SINGULAR TRIAL. COCK-FIGHTING. 215 
and shuddered. Dubosq was a villain who had been condemned to 
the galleys, from whence he had escaped; arrested at Versailles, he 
again escaped from prison : he was again taken, when they found 
in his possession two boxes full of false keys, and other instruments 
necessary for the commission of crimes. He was condemned to death, 
and suffered with a man named Victal, whom Courriol had also 
marked out, and who was overwhelmed by the most conclusive evi- 
dence. All the researches of justice had been able to mark out only 
five individuals as parties concerned in the assassination. Four, not 
including Lesurques and Bernard, had been executed ; the fifth still 
remained unpunished : he had taken shelter in Spain, and they 
discovered him. When examined, he at first denied the crime with 
which he was charged ; condemned to die, and seeing no prdspect 
of a reprieve, he desired his confessor to declare that he died justly, 
and that Lesurques was innocent of the crime imputed to him. 
At length the important proof had been given ; justice, considering 
Bernard as an accomplice, had only six culprits to punish ; she had 
punished seven. Of these seven, who was the innocent one? Lesur- 
ques, or Dubosq? The first was a respectable man, acquitted even 
by the authors of the crime. The second was a villain, and known 
to be such ; he was charged by all those concerned in the assassina- 
tion ; it was he who had mended and lost the spur presented at the 
trial ; the other, which he had thrown into a ditch, was afterwards 
found. The division of the money stolen, took place at his house. 
Can there remain the least doubt as to the innocence of the unfortu- 
nate Lesurques? 
As soon as all the circumstances of this dreadful tragedy were 
known, the memory of Lesurques was justified in public opinion, in 
the opinion of all the respectable part of society, in that of all the 
citizens of Donai, and in that of the whole of the department in which 
he so honourably performed all the duties of society. It was so fully 
cleared in the minds and hearts of all the deputies of this department, 
that since the restoration they readily came forward, and were all 
impatient to support a petition presented by his unhappy family. 
We must give honour to M. Daubauton, who, penetrated with grief 
for the error of the judges, collected himself the proofs of Lesurques’ 
innocence, and neglected nothing to obtain the reversal of his sen- 
tence. He died with grief at not being able to succeed. But, 
however honourable those testimonies of interest and public opinion 
may be for Lesurques, his death demanded a more solemn reparation. 
For twenty-five years his family claimed, but could not obtain it. It 
is that reparation which has recently been solicited with fresh ardour, 
and, above all, with a certain persuasion that the voice of oppressed 
innocence, and the prayer of the unfortunate, will not be turned from 
that throne where justice and pity dwell with the most virtuous and 
enlightened of monarchs. 
COCK-riGHTIxVG. 
This is a mode of diversion so cruel and inhuman, that it is aston- 
ishing that not only the ancients, barbarians, Greeks, and Romans, 
should have adopted it, but that it should be continued by Christian^ 
