from home, having slept at the house of his had robbed him of his money and clothes. schoolmaster at Poncin, in the same bed with Sevos, however, hidden behind a bush, had two other boys. The authorities refused to in- witnessed the crime, and had frequently revestigate the truth of these allegations. On minded him that he had it in his power to the contrary, they maintained that, being ac- bring him to the scaffold any day he pleased. cused by two persons of the crime, the He had shown no signs of an intention to do strongest suspicion attached to Joseph Vallet, it, but nevertheless the threat disturbed Pin, and that his guilt was rather aggravated than and he never ceased wishing to get rid of so otherwise by his attempt to shift the load from troublesome an acquaintance. his own shoulders to those of Antoine Pin-an attempt in which he had entirely failed; and the attorney-general holding, therefore, the crime proved against him, demanded that sentence of death should be passed against the father, whilst confession should be wrung from the mother and sons by the rack. The jurisdiction of Pont de l'Ain, instead of complying with his request, condemned the whole family to the rack; whereupon Frillet, dissatisfied with a decision which gave the tile-burner a chance for his life, appealed to the parliament or high court of Dijon; who forthwith issued an order, transferring the prisoners to their own fortress; whither they were removed, followed by the hootings and execrations of the excited multitude.

On the 19th February, they had gone to gether to Vallet's house, where they drank and chatted for some time. Sevos, he said, liked idling and drinking as well as he did: they repaired to various wine-houses after leaving Vallet's, in the last of which they sat till past midnight. There it was that, in a state of maudlin intoxication, Sevos pulled a bag out of his pocket, containing about forty dollars in silver, and exhibited the money to Pin, who was immediately seized with a desire to get possession of the booty, and at the same time relieve himself of a dangerous witness, who might turn against him some day when he least expected it. With this view he accompanied Sevos home, and when they got to the door, he represented that although they had drunk a The authorities of Dijon treated the matter great deal, they had had nothing to eat, and with more earnestness and impartiality than proposed getting something for supper. Sevos those of Pont de l'Ain had done. They began said he was hungry too; whereupon Pin went by admitting the guilt of Vailet and his family, to the house of Michel Morel, whom he which they considered established beyond a knocked up, and from whom he procured a doubt; but they looked upon Antoine Pin as loaf, which he carried to Sevos's, having on in all probability equally guilty, and therefore the way slipped into the house of his own to be treated as a criminal, and not as a wit- father, and armed himself with a hatchet, which ness, as had been hitherto the case. They al- he hid under his coat. leged, in support of this opinion, his bad cha- Meanwhile Sevos, overcome by liquor, had racter, his suspicious flight, his avowed pre- lost sight of his hunger, and declared his in, sence at the murder, which he not only made tention of going immediately to sleep, requestno attempt to prevent, but had since con- ing Pin to pass the night with him, to which cealed; and they also dwelt on certain condi- the latter consented; and just as the unfortutions he had made when he entered the regi- nate host was stepping into bed, Pin, who was ment at Dombes, all tending to his own secu- standing behind him, brought down the rity in case of being pursued. In hopes of hatchet with tremendous force upon his head. eliciting the truth, he was put to the rack; but the torture he endured did not alter his testimony; it only recalled one additional circumstance; namely, that Vallet had given him a louis-d'or to entice Sevos to his house on the day in question.

"Oh God! I am killed!" were the only words that passed the lips of the victim before he sunk to the earth, bathed in his blood.

"After rifling his pockets, I carried the body on my back to the stable," continued he, "where I covered it with manure; and then The fate of the Vallet family seemed now de- feeling that Bresse was no safe nest for me, I cided; and their case was the more hopeless, started for Dombes, and enlisted as a soldier." that by this last avowal Pin had brought him- He added that, before he quitted the house, he self under the arm of the law; but now, when tried, without much effect, to efface the traces least expected, conscience, that irrepressible of his crime. "This is the truth," said he, witness, awoke and spoke for them. No sooner" and the whole truth. I had neither aiders had he returned to his cell, than the thoughts nor abettors; no one living was in my confiof destroying a whole family by his perjury dence; and the Vallets, father, mother, and overpowered him. He passed a night of sleep- sons, are innocent of the whole affair." less anguish, and when the morning dawned, he requested that some person qualified to receive his confession might be sent to him. One of the barristers engaged in the cause was immediately despatched to the prison, and Antoine Pin made the following narration:

He confessed that his life had been a series of crimes, and that at length, in 1722, he had fallen upon young Philippe Vallet on the high road, and, without being recognised by the boy,

On being asked why, if this were the case, he had persisted in accusing the Vallets, he answered that his first intention when he was arrested was to confess the truth, but he had changed his mind; adding that Vaudan, the first witness against the Vallets, was a goodfor-nothing scoundrel, on whose testimony no reliance whatever could be placed; and that if they secured him, they would learn what weighty reasons he had for giving false evi

dence.

the very instrument with which Antoine Pin said he had committed the murder was discovered in the house.

No sooner did Vaudan find himself alone in

As Pin persisted in his story, without waiting to investigate the matter further, he was at once condemned, on his own confession, to be broken on the wheel. He fully admitted the justice of his sentence; and the only request prison, than he declared his intention of clearhe made was, to be permitted to see the Vallets ing up the whole affair. He avowed that his before he died, which being granted, he threw testimony was false from beginning to end; himself at their feet, reiterating his assertions of their innocence, and intreating their pardon. He seemed really penitent; and great as were his crimes, the earnest desire he evinced in the midst of his tortures to vindicate the guiltless and promote the ends of justice, won him the pardon and pity even of the injured Vallets.

Thus died Antoine Pin: and when he was dead, the authorities bethought themselves of searching the stable for the body, and of verifying his story by ascertaining what traces of the crime had been found about the house by those who first entered it after the disappearance of Joseph Sevos. But with respect to the house, the bed was gone, the place had been scoured, and nobody seemed able or willing to give any accurate account of what had been observed. Then with regard to the body, which Pin said he had hidden in the stable under a heap of manure, there was not only no body, but not a single bone to be found, nor any appearance to justify the suspicion that a body had ever been there. Here was a mystery! But Antoine Pin was silenced for ever, and who was to unravel the mystery? Perhaps Vaudan, whom he had arraigned: but as Pin was gone, if he did not choose to tell the truth, there was nobody to confront him. However, not knowing what else to do, they arrested Vaudan. He persisted in what he had said; "what he had heard he had heard ;" and his evidence was true to a tittle. He felt it his duty to confess to the judge that his character was not unstained; he had once in his life committed a dishonest act-stolen three oxen and a filly from his master. The ingenuousness of this needless avowal told much in his favour.

adding that the officer who had summoned him as a witness, had desired him to wait upon the attorney-general as soon as the examination was over and relate to him all that had passed.

The parliament of Dijon, who, when they had got a criminal, seem to have proceeded with uncompromising diligence, lost no time in passing sentence on Vaudan, who was forthwith conducted to the scaffold, and died asserting the innocence of the Vallets. The real motive of this injudicious haste, which in this case and many others rendered the discovery of truth so difficult, was the fulness of the prisons. No sooner were they satisfied of a man's guilt, than they put him out of the way, to make room for the next comer; frequently thereby not only committing great injustice, but depriving themselves of the most important testimony.

Vaudan was executed on the 5th of October, and on the 12th an order was issued for placing another prisoner on the rack. This was a man called Maurice, who had made himself exceedingly busy in the whole affair, and on whom suspicion had at length rested. The moment Maurice felt the thumb-screws, he avowed himself a false witness, in the pay of the attorney-general, who was the originator of the whole cabal against the Vallets. Maurice declared that he had at first resisted, but that the threats and promises of Frillet had at length prevailed. He added that the attorney had two other assistants in the affair; namely, Torrillon, and a forester called Mallet, who had given themselves extraordinary trouble to bring in such witnesses as suited the great man's purpose. On the 13th, the day after he had made this confession, Maurice was executed; and he also died maintaining the innocence of the Vallets.

The court was then induced to call for the records of the whole case as it had been tried at Pont de l'Ain. On looking over the papers, They had now put three persons out of the they found such strange informalities, so many world on account of this affair: one for the unaccountable erasures, and so many equally murder, and two for perjury. But where was unaccountable interpolations, that the affair the greatest criminal of all? Where was the took quite a new turn; and that which nobody attorney-general Frillet? He, the suborner, had yet dared to suggest, began to be shrewdly the worse than murderer, the prosecutor of the suspected; namely, that the attorney-general, innocent, the betrayer of his office and his Frillet, had been playing a part in the drama, oath. And where were the Vallets? They which as little comported with his reputation were still in prison! Three persons had as with his office. A scrutiny ensued; and the died declaring their innocence; every witness result was, the complete justification of the against them had been convicted of perjury or Vallet family. Not only had every witness delusion; not a single circumstance remained against them been either deceivers, or them- uncontradicted that could in any way connect selves deceived, but the evidences in their fa- them with the death of Sevos; their justifivour had been kept back or suppressed. It cation was indisputable, clear, and triumpheven came out, and was satisfactorily proved, ant; the whole accusation was proved to be that distinct traces of the murder had been the fruits of a cabal, the offspring of envy found in Sevos's room; and that several per- and malice: at least if it were not, what had sons had sworn to the facts before Frillet him-Vaudan and Maurice died for? And yet, on

self. Nay, not only so, but even traces of the 13th of October, Frillet was at large, and blood were distinctly visible on the floor; and the Vallets were in prison!

However, they were at length restored to liberty, with a recompense of 500 francs, (about 201.,) which Maurice had been made to pay as an expiation: at the same time measures were taken for arresting Frillet and his two abettors, Torillon and the forester; but the attorney-general was too well informed of what was going on to allow himself to be taken. He fled into Savoy, and found refuge in a cloister, where the arm of the law could not reach him.

In the meantime the prosperity of the Vallets was destroyed. Their healths had been injured, their money had gone to the lawyers, their house had been plundered, and everything belonging to them, except the bare walls, had either disappeared or been knocked to pieces. The old man had to begin the world again. It was up-hill work; but he did his best, and in time partially recovered his former position.

ventured, before the day had well broken, to slip out; and I managed, without being seen by anybody, to reach the attorney-general's, and to him I related what had happened. He listened to my story with attention, and, after some consideration, he advised me to quit the place. 'Pin,' said he, 'is a villain, who will stick at nothing; and if he finds out you are alive, he will never stop till he has completed his work. Take my advice, and leave this as fast as your legs can carry you, and the farther you go the better."" Sevos was a timid and weak man to be once murdered he thought was enough. The advice of so influential a person as Frillet, a man who must necessarily understand the case so well, was not to be neglected. He fled, and never stopped till he thought himself far out of the reach of his enemy. Accident had at length brought him to the market of Bourg, where Pierre Vallet met him.

Several years had thus elapsed, and the The agreement between this story and that Vallets had fought through the worst of their of Antoine Pin was sufficient to insure its acdifficulties, when one day Pierre, the youngest ceptance as far as it went; but it was generally son, being on business at a town called Bourg, believed that Joseph Sevos, timid as he was, met, as he was walking through the market- had been influenced by something more than place, JOSEPH SEVOS! At first he thought it fear to abandon his native place and his little was a phantom of the imagination; but it property. The attorney-general's emptyproved to be no other than the living Sevos, handed recommendation was not likely to have whose disappearance had caused so much induced a man to condemn himself to exile for trouble. Perceiving himself to be recognised, such a length of time. However, whether from Sevos attempted to escape in the crowd; Pierre the apprehension of suffering the legal penalty, promptly followed, and had the satisfaction of as a party in the plot, or from the dread of the seizing him, and bringing him before a magis- great man's vengeance, Sevos could not be trate, of whom he demanded that both himself brought to any further confession. On this and the resuscitated man should be held in occasion the rack was spared, the desire for a custody till the mystery could be investigated. further revelation not being sufficiently strong The reserve and equivocations with which on the part of the authorities to induce them Sevos sought to baffle inquiry, suggesting a to have recourse to it. suspicion that he was not altogether innocent; he was accordingly removed to Dijon; but even there, it was not till he was threatened with the rack that the truth was elicited from him.

As soon as the news of Sevos's reappearance reached Frillet, he quitted his sanctuary, and loudly arraigned the parliament of Dijon, not only for their proceedings against himself, but also for having broken Antoine Pin upon the wheel for the murder of a man who was proved never to have been murdered at all. In spite of this, however, they arrested him, and instituted investigations, which led to the conviction of several other persons as parties in the conspiracy of which he had been the contriver: and now that the tide was apparently turning against him, there is no telling how far the tongue of Joseph Sevos might have been loosed, had he not, just at this juncture, most unexpectedly died in prison. Nevertheless, so strong was the evidence against Frillet, that he was condemned to death, and his property mulcted to the amount of 8000 livres, for the benefit of the Vallet family.

"On the 19th of February, 1724," said he "Antoine Pin and I went out for a day's drinking; and when the wine-houses were all closed, we went together to my house, where I invited him to sleep. I undressed, and was about to step into bed, when I received a violent blow upon the head. I fell to the ground, exclaiming that I was killed; and as I did not stir again, no doubt Pin thought I was. However, I was only stunned. He then rifled my pockets, in which I had about forty dollars, and afterwards dragged me to the stable, and covered me with manure. There I lay and listened till I heard Pin go away; then I went back to the house, and fastening the door, I stanched the blood that flowed from my head Nine hours had the parliament of Dijon sat as well as I could with old rags. In the morn- before they could agree upon the sentence. ing I bound it up, and bethought me what I The whole town had been in commotion for should do; but the fear of Antoine so entirely days; and all seemed anxious for the execution overcame me, that I durst not leave the house, of a man who had proved himself such an opnor even open the door; and for two whole days and nights I sat there, listening for his return, which I momentarily expected. However, he came no more; and on the third I

pressor. This vengeful feeling was doomed to be disappointed. The sentence of death against Frillet was commuted by the king into banishment for ten years. He received the intima

Remarkable Foreign Trials. List of Local and Personal Acts.

tion with an affectation of pious gratitude; for he seems to have been as great a hypocrite as a sinner. But it was the will of God, whose justice and mercy he had outraged, that he should not profit by the corruption that had spared his life. On the day appointed for his 224. An Act to enable the East Fife Railway quitting the prison, that life was required of Company to make a deviation in their main him by a Judge incorruptible-he expired sud-line, and to improve the Junction with the denly as they were throwing open the gates to Edinburgh and Northern Railway near set him free. His coadjutors in crime suffered Markinch. various degrees of punishment, and the injured Vallets received the 8000 livres.

227. An Act to authorize certain alterations 215. An Act to authorize certain deviations in the line of the Liverpool, Manchester, and in the line of the Syston and Peterborough Newcastle-upon-Tyne Junction Railway; and Branch of the Midland Railway, and the forma- for other purposes. tion of a road or approach to the intended Manton station thereof.

5912

Local and Personal Acts, declared Public, and to be Judicially Noticed.

Railway Company to extend their station in the said act, and to provide for the future ad-
Edinburgh, and to make branch railways to ministration and exercise of the trusts and
Granton and to the Edinburgh and Glasgow powers thereby respectively created.
Railway.

251. An Act for paving, lighting, watching, 238. An Act to enable the Chester and draining, cleansing, regulating, and otherwise Holyhead Railway Company to extend their improving the town of Lytham, in the county line of railway to the proposed new harbour at palatine of Lancaster, for supplying the inhabiHolyhead, and to contribute towards the ex-tants thereof with water, and for establishing pense of constructing the said harbour. and regulating a market and market places therein.

239. An Act to incorporate the Edinburgh, Leith, and Granton Railway Company with the Edinburgh and Northern Railway Company.

240. An Act to enable the Liverpool, Manchester, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne Junction Railway Company to make a railway from the Burnley branch of the Manchester and Leeds Railway in the township of Habergham Eaves, in the parish of Whalley, in the county of Lancaster, to the East Lancashire Railway in the same township; and for other purposes.

241. An Act to authorize a certain alteration in the line of the Reading, Guildford, and Reigate Railway, and to amend the act relating thereto.

242. An Act to enable the South Devon Railway Company to extend the line of the South Devon Railway to Torquay and to Brixham; and for other purposes.

243. An Act to amend the Exeter and Exmouth Railway Act, 1846, and to enable the London and South-western Railway Company to subscribe towards, lease, or purchase the said railway.

244. An Act for authorizing the sale of part of the Brighton and Chichester (Portsmouth Extension) Railway to the London and Southwestern and the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway Company, and to the use by the last-mentioned company of part (Wandsworth to London) of the London and South-western Railway.

245. An Act for making a branch railway from the Glasgow, Airdrie, and Monklands Junction Railway at or near Whitevale Street, Glasgow, to the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway at or near Cowlairs; and to amend the acts relating to such railways.

246. An Act to enable the Edinburgh and Bathgate Railway Company to deviate a portion of their main line, and for other purposes.

247. An Act to make certain deviations in the authorized line of the "Manchester, Buxton, Matlock, and Midlands Junction Railway," and to amend the act relating thereto.

248. An Act to enable the Royston and Hitchin Railway Company to lease or sell their line, and to authorize the said company to enter into contracts and complete arrangements with the Great Northern Railway Company.

249. An Act to amend the acts relating to the London and South-western Railway.

250. An Act to repeal an act passed in the 55th year of his late Majesty King George the Third, for building a new church and also a workhouse in the parish of Bathwick, in the county of Somerset, and another act passed in the 57th year of his said late Majesty to amend

252. An Act for paving, lighting, watching, cleansing, and otherwise improving the town and neighbourhood of Tunstall, in the county of Stafford, and for improving and regulating the market place and markets therein.

253. An Act for better paving, cleansing, draining, regulating, lighting, and improving the district of Rathmines, Mount Pleasant, Ranelagh, Cullenswood, Milltown, Rathgar, and Haroldscross, and such other portions of the parish of Saint Peter within the barony of Uppercross, in the county of Dublin, and for otherwise promoting the health and convenience of the inhabitants.

254. An Act for the further improvement of the borough of Belfast.

255. An Act for improving the streets and public places, and erecting a town hall, and improving the markets, in the township of Blackburn, in the county palatine of Lancaster.

256. An Act for paving, lighting, watching, draining, cleansing, and improving the town of Saint Ives, and the neighbourhood thereof, in the county of Huntingdon.

257. An Act for paving, lighting, cleansing, watering, regulating, and otherwise improving the town of Portsmouth, in the county of Southampton, and for removing and preventing nuisances and annoyances therein.

258. An Act for lighting, paving, cleansing, sewering, draining, regulating, and improving the town and neighbourhood of Bingley, in the West Riding of the county of York, and for other purposes connected therewith.

259. An Act for constructing and maintaining a bridge across the river Slaney, near the town of Wexford, with approaches, and for taking down the present bridge there.

260. An Act to amend the several acts relating to Swansea harbour.

261. An Act for better supplying with water the borough of Liverpool and the neighbour hood thereof, and for authorizing the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses of the said borough to purchase the Liverpool and Harrington Waterworks and Liverpool Waterworks.

262. An Act for better supplying with water the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood of Leeds in the county of York.

263. An Act for making docks at Jarrow Slake in the river Tyne.

264. An Act to authorize the Birkenhead Dock Commissioners to construct an additional Dock and other works at Birkenhead in the county of Chester, and for other purposes.

265. An Act to alter and amend the acts relating to the Birkenhead Commissioners Docks, and to make further provision with respect to