href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@37390@[email protected]#page_001" class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">1

My Father 16 My Mother 16 Bonnat—by Himself 44 My Daughter and Myself in 1901 60 President Félix Faure 72 A Letter sent me by Félix Faure 78 The Félix Faure Talisman 82 The Gold Box in which President Faure sent me the Pearl Necklace 110 Invitation to the Félix Faure "In Memoriam Service" 116 My Husband, M. Steinheil, in 1898 122 A letter sent me by Massenet in 1907 132 Facsimile of the letter I sent to my Mother at Beaucourt a few days before the Crime 150 A view of the verandah of the house in the Impasse Ronsin 162 The Bed on which I was bound during the "Fatal Night" 166 The Desk in the Boudoir from which the Money and the dummy-parcel of Documents were stolen on May 30-31 182 A view of the House in the Impasse Ronsin 224 M. de Balincourt and Remy Couillard 252 Alexandre Wolff and his Mother, Mariette Wolff 262 M. André, my Examining Magistrate 348 My Cell, showing Juliette, my fellow prisoner, seated on her bed 382 In the prison yard at Saint-Lazare 386 Objects I used in Prison 410 My Counsel, Maître A. Aubin; The Judge, M. de Valles;
and the Advocate General, M. Trouard Riolle 450 Plan of the first floor of the house in the Impasse Ronsin 479

Photo. by Claude Harris, London
WRITING MY MEMOIRS

CHAPTER I

CHILDHOOD

("Monsieur et Madame Edouard Japy have the honour to inform you of the birth of a daughter." Beaucourt, April, 16th, 1869.)

BEAUCOURT is a village in the "Belfort Territory," not far from the Swiss and German frontiers. It was in that village, at the "Château Edouard"—all large mansions in that region are called "châteaux," and the name of the owner is added to the word—that I was born some forty years ago.

Beaucourt and nearly all of the surrounding country belongs to, or is dependent upon, the Japy family, whose vast factories and mills give a living to thousands of workmen.

After a family quarrel, my father, Edouard Japy, had severed his connection with "Japy Bros." some time before my birth. Having resigned his directorship of the Company, he busied himself exclusively with his huge estate, devoting his days to the farm and woods, to his beloved park and the picturesque cascades which he had designed himself, to his flowers and orchards, to his family and to music.

My mother was the daughter of the innkeeper of the Red Lion, the chief inn of Montbéliard in those already distant days. Edouard Japy had married Mlle. Emilie Rau in spite of the opposition of his family, who had declared that such a marriage would be a