begged his life in the most moving tones,
addressing himself especially to his wife
without being able to touch her compassion. The
other servant of the prior fell upon him
with his sword and wounded him in several
places. She, the witness, struck with horror
at the spectacle and at the terrible cries of
her master, could not refrain from tears, but
was threatened by her mistress with the same
fate if she showed any compassion.  She also
deposed that, as soon as her master was dead,
the prior's servants took away the body, and
she did not know what they did with it; but
whilst they were gone Madame de Pivardière
fetched some ashes and herself scoured
the boards.  She had the bed carried into the
cellar, along with the bed-clothes, which
were steeped in blood.  The straw was taken
out of the mattrass and burned, and the ticking
filled with some fresh half-beaten straw.
The prior's servants returned in about two
hours, and they all sat down to supper together.
At first, this witness said that the
prior himself was not actually present during
the assassination.  But, shortly afterwards
falling dangerously ill, and being apparently
at the point of death, she sent for the judges
and declared to them that she had disguised
the truth as regarded the Prior of Miseray,
and that he was the man who actually struck
the fatal blow.  Catherine Lemoins, the other
servant, confirmed the evidence, and added
that on her return from fetching the eggs,
she went straight to the room occupied by
the Sieur de la Pivardière and found him just
dead; that she desired the two valets to take
away the body and bury it, but did not tell
them where; and that then she went and
prepared supper.  After supper the men
departed.

More than thirty witnesses, most of them
friends of Madame de la Pivardière, deposed
to the fact of the assassination, and confirmed
the evidence of the two servants in many
ways.  All doubt about this tragedy was at
an end—at least in Châtillon sur l'Indre,
where the inquiry had taken place.  But,
now began the extraordinary part of this
remarkable story.  Tidings came from
Ramorantin, a town on the other side of Nerbonne,
that Monsieur de la Pivardière had been
seen there alive and well subsequently to the
fifteenth of August, the night of his asserted
murder.  Madame de la Pivardière continued
to assert her innocence, and caused
search to be everywhere made for her
husband.  From the letter that had roused her
jealousy, she had an idea that he would
be found at Auxerre or in the neighbourhood.
On inquiry, the whole story of
his marriage under the name of Bouchet,
and his having filled the situation
of huissier, came to light.  Bouchet, or
more properly La Pivardière, himself, had
been at Auxerre within the last few days;
but had departed suddenly.  The messengers
sent by his wife tracked him and came up
with him at Flavique.  He was alive and
well, and no one had ever made the least
attempt to murder him.  His account of
himself was straightforward enough, and
fully explained all that was mysterious in his
disappearance.

"Scarcely," said he, "had I retired to my
room on the night of my return to Nerbonne,
when Catherine Lemoins came to me and
told me that if I remained till morning in
the château I ran the risk of being arrested.
I knew that I had committed bigamy, and I
knew that I should certainly be hanged if it
were brought home to me.  Fearing that
my wife was in possession of the facts, and
that she had determined to prosecute me, I
did not neglect the timely warning the girl
had given me.  At four in the morning I
left the château.  I left my horse behind,
because it was lame; indeed, I had been
obliged to lead it the evening before, when I
arrived.  I did not wish to encumber myself
with any luggage; I therefore left my cloak,
my gun, and my riding-boots.  I stopped the
whole of the next day at Bourg Dieu.  On
the seventeenth I arrived at Châteauroux,
and lodged for the night at the sign of the
Three Merchants.  On the eighteenth, I
stopped at Issoudun, at the sign of The
Clock, and thence I made my way to
Auxerre, where I thought myself in safety
from all pursuit."

When he was told of the danger to which
his disappearance had exposed his wife, he
was greatly distressed, but fancied that it
would be an easy matter to set all right.  He
went before a notary and executed a deed,
testifying to his identity, signed it, and had
it properly formalised.  He wrote to his wife
and to his brother, telling them of his
existence.  That was not enough; his bodily
presence was necessary.  His second wife
showed herself good and noble; she never
reproached him, and showed no anxiety
except that Madame de la Pivardière should
be delivered from her painful position.  She
urged her husband's departure, and, though
fully aware of the risk he ran, he did not
hesitate to set off for Nerbonne.  On his
arrival there, he found the château entirely
gutted; nothing but the bare walls remaining.
He was obliged to go to his brother's
house.

He presented himself before the Judge of
Ramorantin, and demanded that he might
prove his identity at all the places in and
about Nerbonne, where he was so well known,
which was accordingly done.  At Lucé, he
was recognised by the curé, by all the officers
of the jurisdiction, and by a dozen of the
inhabitants.  At the village of Jeu, he entered
church during vespers, and his arrival caused
such a sensation, that the service was
interrupted; every one there had fully believed
him murdered, and they imagined it was his
ghost which they now beheld.  At length
they were satisfied that it was the real