Mme. Mazeline, a painter of repute, was then sixty-two, I had known her well in the days of President Faure. She had resided many years at Le Havre, Felix Faure"s birth-place, and had been on terms of friendship with Felix Faure and his family. She had begun painting a portrait of the President in his studio at the Elysee, shortly before his death and had to complete the portrait from memory. The portrait was shown at the Salon.
Mme. Mazeline and I have never met since the death of the President.
Questioned about her card found in a carriage on the Underground, she suggested that it might possibly be a card which many years before she had given to some model, man or woman, who had kept it to use it as a means of introduction to other artists. (She had written her address on the card herself, in pencil.)
The other addresses on the card were those of the two wig-makers and that of M. Guilbert. The investigations at the wig-makers yielded no result. But when the inspector called on M. Guilbert his researches were rewarded.
I had described the mysterious men and the woman first on the morning of May 31st, 1908, a few hours after they had left my house--on June 1st and again June 5th, when a detective wearing a black gown and hat was paraded before me at Count d"Arlons, and I had described their attire as follows: "The three men wore long black gowns, and the woman wore a man"s cloak, long and dark. The long black gowns with their flat, tight sleeves reminded me of the _soutanes_ worn by Catholic priests; the hats were felt hats with high crowns." As regards these hats--and the reader, a little later, will realise the importance of the statement I made--the report of the _Surete_ (Criminal Investigation Department) drawn up on June 5th, contained this:
"_Concerning the hats, it is useful to recall that, on Monday, June 1st, when Mme. Steinheil gave a description of the individuals whom she saw on the night of May 30th-31st, she specified that the men did not wear hats such as those usually worn by priests, but hats of black felt, the brims of which, bent down, had appeared to her as wide and the crowns higher and more pointed than the hats of ecclesiastics._"
And now that my description of the gowns and hats worn by the murderers stands quite clearly before the reader"s eyes, let us follow Inspector Pouce to M. Guilbert, the costumier on the Boulevard St. Martin, where he had gone in the hope of discovering a connection between the card and the murder.
The Inspector found Mlle. Rallet, one of M. Guilbert"s a.s.sistants.
What did Mlle. Rallet--to whose accurate book keeping and absolute reliability, her employer paid a glowing tribute--have to say?
I can do no better than quote the evidence she gave, not only to the Inspector, but to M. Hamard himself.
"This Wednesday, June 10, 1908, we, Gustave Hamard, Knight of the Legion of Honour, head of the Criminal Investigation Department, continuing our investigations, have heard, on oath, Mlle. Georgette Rallet... who has declared:
"I have been employed since September 1907 by M. Guilbert.... My duties are to receive customers and to record the despatch and return of all goods. It goes without saying that I examine the goods when they are returned as well as when they leave our premises. Our customers are chiefly actors and actresses, and among them there is a Russian society, which has its headquarters at the Eden Theatre (or Hebrew Theatre), 133 Rue Saint Denis. The orders of the society are given by M. Goldstein and Feinberg, who are usually accompanied by Mlle. Jankel....
"The last time M. Goldstein, M. Feinberg, and Mlle. Jankel called was on Wednesday, May 27th, the day before Ascension Day. They arrived between 3 and 4 P.M. It was Goldstein who addressed me, as usual, for Feinberg only speaks German, Russian, and English. He ordered, for a play ent.i.tled _Le Vice-Roi_ which was to be performed the following day, a few Roman and Spanish costumes, and two gowns for priests.
"Between 7 and 8 P.M. the messenger delivered the costumes.... I generally send, on the day after the performance, for the costumes we have lent, but on May 29th I was too busy to do so. Besides, I intended to have the costumes fetched back on the Monday, June 1st, together with others which had been hired for the performance of Sunday, May 31st. For M. Goldstein after giving his order for the _Vice-Roi_, which was to be performed on the following day, had ordered four costumes for Jewish priests for a play ent.i.tled _Cain and Abel_, which would be performed on Sunday, May 31st.
"Now, on Sat.u.r.day, May 30th, at 5.30 P.M., the messenger only took to the Eden Theatre three gowns for Jewish priests, for Goldstein had already received two previously....
"To sum up, on the evening of May 30th, the Eden Theatre had received from us--by two deliveries--five black gowns, including another black gown specially ordered by an actor, the other five being for supers. I must add that on May 30th, at 4 P.M., Mlle. Jankel and an actor called Hamburger came to order a black _soutane_ and a black _redingote_ which were needed for the performance on that very evening.... After five applications, I managed on the following Wednesday to have returned to me, not all the costumes we had let, but only three of the gowns, the _soutane_ and the _redingote_.
"There remains, therefore, in the hands of the Russian Society, three black gowns belonging to us...."
Signed GEORGETTE RALLET.
O. HAMARD."
(Extract from _Dossier_, Cote 662.)
Later, Mlle. Rallet gave further details to M. Hamard.
"... M. Goldstein, M. Feinberg, and Mlle. Jankel, on May 27th, tried on a few of the costumes just ordered....
"There were twenty-seven parcels.... The costumes in those parcels had been handed to me for checking before being packed, by M. Guilbert and Riegel, a clerk.... Fremat, the messenger, placed the parcels in two large baskets. In _another basket_, he placed the thirteen hats which completed some of the costumes. After having filled the baskets and secured them with rope, Fremat hired a barrow... loaded up, and left the shop at about 8 P.M.
"On May 30th, M. Guilbert and Riegel packed eighteen costumes ordered for the performance of May 31st. I checked the costumes which were spread before me on the counter....
"On the following Wednesday, June 3rd, Fremat recovered possession of the costumes ordered on the 27th. When I counted them, in the afternoon, I found that _four were missing: the large black cloak and three costumes of Jewish priests_...."
(Quoted from _Dossier_, Cote 669.)
The Inspector, having discovered that three black gowns and a black cloak had been let out by M. Guilbert to the Hebrew Theatre and not returned to him, went, of course, straight to that theatre. I can imagine the Inspector"s feelings, and his thoughts. Would he find the missing garments there? Had they merely been mislaid? Or had they been _stolen_! And _when_? If they had been stolen on the 30th, a few hours before the double murder, then, as he had said, he held the clue of clues!
What did he hear at the theatre?--That the three black gowns and the black cloak had been _stolen_.
Here again, I can do no better than quote from the _Dossier_, the evidence given either to M. Hamard, Chief of the _Surete_, or to M.
Andre, the examining magistrate in charge of my case, _after_ I had been arrested.
After confirming on every point the statements made by Mme. Rallet, M.
Goldstein stated, among other facts:
"None of the artists were told off to check the deliveries of costumes made by the firm Guilbert, and the messenger was in the habit of placing the baskets of costumes in the vestibule, near the box-office of the Hebrew Theatre. Any one could easily make his way into the theatre, for the door, opening inwards, had only to be pushed, and is never closed...
"For the performance of May 28th, all the costumes were there... But things were different on May 31st. On that day at about 7 P.M., I opened the basket which had been put down in the vestibule the day before, by the messenger from Guilbert"s. _The ropes of the basket were undone._ I also found at once that, contrary to custom, _the costumes were in disorder_. Feinberg, who was standing near me, told me that he had noticed the same thing on the previous evening (May 30th)... At the moment when every one had to put on his costume, we found that _the gowns of the Jewish priests were missing_... M. Feinberg sent Gabriel, the watchman of the theatre, to Guilbert"s. But the shop was closed...
"... In spite of all our searches, throughout the theatre, it has been impossible to trace the four missing costumes..."
(_Dossier_, Cote 677.)
And M. Goldstein added, on another occasion, when asked for further details:
"... The baskets were undone, and the lids were "free." The baskets delivered by Guilbert"s were always fastened with rope..."
(_Dossier_, Cote 683.)
Finally, on March 2nd, 1909, M. Goldstein, once more interrogated, said among other things:
"... Feinberg told me that on Sat.u.r.day, May 30th, at 6.30 P.M., when he looked for the various parts of the Hamlet costume, which he was to wear at the matinee performance the next day, in the play _Queen Isabella_ and which he thought he would find in the basket, he had found what he wanted, but had noticed that the basket was undone and that the contents were overturned and in great disorder.
"It would be quite easy for any one to steal the gowns since the basket was left in the corridor of the theatre at a time when we were all in the _cafe_, and since the door had only to be pushed...."
(_Dossier_, Cote 724.)
M. Feinberg corroborated all these statements; but the exact words he used concerning the state of the basket from which the three black gowns undoubtedly worn by the three murderers, and the long black cloak undoubtedly worn by the red-haired woman, were stolen a few hours before the crime, are worth quoting:
"I found that the contents of the basket were in disorder; the parcels, which are usually packed with the greatest care by M. Guilbert"s, were undone and the various parts of the costumes were all mixed together. On May 31st we were unable to find the three Jewish priests" gowns and the garment which Guilbert"s call a Russian cloak, and which we call a "Pastor costume.""
(_Dossier_, Cote 676.)
The three gowns and the dark cloak were never found again. And Mlle.
Rallet, basing her claim _on the entries in her books_, sent a registered letter (on June 9th, 1908) demanding the return of those garments or the payment of a sum of money--which she duly quoted--representing their value.
Thus three black gowns and one black cloak had really been stolen in the corridor of the Hebrew Theatre on May 30th, 1908. And the times when those costumes were stolen is easy to calculate. The basket which contained them was delivered at 6 P.M. M. Feinberg found it "undone and in great disorder" at 8.30 P.M. There had been no one present when the messenger had put down the basket. There had been no one in the corridor of the theatre between 6 and 8.30 P.M.--the whole staff was "at the _cafe_," chatting, or dining... And the door needed only to be pushed!
Does it require a great stretch of imagination--not to believe in the theft, for it is impossible not to believe in it--to admit that the gowns worn by the four persons whom I saw in my room on the fatal night were the identical ones that had been stolen from the Hebrew Theatre?
If coincidence be called upon to explain things, let the sceptics turn to my description of the appearance of those persons--the criminals.
Let us suppose I had said, for instance, that the gowns had collars or that the sleeves were wide and loose... Then my description would not have exactly tallied with that of the stolen gowns. But no; I did not mention collars. I _did_ say that the sleeves were tight-fitting, and in every detail my description corresponded to that which M. Guilbert himself would have given of the gown and the cloak he sent to the Hebrew Theatre for the performance of May 31st. Better than that, when Mlle.
Rallet, on December 26th, 1908, was once more asked to describe the stolen gown, she declared--as I had done in the case of the gowns worn by the murderers--that those supplied by her firm had "flat and tight sleeves"!