“Witness descended from the train not far from the small station of Villeneuve on the line, and there took the local train for Paris.  Landed at the Lyons Station, she heard of the inquiry in progress, and then, waiting outside, saw Quadling disguised as the Italian leave in company with another man.  She followed and marked Quadling down, meaning to denounce him on the first opportunity.  Quadling, however, on issuing from the restaurant, had accosted her, and at once offered her a further sum of five thousand francs as the price of silence, and she had gone with him to the Hotel Ivoire, where she was to receive the sum.  Quadling had paid it, but on one condition, that she would remain at the Hotel Ivoire until the following day.  Apparently he had distrusted her, for he had contrived to lock her into her compartment.  As she did not choose to be so imprisoned, she summoned assistance, and was at length released by the police.”

This was the substance of Hortense Petitpre’s deposition, and it was corroborated in many small details.

When she appeared before the Judge, with whom Sir Charles Collingham and Colonel Papillon were seated, the former at once pointed out that she was wearing a dark mantle trimmed with the same sort of passementerie as that picked up in the sleeping-car.

L’Envoi

Quadling was in due course brought before the Court of Assize and tried for his life.  There was no sort of doubt of his guilt, and the jury so found, but, having regard to certain extenuating circumstances, they recommended him to mercy.  The chief of these was Quadling’s positive assurance that he had been first attacked by Ripaldi; he declared that the Italian detective had in the first instance tried to come to terms with him, demanding 50,000 francs as his price for allowing him to go at large; that when Quadling distinctly refused to be black-mailed, Ripaldi struck at him with a knife, but that the blow failed to take effect.

Then Quadling closed with him and took the knife from him.  It was a fierce encounter, and might have ended either way, but the unexpected entrance of the woman Petitpre took off Ripaldi’s attention, and then he, Quadling, maddened and reckless, stabbed him to the heart.

It was not until after the deed was done that Quadling realized the full measure of his crime and its inevitable consequences.  Then, in a daring effort to extricate himself, he intimidated the woman Petitpre, and forced her to escape through the sleeping-car window.

It was he who had rung the signal-bell to stop the train and give her a chance of leaving it.  It was after the murder, too, that he conceived the idea of personating Ripaldi, and, having disfigured him beyond recognition, as he hoped, he had changed clothes and compartments.

On the strength of this confession Quadling escaped the guillotine, but he was transported to New Caledonia for life.

The money taken on him was forwarded to Rome, and was usefully employed in reducing his liabilities to the depositors in the bank.