Lieut. "But if the body was not cold, the shots could not have been fired very long before you discovered it?"
Jacques. "That might be, too, M. le Lieutenant; for the wind set the other way, towards the Château, and would have carried the noise away from us."
Lieut. "At what time did the mass begin?"
Jacques. "At seven o'clock, Monsieur le Lieutenant."
Pierre and Henri were next examined.
These witnesses corroborated the testimony of Father Jacques. The first in a nervous and confused manner, the second in a bold and steady voice. Pierre looked several times in a contrite and supplicating manner towards the Chevalier de Fontane and Madame de Peyrelade; but neither observed him.
He was very penitent and unhappy. He felt that it was through his indiscretion that the betrothed lover of his mistress was placed in this position of peril; and he would have given the world to be far enough away in the desolate Buron.
Henri stated that, after finding the body, he climbed the high tree beneath which it lay, for the purpose of reconnoitring; but no person was in sight.
The Lieutenant of Police next examined the boutillier Pierre.
Lieut. "Repeat what you said of the quarrel between Monsieur le Chevalier and the Baron de Pradines."