"'They found a dead man in the Fossés Jaunes, near Porte Saint-Antoine, on the other side of the Pont-aux-Choux. From the condition of his wounds, they know that he must have been killed quite a while ago; consequently, no one knows just when the crime was committed. And to think that I went by there at three o'clock in the morning, monsieur! Suppose the brigands had seen me! No doubt they would have murdered me too!'
"'But,' I said to the peasant, 'as you passed the place at three o'clock this morning, how do you know that they found a dead man there two hours ago? Have you been back there?'
"'No; but I just heard about it from a neighbor, a market gardener like myself, who just came from the faubourg. He saw the poor fellow they had taken out of the Fossés Jaunes; it seems he is a young man, and as handsome as a picture! He is still lying there at full length on the bank. Near the place where they found him, there are archers and soldiers keeping watch; and they have gone to tell the magistrates, who will make an investigation, of course, and search the neighborhood, and try to find something to put them on the track of the guilty ones.'
"I' faith, mademoiselle, I no sooner heard that than I felt a most intense longing to see the unfortunate man, who was found last night in the Fossés Jaunes. And I said to myself: 'If they need the magistrates, they may need a solicitor's clerk too; I must go and see the man, and then I can tell the whole story de visu!'
"So I took my legs around my neck—the phrase is still in use, although it lacks sense—and I can assure you that I ran without stopping, although I overturned two children, an ass, and a milkwoman on the way; but that is a detail.
"When I arrived at the Pont-aux-Choux, someone pointed out the spot where the poor young man still lay. I hurried to the place, and I was not the only one whom curiosity had drawn thither; there was a large crowd, and the soldiers had much ado to keep a space clear about the corpse. But as I am never at a loss for an expedient, I said to one of the guards that I was a clerk and employed in the magistracy, so he let me go near."
"So that you saw the man who was found dead?" said Miretta, in a voice trembling with emotion.
"Yes, my pretty lady's-maid, I saw it as plainly as I see you.—Ah! what a calamity! It was a young man—that is to say, a man of twenty-seven or twenty-eight at most, with a graceful figure, very well built, and a face—oh! a fascinating face! so refined and distinguished! He must have been a nobleman, or a gentleman of some ancient family."
"He was not disfigured, then, not wounded in the face?"
"Not a scratch! A surgeon who was there, with the lieutenant of police—for the lieutenant had come in person to examine the victim—the surgeon said, after looking at the wounds: