usual commissions paid by upholsterers and
others, for the orders given by him on behalf
of his employers. The old man had a wife
—Magdeleine Pisierelle, and two daughters,
who were engaged as hair-dressers at the
palace ; there were also two younger children,
and the whole of Le Brun's family dwelt together
in a lodging of its own, to which the
father went, from time to time, as he was able.
Sometimes he slept at his own lodging, and
sometimes under the roof of Madame Mazel,
at the hotel Savonnières.

On the twenty-seventh of November, sixteen
hundred and eighty-nine, that day being
the first Sunday in Advent, Le Brun's
daughters visited Madame Mazel after her
dinner, were received by her and bidden to
come at a more convenient hour. She was
then going to reside in the Rue Hautefeuille.
Thither, according to usage, she was
accompanied by Master Jacques, he carrying her
foot-warmer and book of devotions, she taking
his arm. At the door of the church he
quitted her to attend vespers elsewhere on his
own account. After finishing his spiritual
exercises M. Le Brun sought exercise for his
body in a game of bowls. That over, he met
with a crony named Lague, who had married
one of Madame Mazel's cooks. The friends
purchased together the materials necessary
for a social supper ; and while supper was
preparing the old major-domo trotted off on
sundry errands, first to see that all was right at
the hotel de Savonnières, then to take a peep
at his own family, and then to go with the
carriage, coachman, and two footmen to take
up his mistress, at eight o'clock, at the house
of a female friend. All these duties properly
performed, he rejoined his friend Lague and
went to supper.

His supper was long, and Madame Mazel
was being undressed by her two maids when
Le Brun tapped at the small door in the
alcove of the bed-room to obtain his orders
for the next day (Monday) when she was to
hold a grand reception.

"This is a fine time of night, Monsieur Le
Brum, for such a question !"

The old man went round to the main
staircase, entered his mistress's room from the
antechamber, and received his orders. Then
he came out again followed by the maids, who
closed the door and put the key, as usual, on
an adjacent chair. Madame pushed her bolt
inside, and all was safe. The three servants
chattered for a short time in whispers,
madame's good-will to Le Brun's daughters
being the theme of their gossip ; and they
then parted, the maids mounting the staircase
to their rooms, the old man descended to the
kitchen. There—as he stated afterwards—he
seated himself by the fire for a last warming
of his feet before he went to bed, and while
so seated fell asleep. It was long past midnight
when he awoke, and startled at the lateness
of the hour, hurried to lock the coach-house
door, which had been all the while left open.
Having fastened it he took the key up to his
bed in the alcove attached to the business-
hall.

On the succeeding morning his first duty
was to go to market. On his way he met a
bookseller, with whom he talked in his usual
mood about the weather, and on his return he
entered the house jesting with three acquaintances,
one of whom had put on his cloak and
was receiving for that reason sundry thumps
upon the back from the old man, who said
that he was entitled to beat his own clothes.
The friends gone, Le Brun attended to some
business in the kitchen, and gave wood to the
footman, whose duty it was to light the fire in
madame's chamber. But madame was at
at that hour not awake, although it was
already seven in the morning.

In the meantime Le Brun visited his wife,
and left with her a few pieces of gold, his
latest savings. When he returned to the
hotel Savonnières he called, as he was entering,
to a footman who stood at the window of
the second story, and learnt from him that
his mistress had not risen. The domestics
were alarmed. Much noise had been made,
in depositing the wood at her door, without
effect. Endeavours were made to arouse her,
still without effect. "Then," said Le Brun,
"something bad must have happened. I am
distressed that the coach-house door should
have been left open so late last night."

Madame's son, the Counsellor de Savonnières,
was summoned. By his authority a locksmith
was fetched. The room was opened, and
Le Brun—who was the first to enter—ran to
the bed, crying, meanwhile, to his mistress,—
lifted the coverlid, and exclaimed, "Ah, she
is murdered !" Directly afterwards he went
to the dressing-closet, opened the shutter, and
saw that the strong box was intact. "She is
not robbed !" he cried. "What does this
mean ?"

Surgical and legal help was sent for. The
condition of things found in the room was
carefully noted in a procès-verbal. On the
bed was a fragment of a lace cravat, and a
table napkin, belonging to the house, rolled
into the form of a cap, like the caps used by
tennis-players. The body of madame was
already cold, and pierced by fifty knife
wounds.

The assassin had tied the bell-pulls above
reach, and knotted them among the curtains
of the bed, so that if even they had been
grasped they would only have moved the
drapery. There were no traces of disorder
in the bedroom or the antechamber ; no door
had been forced. The key of the plate-chest,
in the business-hall, was, as usual, under
madame's pillow. Card money was kept in
that chest ; and on opening it there were
found nearly two hundred and seventy-eight
livres in gold. It contained also the key of
the strong box, in madame's dressing-closet.
In the strong box there were found four bags,
containing one thousand livres a-piece, and