448|The Green Bag.|}}

"Why," said Benoit, calmly, "my mother was killed in the same manner I" Benoit was then taken to the Morgue : the body of Formage still remained there. Frederic looked at it calmly. "That is not Formage," he said. They showed him the shirt and cravat of the victim, which he himself had given to Formage. He still persisted in his denials. They raised one of the arms of the body, and showed him two doves tattooed into the skin. " You have slept with Formage for several months; it is impossible that you should not have noticed this mark." Then memory seemed to return to Frederic, and his frightful im passibility abandoned him. In a trunk belonging to Formage were found several letters and copies of letters which served to explain Benoit's deed and to fasten upon him a still more execrable crime. One of them, dated the 2d of July, and addressed to Frederic Benoit, who was then at his father's house at Vouziers, read as follows : — Notwithstanding you have forbidden me to write, I am forced to disobey you. ... I have no one to apply to but you, and you cannot abandon me in my necessity. With fifty crowns I can extricate myself from my difficulty. Send them to me within a week. If you delay longer I will myself go to your father and make known to him the secret which you doubtless wish to con ceal. Nothing shall stop me, if in one week the money I ask is not sent to me; the next day after

that time has expired I will force you to confess your crime not only to your relatives but to all who know you. You have taken from me my honor, and I will avenge myself in this manner, if you do not repair your fault by sending me what I need. J. Formage. What a sudden light! Formage murdered in the same manner as Madame Benoit, — wth a blow from a razor! Formage murdered twenty days after his threat to reveal an un punished crime, of which he alone was cog nizant! Whether or not the letter had been sent to its address, this posthumous revela tion of Formage was none the less over whelming. But if it was more than the draught of a letter, if it was a copy, if the letter had been posted, all was explained, — the precipitate return of Benoit, the long interview in the garden of the PalaisRoyal, the trap at Versailles : Formage had signed his death-warrant in threatening the parricide. While justice was collecting on all sides the evidence necessary for the conviction of Benoit, Louise Feucher died in Paris, and before her death made a full confession. She had assisted her cousin in killing Ma dame Benoit. On the 16th of December, 183 1, this human monster was brought to trial for his crimes, and on the 30th of August he paid the penalty upon the scaffold.