"It is not possible. Where? Who has told
you that ?" Doineau asked.

"I saw it done. I was there."

From Captain Doineau the doctor went to
General de Beaufort, the commanding officer
of the district, and then proceeded to the
hospital, to prepare for the reception of the
wounded men. When the diligence with the
dead and dying, escorted by the Mayor of
Negrier and his followers, entered the town,
Captain Doineau met them, and asked sharply
what direction the assassins had taken? They
answered, that they did not know; but he
continued to gallop on, followed by some
sphahis—a sort of mounted zouave.

Hamadi died at eight o'clock in the morning;
the body of Abdallah was carried to his house.
Valette expired about three o'clock in the
afternoon. The news of these murders made a
strong and immediate sensation in Tlemcen.
Even so early as five o'clock in the morning, the
lieutenant of the guard sent a quartermaster
with a couple of gens-d'armes to the spot.
They found the remains of a pistol, which had
burst, and some bits of paper, that had
served as wadding for the fire-arms. One of
these fragments had names written upon it
with a pencil; another piece was of fine glazed
bluish letter paper; and a third bit of paper
was of the kind used for cartridges in the French
magazines. When the recognisance was over,
Captain Doineau spread about the opinion that
the murderers were a band of Moors. The
people who had seen the suspicious equestrians
and pedestrians in the streets during the night,
and certain others, who had heard the tramp
of horses coming into the town just after the
crime and had recognised one of the riders
as belonging to the Arabian Office, had,
however, good ground for suspecting that the
murderers belonged to the town of Tlemcen,
and not to the frontiers of Morocco.

Whilst the minds of the inhabitants of
Tlemcen were in this state of discussion and
suspense, a strange apparition issued from the
house of Abdallah—the richest house in the
town; in which the French generals were
accustomed to be entertained amidst Arabian
luxury and splendour: Rokaya, the widow
of the murdered chief, a handsome woman in
the prime of life—forgetting, in her distraction,
the seclusion enjoined by the Koran
upon Mahometan women—rushed into the
public streets, clothed in poor garments, and
veiled only by her loose hair, and raised loud
cries and lamentations:

"They have brought my husband to me in
his blood," she cried: "and his murderer is
Bel Hadj."

The widow had good reasons for her
accusation. The Agah Bel Hadj was extremely
jealous of the Agah Abdallah,—his superior
in wealth, authority, reputation, and
intelligence. While himself was only the obsequious
dependent of the director of the Arabian
Office, Abdallah was often the host and
comrade of the French generals; feasting them in
his house, and riding about with them in their
carriages. There had been a quarrel
between the rival Agahs, during which Bel
Hadj had said to Abdallah:

"In a short time your children will be my
servants." Each then swore, with the right
hand placed upon the beard, that he would
kill the other; and, when they parted, they
walked separately, although going in the
same direction. Moreover, Abdallah had
told his wife that he had had, on the
Wednesday previous, a discussion with Captain
Doineau, at the Arabian Office, respecting
Bel Hadj. He told her, Bel Hadj
and other Arabs were on good terms with
that officer, because they ministered to
his debaucheries, and that the sole object of
his own journey to Oran would be to
lodge a complaint of the conduct of the
French officials of the Arabian Office, at
head-quarters.

When General Montauban, the commanding
officer of the district, sent for Captain
Doineau, to learn from him the particulars of
the conspiracy, the captain made the most of
these circumstances. "It appears," he said,
"that the widow, in her wildness, cries every-
where it is Bel Hadj."

"I cannot believe that the Hadj is guilty,"
replied the general.

"Nor I, either. He is unwell. He can
move neither hand nor foot." Then Doineau
added, significantly, "Abdallah was the fourth
husband of his wife, and all her three
previous husbands died mysteriously."

At the conclusion of this interview,
General Montauban stepped into his carriage,
which had been in waiting to take him to
the races at Mostaganem. Bel Hadj had
excused himself from attending these races, on
the plea of illness; but it was well known that
he was in excellent health, having been seen,
on the day of the murder, scouring the country
with Captain Doineau in search of the
murderers. On the return of General Montauban,
from the races a letter arrived from the
governor-general of Algeria, who had been
apprised of the crime by telegraph, saying:
"It is absolutely necessary to learn what we
are to believe respecting that murder."

On the twenty-first of September Bel
Hadj fled to Morocco. His flight was
ascribed to his fear of being assassinated by
the tribe of Beni Snouss, and General de Beaufort,
the governor-general, entreated him to
return, and General Montauban sent him an
aman, or letter of safe conduct. Bel Hadj,
however, remained in Morocco until his
absence convinced the general of his guilt. But,
in order to have his suspicions fully
confirmed, the general consulted a certain Agah
Ben Aoud, whom he employed to trace out the
culprits. This man, under a rough outside,
was very cunning; and he began by paying a
visit of condolence to the bereaved family.
He learnt all that could be gathered from,
them, and then sought out the two Jews, the