friends Auguste seemed in the best of health and spirits; so much
so that his housekeeper remarked as he left how well he was
looking, and Castaing echoed her remark, saying that he looked
like a prince!

During the afternoon the two friends visited Saint Germain, then
returned to Paris, and at seven o'clock in the evening arrived at
the Tete Noire Hotel at Saint Cloud, where they took a double-
bedded room, Castaing paying five francs in advance. They spent
the following day, Friday, May 30, in walking about the
neighbourhood, dined at the hotel at seven, went out again
and returned about nine o'clock. Soon after their return
Castaing ordered some warmed wine to be sent up to the bedroom.
It was taken up by one of the maid-servants. Two glasses were
mixed with lemon and sugar which Castaing had brought with him.
Both the young men drank of the beverage. Auguste complained
that it was sour, and thought that he had put too much lemon in
it. He gave his glass to the servant to taste, who also found
the drink sour. Shortly after she left the room and went
upstairs to the bedside of one of her fellow-servants who was
ill. Castaing, for no apparent reason, followed her up and
stayed in the room for about five minutes. Auguste spent a bad
night, suffering from internal pains, and in the morning his legs
were so swollen that he could not put on his boots.

Castaing got up at four o'clock that morning and asked one of the
servants to let him out. Two hours later he drove up in a
cabriolet to the door of a chemist in Paris, and asked for twelve
grains of tartar emetic, which he wanted to mix in a wash
according to a prescription of Dr. Castaing. But he did not tell