not recover damages; the hand of fate lay too
heavily on them for any scraps of supererogatory
good fortune to slip through her fingers; yet if
they might only recover their own, and conquer
their rights, they scarcely asked for the extra
grace of benefits.

During the last sittings of the court on this
trial, M. Mérilhou spied out the notary Coute
sitting by M. Mauguin, the advocate on the
Folleville side. He had slunk in, keeping
within the shade, but the quick eyes of the
lawyer discovered him, and showing him to the
judge, he cried aloud: "Behold him—the forger
—forger by habit and profession!"

Coute started, and turned pale, then fell
swooning to the ground.

"Take out that man," said the president.

In eight days' time Coute the forger was dead.
Madame de Folleville did not long survive him.

Six years after this, on the 10th of May, 1834,
the Chamber of Deputies, on the motion of M.
Humann, voted the family a further sum of two
hundred and fifty-two thousand one hundred
francs; and in 1845, the deputies of the department
of the Nord, in a letter signed also by two
hundred and thirty-eight other deputies,
demanded from the government the restitution of
the whole property, and the return to peace and
honour of the Lesurques family—the family of
one "whose innocence has been mathematically
demonstrated." A copy of this petition was
sent to Louis Philippe by the hands of Marshal
Soult; and M. Méquiilet still preserves the
original, with its two hundred and thirty precious
autograph signatures: many of men long since
dead and cold in their graves, and some of men
whom after years have rendered world-famous
and of immortal renown.

Once more they seemed to be near the goal.
The Keeper of the Seals and M. Faustin Hélie
took them warmly in hand; but a mere
technical mistake—the substitution of "probable
error" for "acknowledged error"—set the whole
matter adrift, and undid all the work that had
gone before. It was during this time of loss
and annoyance, when M. Méquiilet and Madame
Danjou were working hard to get the mistake
rectified, that M. Meilheurat said to Madame
Danjou—the daughter who had been so
constant and persevering throughout—"Madame,
we are not sure that your father was innocent;"
a speech both false and cruel, for of late years
the innocence of Lesurques had been proved
and acknowledged everywhere. It was too much
for the overtaxed spirit, which had fought for
justice so long and nobly, to bear. Something
in it crushed her beyond her power of hope and
endurance; and perhaps with the malady of her
mother upon her, she flung herself into theSeine,
and, true or false, the report goes, that her body
floated to exactly opposite the Chamber of
Deputies, where it was recovered and recognised.

But though the fine-natured woman was dead,
M. Méquiilet still remained; and in 1851 the
matter was again brought before the public and
the legislature. On the 25th of January, M. de
Laboulie, reporter of the commission appointed
to examine a petition from the family, declared
that "the innocence of Lesurques is
incontestable, that it is not enough to proclaim it,
that the decree of 1796 must be quashed, and
the rehabilitation proceeded with." Then a
commission was named to revise the whole procedure,
and propose terms of reparation; and on
the 19th of March the Assembly took into
consideration the proposition of two of its members,
which proposition was "the modification of the
article (443) in the Criminal Code, by which all
retrospective interference is denied to his
relatives." At the close of 1851 came the coup
d'état, and the "affaire Lesurques" must needs
give way before the more important and stirring
public matters which then convulsed France
and stirred Europe.

For six years M. Méquiilet was absent from
France, and the cannon of Sebastopol drowned
the voices of a few private victims whose wrongs
dated back more than sixty years; but now the
brave old man has returned to his post; France
is at peace—for the moment—and a supreme
endeavour is being made both by the veteran and
by other friends of the family—Henry d'Audigier
and Jules Favre, as was said in our first
report—to get the matter settled, and the last
stones rolled away from the tomb of Lesurques.
Perhaps the present emperor will perfect what
so many have hitherto only half done, and
reinstate the family of the wrongfully condemned. A
law to this effect is the real point at issue. If it
can be obtained, the "affaire Lesurques" is at
an end; if rejected, it will be difficult to do for
one exceptional case what is denied as of general
right. Besides, the article 443 must first be
abrogated before the "logic" of our neighbours
will entertain the right of appeal in the family
at all. But the battle has been a brave one, and
M. Méquiilet, now an old man of eighty, has
earned for himself a reputation for courage and
benevolence equal to any hitherto obtained by
the most famous advocates of the innocent
oppressed.

                           NEW WORK
         BY SIR EDWARD BULWER LYTTON.
                           NEXT WEEK
Will be continued (to be completed next March)
                     A STRANGE STORY,
                              BY THE
       AUTHOR OF "MY NOVEL", "RIENZI," &c. &c.

  On THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12, will be published,
                         price Fourpence,
               TOM TIDDLER'S GROUND.
                          FORMING THE
                 EXTRA DOUBLE NUMBER
                        FOR CHRISTMAS.