Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 01.pdf/492

Rh door. A deep wound extended across the throat, which had evidently been made by a single blow with a very sharp instrument.

No papers nor any object of any kind by which the body could be identified was found upon it, and it was removed to Paris and placed in the Morgue. There an anonymous letter identified it as that of Joseph Formage, aged seventeen, the son of a wine-merchant at Villette.

It was presently ascertained that Joseph Formage had been employed as a clerk by a bookseller named Vallée; that he had had intimate relations with a young man named Frédéric Benoit, who was no other than the youngest son of the juge de paix at Vouziers.

A short time after his mother's death, Frédéric Benoit had been sent by his father to Nancy, to study in a notary's office. He had lived lavishly, out of all proportion to his resources; he had often been seen with large sums of money in his hands, and he had lost considerable amounts at play.

Having been sent from Nancy to Paris, Benoit, instead of devoting his time to study, as his father had intended that he should, delivered himself up to an idle, dissipated life. He frequented gambling-houses, and found enjoyment in the society of dissolute and profligate young men. While in Paris chance threw in his way Joseph Formage, over whom he seems to have exercised a powerful influence, and who became positively infatuated with his new friend.

Formage belonged to an excellent family; he had an older brother who was an officer at Cambrai. He went to visit him in company with Benoit. This brother saw with astonishment the inexplicable intimacy which existed between the two. He questioned Joseph, whose responses were far from satisfactory; but he learned enough to make it evident that Benoit was probably something worse than a mere dissolute idle fellow. He tried to persuade his brother not to return to Paris with him; but Joseph persisted. Shortly after, whether owing to some spark of virtue which had been kindled by his brother's representations, or whether he had become disgusted with his infamous friend, Formage separated from Benoit, and entered the service of M. Vallee.

It was established, by the declarations of the bookseller and other witnesses, that on the 21st of July, that is, the day before the crime, Formage had been seen in the garden of the Palais-Royal in company with Frédéric Benoit, where they had an animated conversation which lasted for several hours. About five o'clock, according to Formage himself, Benoit obtained a promise from him to accompany him that evening on a short trip into the country. The bookseller Vallee, to whom Formage had spoken of this interview, tried to dissuade him from going, but Joseph persisted in his resolution. "He will kill me if I fail to keep my word!" he said. A woman, named Renaud, had met Formage, who took leave of her at once, saying that "he was going to Versailles to spend the night with his friend."

As if this were not sufficient proof, the lodging-house keeper and the proprietor of the hotel at Versailles declared that the companion of the murdered young man was afflicted with a protuberance upon his right shoulder; Benoit was slightly hunchbacked.

Search was immediately made for Benoit, and he was arrested on the 25th of July, in a house in the Rue Jean-Jacques-Rousseau.

He did not attempt to deny his relations with Formage, but he added that he had not seen his old friend for nearly two months. The keeper of the house where Benoit lodged stated that on the night of the 21st of July Frédéric had not slept in his room. This Benoit could not deny, but he stated that "he had reasons for not revealing to the authorities where he had passed the night." He declared, however, that he was not at Versailles.

"We ask you these questions," said the juge de paix, "because your friend Joseph Formage was killed, at Versailles, by a blow from a razor, on the 22d of July."