L'Abbé Legrand says: " He remained two
years and seven months as a priest, employed
in several secondary capacities."

Verger: "At the Tuileries!"

Legrand: " In effect, I recommended him
as habitual priest at the Tuileries. He
performed there certain ceremonies."

Verger: "All."

Legrand: " During two years the accused
fulfilled his functions in a satisfactory manner.
I only found him taciturn. I hoped to succeed
in dominating his character in the end.
Circumstances which took place in the end
of July, eighteen hundred and fifty- five,
having obliged me to address to him some
reproaches, they were not well received."

Verger: " Pardon! You have got my
letter — read it. I threw myself upon my
knees before him upon the earth. I almost
adored him."

The President: " Wait; we shall read
your letters by and by."

Legrand: " You allude to another fault of
which I shall not speak, because a fault
forgiven is a fault forgotten. It was about
something else. I was obliged to reduce the
exercise of his ministry."

Verger: " My letters, gentlemen of the
jury — the letters written and signed by me;
read these letters!"

The President: " Will you not hold your
tongue?"

Verger: "The truth will not be silent."

Legrand: " When obliged to give an
account to the vicaire-général of Verger's
difficult temper, I told him I wished the
accused to retain his ecclesiastical position
at the Tuileries, of which he was very
tenacious."

Verger: Oh! Yes."

Legrand: " Only I did not think it my
duty to solicit the continuation of confessional
powers, because it added nothing to
his situation, and a great deal to my responsibility.
He appeared to submit, and, on the
sixth of August, I received a letter which
you can read. On the eighth the accused
sent me another letter, respectful and calm,
in which he told me he intended to quit the
manse. I begged him not to take a step
which would compromise his future."

Verger: " Let the letter be read. It was
after that letter that he tried to have me
locked up as a madman; he does not say
that."

The President: " Can't you wait? You do
not know what the witness is going to say."

Legrand: " The next day he left, and took
away his furniture. The same day an
autographed circular was distributed all over the
parish by the Abbé Verger, full of accusations
to which I do not think it my duty to
answer."

Verger: "That is never answered."

The President: " Accused, you demand
that the letters may be read?"

Verger: "Yes, M. le Président."

The President commences to read.