Wyllard's Weird: A Novel

by M. E. Braddon

"Should you recognise him if you were to see him again?"

"Impossible. It was twilight when I saw him, and he was on the other side of the road. His coat-collar was turned up, so as to hide the lower half of his face."

"But you must at least have observed his general appearance. Was he tall or short? Had he the air of a gentleman?"

"He was tall. Yes, I should say he was a gentleman."

"Young or old?"

"He walked like a young man. I thought he had an agitated air. He walked very quickly, but stopped suddenly two or three times between the hotel and the corner of the terrace, as if he were thinking deeply—hesitating whether to go this way or that; and then he walked on again, faster than before."

"You saw no more of him that evening?"

"No. At half-past eight o'clock I heard that there had been a double murder in the forest, and that the bodies were lying at the Town Hall. I went to see the bodies, and recognised the lady and gentleman who had dined at our hotel. I also saw the little girl, who was in the charge of the police. She was crying bitterly. The corpses were removed to Paris on the following evening."

The examination of the driver came next. He had very little to tell. He had been told to wait at the cross-roads until the lady and gentleman returned from their stroll. It was a lovely night—a night which might have tempted any one to alight and walk in the forest glade. The moon was rising, but it was dark amid the old trees. The man had been waiting about a quarter of an hour, when he heard a shot a little way off—and then another, and another, and another, in rapid succession—and then he heard a child screaming. He tied his horse to a tree, and he ran into the glade, guided by the screams of the child. He found the lady and gentleman lying on the ground, side by side, the child kneeling by the lady; and screaming with grief and terror. The gentleman groaned two or three times, and then expired. The lady neither stirred nor moaned. Her light-coloured gown and mantle were covered with blood.

The driver was questioned as to whether anybody had passed him while he waited at the crossroads. No, he had not observed any one, except an old woman and a boy who had been gathering sticks in the forest. The place at which he was waiting was a well-known point. The glade in which the murder occurred was considered one of the most picturesque spots in the forest. He always drove there with people who wanted to see the beauties of Saint-Germain. But at that late hour there were very few people driving. He had met no carriage after leaving the terrace.