Traces

"We will resume this question by mere allusion to the revolting

details of the surgeon examined at the inquest. It is only

necessary to say that his published inferences, in regard to the

number of ruffians, have been properly ridiculed as unjust and

totally baseless, by all the reputable anatomists of Paris. Not

that the matter might not have been as inferred, but that there

was no ground for the inference:—was there not much for another?

"Let us reflect now upon 'the traces of a struggle;' and let me

ask what these traces have been supposed to demonstrate. A gang.

But do they not rather demonstrate the absence of a gang? What

struggle could have taken place—what struggle so violent and so

enduring as to have left its 'traces' in all directions—between a

weak and defenceless girl and the gang of ruffians imagined? The

silent grasp of a few rough arms and all would have been over.

The victim must have been absolutely passive at their will. You