theory of the defence be admitted, all these facts, from the
first to the last, become meaningless and absurd. They can only
be refuted by arguments or explanations that are childish and
ridiculous."

Castaing was defended by two advocates--Roussel, a schoolfellow
of his, and the famous Berryer, reckoned by some the greatest
French orator since Mirabeau. Both advocates were allowed to
address the jury. Roussel insisted on the importance of the
corpus delicti. "The delictum," he said, "is the effect, the
guilty man merely the cause; it is useless to deal with the cause
if the effect is uncertain," and he cited a case in which a woman
had been sent for trial, charged with murdering her husband; the
moral proof of her guilt seemed conclusive, when suddenly her
husband appeared in court alive and well. The advocate made a
good deal of the fact that the remains of the draught prescribed
by Dr. Pigache, a spoonful of which Castaing had given to Auguste
Ballet, had been analysed and showed no trace of poison. Against
this the prosecution set the evidence of the chemist at Saint
Cloud, who had made up the prescription. He said that the same
day he had made up a second prescription similar to that of Dr.
Pigache, but not made out for Auguste Ballet, which contained, in
addition to the other ingredients, acetate of morphia. The
original of this prescription he had given to a friend of
Castaing, who had come to his shop and asked him for it a
few days after Ballet's death. It would seem therefore that
there had been two bottles of medicine, one of which containing
morphia had disappeared.

M. Roussel combatted the suggestion that the family of Castaing