it was his own property, placed by mistake on the wrong cab.  The official authorized to settle the difficulty not being present, my friend and his companion were informed they must leave the article in dispute, and the case itself, until the following morning, when a hearing would be had before one of the courts.  On reaching their destination, the gentlemen parted with the understanding that they would dine together at a certain restaurant the next day.  The appointed hour came, but not the Englishman; and my friend’s appetite and patience were keen set, when, after an hour’s delay, the truant made his appearance, looking pale, triste and exhausted.  He soon explained the cause of his detention.  He had gone to the police court to prove and regain his valise, and found at the bar a young man of genteel address and remarkable beauty; his costume was in the latest fashion, though somewhat soiled and torn from his fall and rough handling the previous night; but his countenance was intelligent and refined, and his bearing that of a gentleman.  Upon a table lay the valise and the contents of the prisoner’s pockets, among them a large penknife; he held convulsively to the rail and kept his eyes cast down; the judge had taken his seat, and a crowd of idlers and gens d’armes filled the room.  The claimant immediately satisfied the court that the valise belonged to him by mentioning several articles it contained and producing the key.  In the mean time the accused, earnestly watching the entrance, started and turned pale and red by turns as a beautiful girl, in the dress of a prosperous grisette, pushed her way into the crowd, stood on tiptoe, and exchanged glances with the prisoner.  The latter, when asked his name, replied, ‘I have brought disgrace enough upon it already,’ and, seizing the penknife, thrust it into his heart, and fell dead.  He was the descendant of a noble house in one of the southern provinces, and came to Paris as a medical student, and, through a devoted attachment to his mistress, whose costly tastes soon drained his purse, was induced to steal the trunks of travelers as they left the railway stations at night.  In his apartment was found a large wardrobe; and a month’s purloining was thus summarily expiated.  Similar incidents occur elsewhere, but the details, when the scene is laid in Paris, are more picturesque and dramatic.

Two instances which I heard related will illustrate this same dramatic significance in the municipal system.  After an emeute, the chef of police in a certain arrondissement, while engaged in superintending the removal of corpses from a barricade, noticed the body of a female whose delicate hands and finely-wrought robe were so alien to the scene as to excite suspicion.  He ordered it to be placed in a separate apartment for examination.  A more careful inspection confirmed his surmise that this was the body of no amazonian whose warlike zeal or accidental presence in such an affray could explain