Page:Remarkable family adventure of Saunders Watson (1).pdf/23

23 was preparing some fricasseed fowls for dinner, and he treated her in the same manner, knocking her down before she was aware what he was going to do. Having destroyed the two servants and the dog, he ran into M. de Savary’s apartment, and killed him in a similar manner: the latter was unarmed, and consequently could not defend himself, neither was he in a condition of body to exercise much strength, inasmuch as he was a cripple. The perpetrator of these dreadful murders wrote in a book which was lying on the table the account above given; he, however, did not write his name. A clock stood on the mantle-piece of the room, ornamented with a skull cut in ivory, under which was this inscription: ‘Look on this, that you may regulate your life.’ Some one (it is supposed to be the murderer) wrote in pencil underneath, ‘Look at his life, and you will not be surprised at his death.’ The murderer having satisfied his vengeance, closed the door and went away, without any one knowing what a deed had been perpetrated. The door was afterwards forced open, and the three dead bodies found. Very little blood had flown from any of the unhappy victims, their heads being crushed by the mallet. The dinner table was found properly laid out, and not a single piece of silver was missing; so that it clearly appear-