on opinions which carried the number of
those actually murdered, to twelve, sixteen,
eighteen, it may be gathered from hints let fall
at intervals by the female prisoner, as well as
from the vast accumulation of clothes and the
like (among which were numerous articles which
must have belonged to children of nine or ten
years old), that these intermediate periods
described by Dumollard as presenting "nothing
remarkable," were stained with deeds as
horrible as those confessed to: deeds, perhaps,
never to be revealed on earth.

The trial commenced on the twenty-ninth of
January of the present year, at the assizes of the
Ain, sitting at Bourg: the woman Dumollard
being included in the act of accusation. It
lasted four days. Through the politeness of the
officials it was not difficult for a stranger to
obtain an excellent place in the crowded hall, and
the temptation of witnessing an important
French criminal trial was too great to be resisted
by the passing traveller who writes this account
of it,

The proceedings commenced at ten o'clock,
under the presidency of M. Marilbat, of the
Imperial Court of Lyons: the procureur-general
on his right, the procureur-imperial on his left:
and the magistrates of Bourg, Trevoux, and
Montlael on the bench behind.

A short pause, and the prisoner appeared,
escorted by four gendarmes, his wife following.

"There he is! There he is! " murmured the
assembly.

"Yes, here I am! " retorted the prisoner,
waving his hat, as a popular candidate might at
an election.

He was placed on a bench at a little distance
from his wife, and had the appearance of a hale
rustic of fifty, or thereabouts; his hair, beard, and
moustache, thick and dark; his nose aquiline;
eyes blue, round, and very prominent; his whole
expression singularly calm and self-possessed.
The swelling on his upper lip, by which he had
been more than once identified, was very
apparent. He had told the jailer that it was
occasioned by the sting of a poisonous fly.

The phrenological development of this man
presented some extraordinary traits. The skull,
enormously large at the base, sloped upward and
backward, until it terminated almost in a cone—a
point too acute to be appreciated without passing
the hand through his thick hair. The organs
of destructiveness, circumspection, and self-
reliance, exhibited the most marked development.
In front, the skull rapidly receding, presented,
indeed, a "forehead villanous low." From the
root of the nose to the root of the hair, it did
not exceed three inches. The organs of
comparison, causality, ideality, &c., were all but
imperceptible; nay, in some instances, presented
an actual depression. In a word, the cruel,
brute-like character of this head was due rather
to the absence of almost every good feature than
to the extreme development of the bad. It was
a type of skull commonly found among nations
yet beyond the pale of civilisation.

The jury having been empannelled, and two
supplementary jurors having been chosen by lot,
to supply the places of any who might, from
illness or other cause, be disqualified from
sitting out the trial, the indictment was read.

Scarcely had the last word dropped from the
officer's lips, than Dumollard rose, and beckoned
eagerly to his counsel, M Lardière. The latter
approached:

"There is a draught of air somewhere," said
the prisoner, "which really annoys me
excessively. Can nothing be done to remedy it?"

This important matter arranged to the
prisoner's satisfaction, the list of witnesses—
seventy in number—was read aloud—all (save
one, deceased) answering to their names.

Next came the interrogatory; that doubtful
feature in the otherwise excellent system of
French criminal procedure. It was conducted,
however, in the present instance, with dignity
and fairness. Dumollard was questioned on his
domestic relations.

"Your father was a Hungarian?"

"Yes."

"What became of him?"

"I cannot say. (Then, hesitatingly:) If you
insist upon my explaining, I will."

"Certainly. You are here to explain."

"My father was well-to-do in his own land.
My mother told me that, in eighteen hundred
and fourteen, we went into Italy—to Padua.
There my father was taken prisoner by the
Austrians. We never saw him again."

[A horrible story, but resting on very
substantial proof, and fully credited at Trevoux,
held that Dumollard's father had been implicated
in a plot against the life of the Emperor of
Austria. On being recognised at Padua, the
unhappy man was hastily tried, and subjected
to the punishment of "écartelément," i.e. the
culprit being attached to four horses, and
dismembered.]

"It is said you have been accustomed to ill-
treat your wife?"

"Never. Well, sometimes, when she has
plagued me very much, I may have forgotten
myself for a moment."

"You have been convicted of many offences r"

"Once, only."

"How, once only? We have here the
record of two convictions, at least. You have no
means, yet you do no work. You have borne
the character of a vagabond at war with
society."

"Since I became the associate of those two
wretches (the fictitious persons), it has, indeed,
been as you say."

"You live in singular privacy, forbidding
your wife to know her neighbours:—a rule so
well observed that, before your arrest, the
mayor of your commune knew nothing of you.
You returned to your house at unusual hours,
using a pass-word, 'Hardi,' as one of your
neighbours will prove."

"I may have done so, but not in the sense
you mean."

Questioned as to Marie Pichon, the prisoner's
account corroborated hers, except that he