Two nights afterward, as Frederick was seated at dinner in the large dining-room of the Cafe Riche, two well dressed men walked up to his table and informed him that they had a warrant for his arrest on a charge of having murdered the demi-mondaine, Rose Hartmann.
FREDERICK ARRESTED FOR MURDER.

It is needless to recount the weary formalities and interrogatories to which Frederick was subjected during the next few weeks. He was, however, clever enough to evade all attempts made to discover his real identity, and was encouraged by his lawyer to believe that his conviction on the evidence which had been obtained against him would be a matter of great difficulty.

A month later the trial was opened with due form and ceremony. As soon as the judges—dressed in their scarlet robes lined with ermine—had taken their seats, immediately under the life-like picture of the Crucifixion which forms so striking a feature of every French court of justice, the prisoner was led in between two “Gardes de Paris,” and was conducted to his place in the dock. The court-room was comparatively empty, popular interest at that moment being centered in the courts-martial which were being held at Versailles on the various leaders of the Commune. After again stating in reply to the inquiries of the president that his name was Frederick Wolff, and that he was of Austrian origin, although born in London, his indictment was read. It charged him with having administered a poisonous dose of morphia to his mistress a femme galante of the name of [Pg 87] Rose Hartmann, a native of Berlin. It further stated that an autopsy had revealed the fact that the dose had been administered in a manner which displayed an intimate knowledge of the chemical properties of the drug.

Frederick's counsel thereupon arose and began his speech in defense of the young man. He urged that his client could have no object in murdering his mistress, to whom he was passionately attached, and on whom he had showered innumerable and lavish tokens of his affection. He painted in graphic colors the career of the dead woman in the annals of the Parisian galanterie, related how Frederick had made her acquaintance at the Jardin Mabille, and finally wound up by insinuating that, the woman being addicted to the use of chloral and morphia as sleeping draughts, her death was due to an overdose of the drug, administered by her own hand. He concluded his speech by an eloquent appeal to the jury to acquit his client.

[Pg 88]

The advocate-general (district attorney) then arose and begged leave of the court to summon two witnesses of whose existence he had only become aware a few hours previously, and whose testimony was calculated to shed a most important light on the case. A few moments afterward a short, fat man, with spectacles, was shown into the witness-box.

Frederick, who had retained a stoical calm until then, became deadly pale.

The witness, after having been duly sworn, stated that his name was Christian Martin, and that he was a bookseller by trade. He testified that about ten days before the newspapers published an account of the murder of Rose Hartmann, a young man visited his shop in the Rue de Rivoli, and purchased several works on toxicology. He had specially asked for the most recent publications on the subject of opium and morphine, and explained that he had recently returned from a long sojourn in the far East, where he had become interested in the study of the deleterious effects of these drugs among the natives. The bookseller added that the stranger had declined to allow him to send the books selected, but had insisted on taking them away with him in his carriage. M. Martin's attention had been specially attracted to the young man by the mention of his residence in the Orient, and by the remarkable knowledge which he displayed of the properties of hashish, and other narcotics used by the Asiatics. He had, however, thought no more about the matter until the previous evening, when passing in front of the offices of the Figaro, a portrait displayed on the bulletin-board of the newspaper had caught his eye. On examining it more closely, he had recognized therein the features of the gentleman who had visited his shop some weeks previously for the purpose of buying books on toxicology; and having learned from the superscription that it was the picture of “Baron” F. Wolff, the suspected murderer [Pg 89] of Rose Hartmann, he had deemed it his duty to inform the commissary of police of the district of the facts above mentioned. The latter, knowing that the trial was about to begin, had give............