castaing expected, as a result of the doctors' report, immediate release. in this he was disappointed; he was placed under stricter arrest and taken to paris, where a preliminary investigation commenced, lasting five months. during the early part of his imprisonment castaing feigned insanity, going to disgusting lengths in the hope of convincing those about him of the reality of his madness. but after three days of futile effort he gave up the attempt, and turned his attention to more practical means of defence. in the prison at versailles, whither he had been removed from paris, he got on friendly terms with a prisoner, one goupil, who was awaiting trial for some unimportant offence. to goupil castaing described the cruelty of his position and the causes that had led to his wrongful arrest. he admitted his unfortunate possession of the poison, and said that the 100,000 francs which he had invested he had inherited from an uncle. through goupil he succeeded in communicating with his mother in the hope that she would use her influence to stifle some of the more serious evidence against him. through other prisoners he tried to get at the chemists from whom he had bought acetate of morphia, and persuade them to say that the preparation of morphia which he had purchased was harmless.
the trial of castaing commenced before the paris assize court on november 10, 1823. he was charged with the murder of hippolyte ballet, the destruction of a document containing the final dispositions of hippolyte's property, and with the murder of auguste ballet. the three charges were to be tried simultaneously. the act of accusation in castaing's case is a remarkable document, covering a hundred closely-printed pages. it is a well-reasoned, graphic and unfair statement of the case for the prosecution. it tells the whole story of the crime, and inserts everything that can possibly prejudice the prisoner in the eyes of the jury. as an example, it quotes against castaing a letter of his mistress in which, in the course of some quarrel, she had written to him saying that his mother had said some "horrible things" (des horreurs) of him; but what those "horrible things" were was not revealed, nor were they ever alluded to again in the course of the trial, nor was his mistress called as a witness, though payments of money by castaing to her formed an important part of the evidence against him. again, the evidence of goupil, his fellow prisoner, as to the incriminating statements made to him by castaing is given in the act of accusation, but goupil himself was not called at the trial.
during the reading of the act of accusation by the clerk of the court castaing listened calmly. only when some allusion was made to his mistress and their children did he betray any sign of emotion. as soon as the actual facts of the case were set out he was all attention, making notes busily. he is described as rather attractive in appearance, his face long, his features regular, his forehead high, his hair, fair in colour, brushed back from the brows; he wore rather large side-whiskers. one of the witnesses at saint cloud said that castaing looked more like a priest than a doctor; his downcast eyes, gentle voice, quiet and unassuming demeanour, lent him an air of patience and humility.
the interrogatory of castaing by the presiding judge lasted all the afternoon of the first day of the trial and the morning of the second. the opening part of it dealt with the murder of hippolyte ballet, and elicited little or nothing that was fresh. beyond the purchase of acetate of morphia previous to hippolyte's death, which castaing reluctantly admitted, there was no serious evidence against him, and before the end of the trial the prosecution abandoned that part of the charge.
questioned by the president as to the destruction of hippolyte ballet's will, castaing admitted that he had seen a draft of a will executed by hippolyte in favour of his sister, but he denied having told auguste that lebret had in his possession a copy which he was prepared to destroy for 100,000 francs. asked to explain the assertion of mlle. percillie, auguste's mistress, that statements to this effect had been made in her presence by both auguste ballet and himself, he said that it was not true; that he had never been to her house. "what motive," he was asked, "could mlle. percillie have for accusing you?" "she hated me," was the reply, "because i had tried to separate auguste from her." castaing denied that he had driven with auguste to lebret's office on october 8. asked to explain his sudden possession of 100,000 francs at a moment when he was apparently without a penny, he repeated his statement that auguste had given him the capital sum as an equivalent for an income of 4,000 francs which his brother had intended to leave him. "why, when first asked if you had received anything from auguste, did you say you had received nothing?" was the question.
"it was a thoughtless statement," was the answer. "why," pursued the president, "should you not have admitted at once a fact that went to prove your own good faith? if, however, this fact be true, it does not explain the mysterious way in which auguste asked prignon to raise for him 100,000 francs; and unless those 100,000 francs were given to you, it is impossible to account for them. it is important to your case that you should give the jury a satisfactory explanation on this point." castaing could only repeat his previous explanations.
the interrogatory was then directed to the death of auguste ballet. castaing said that auguste ballet had left him all his fortune on account of a disagreement with his sister. asked why, after auguste's death, he had at first denied all knowledge of the will made in his favour and deposited by him with malassis, he could give no satisfactory reason. coming to the facts of the alleged poisoning of auguste ballet, the president asked castaing why, shortly after the warm wine was brought up on the night of may 30, he went up to the room where one of the servants of the hotel was lying sick. castaing replied that he was sent for by the wife of the hotel-keeper. this the woman denied; she said that she did not even know that he was a doctor. "according to the prosecution," said the judge, "you left the room in order to avoid drinking your share of the wine." castaing said that he had drunk half a cupful of it. the judge reminded him that to one of the witnesses castaing had said that he had drunk only a little.
a ridiculous statement made by castaing to explain the purchase of morphia and antimony in paris on may 31 was brought up against him. shortly after his arrest castaing had said that the cats and dogs about the hotel had made such a noise on the night of may 30 that they had disturbed the rest of auguste, who, in the early morning, had asked castaing to get some poison to kill them. he had accordingly gone all the way, about ten miles, to paris at four in the morning to purchase antimony and morphia to kill cats and dogs. all the people of the hotel denied that there had been any such disturbance on the night in question. castaing now said that he had bought the poisons at auguste's request, partly to kill the noisy cats and dogs, and partly for the purpose of their making experiments on animals. asked why he had not given this second reason before, he said that as auguste was not a medical man it would have been damaging to his reputation to divulge the fact of his wishing to make unauthorised experiments on animals. "why go to paris for the poison?" asked the judge, "there was a chemist a few yards from the hotel. and when in paris, why go to two chemists?" to all these questions castaing's answers were such as to lead the president to express a doubt as to whether they were likely to convince the jury. castaing was obliged to admit that he had allowed, if not ordered, the evacuations of the sick man to be thrown away. he stated that he had thrown away the morphia and antimony, which he had bought in paris, in the closets of the hotel, because, owing to the concatenation of circumstances, he thought that he would be suspected of murder. in reply to a question from one of the jury, castaing said that he had mixed the acetate of morphia and tartar emetic together before reaching saint cloud, but why he had done so he could not explain.
the medical evidence at the trial was favourable to the accused. orfila, the famous chemist of that day, said that, though the symptoms in auguste ballet's case might be attributed to poisoning by acetate of morphia or some other vegetable poison, at the same time they could be equally well attributed to sudden illness of a natural kind. the liquids, taken from the stomach of ballet, had yielded on analysis no trace of poison of any sort. the convulsive symptoms present in ballet's case were undoubtedly a characteristic result of a severe dose of acetate of morphia.(14) castaing said that he had mixed the acetate of morphia and tartar emetic together, but in any case no trace of either poison was found in auguste's body, and his illness might, from all appearances, have been occasioned by natural causes. some attempt was made by the prosecution to prove that the apoplexy to which hippolyte ballet had finally succumbed, might be attributed to a vegetable poison; one of the doctors expressed an opinion favourable to that conclusion "as a man but not as a physician." but the evidence did not go further.
(14) it was asserted some years later by one medical authority in
palmer's case that it might have been morphia and not strychnine that
had caused the tetanic symptoms which preceded cook's death.
to the young priest-like doctor the ordeal of his trial was a severe one. it lasted eight days. it was only at midday on the sixth day that the evidence was concluded. not only was castaing compelled to submit to a long interrogatory by the president, but, after each witness had given his or her evidence, the prisoner was called on to refute or explain any points unfavourable to him. this he did briefly, with varying success; as the trial went on, with increasing embarrassment. a great deal of the evidence given against castaing was hearsay, and would have been inadmissible in an english court of justice. statements made by auguste to other persons about castaing were freely admitted. but more serious was the evidence of mlle. percillie, auguste's mistress. she swore that on one occasion in her presence castaing had reproached auguste with ingratitude; he had complained that he had destroyed one copy of hippolyte ballet's will, and for auguste's sake had procured the destruction of the other, and that yet, in spite of all this, auguste hesitated to entrust him with 100,000 francs. asked what he had to say to this statement castaing denied its truth. he had, he said, only been in mlle. percillie's house once, and then not with auguste ballet. mlle. percillie adhered to the truth of her evidence, and the president left it to the jury to decide between them.
a mme. durand, a patient of castaing, gave some curious evidence as to a story told her by the young doctor. he said that a friend of his, suffering from lung disease, had been persuaded into making a will in his sister's favour. the sister had offered a bribe of 80,000 francs to her brother's lawyer to persuade him to make such a will, and paid one of his clerks 3,000 francs for drawing it up. castaing, in his friend's interest, and in order to expose the fraud, invited the clerk to come and see him. his friend, hidden in an alcove in the room, overheard the conversation between castaing and the clerk, and so learnt the details of his sister's intrigue. he at once destroyed the will and became reconciled with his brother, whom he had been about to disinherit. after his death the brother, out of gratitude, had given castaing 100,000 francs.
president: castaing, did you tell this story to mme. durand?
castaing: i don't recollect.
avocat-general: but mme. durand says that you did.
castaing: i don't recollect.
president: you always say that you don't recollect; that is no answer. have you, yes or no, made such a statement to mme. durand?
castaing: i don't recollect; if i had said it, i should recollect it.
another lady whom castaing had attended free of charge swore, with a good deal of reluctance, that castaing had told her a somewhat similar story as accounting for his possession of 100,000 francs.
witnesses were called for the defence who spoke to the diligence and good conduct of castaing as a medical student; and eighteen, whom he had treated free of expense, testified to his kindness and generosity. "all these witnesses," said the president, "speak to your generosity; but, for that very reason, you must have made little profit out of your profession, and had little opportunity for saving anything," to which castaing replied: "these are not the only patients i attended; i have not called those who paid me for my services." at the same time castaing found it impossible to prove that he had ever made a substantial living by the exercise of his profession.
one of the medical witnesses called for the defence, m. chaussier, had volunteered the remark that the absence of any trace of poison in the portions of auguste ballet's body submitted to analysis, constituted an absence of the corpus delicti. to this the president replied that that was a question of criminal law, and no concern of his. but in his speech for the prosecution the avocat-general dealt with the point raised at some length—a point which, if it had held good as a principle of english law, would have secured the acquittal of so wicked a poisoner as palmer. he quoted from the famous french lawyer d'aguesseau: "the corpus delicti is no other thing than the delictum itself; but the proofs of the delictum are infinitely variable according to the nature of things; they may be general or special, principal or accessory, direct or indirect; in a word, they form that general effect (ensemble) which goes to determine the conviction of an honest man." if such a contention as m. chaussier's were correct, said the avocat-general, then it would be impossible in a case of poisoning to convict a prisoner after his victim's death, or, if his victim survived, to convict him of the attempt to poison. he reminded the jury of that paragraph in the code of criminal procedure which instructed them as to their duties: "the law does not ask you to give the reasons that have convinced you; it lays down no rules by which you are to decide as to the fullness or sufficiency of proof... it only asks you one question: 'have you an inward conviction?'" "if," he said, "the actual traces of poison are a material proof of murder by poison, then a new paragraph must be added to the criminal code—'since, however, vegetable poisons leave no trace, poisoning by such means may be committed with impunity.'" to poisoners he would say in future: "bunglers that you are, don't use arsenic or any mineral poison; they leave traces; you will be found out. use vegetable poisons; poison your fathers, poison your mothers, poison all your families, and their inheritance will be yours—fear nothing; you will go unpunished! you have committed murder by poisoning, it is true; but the corpus delicti will not be there because it can't be there!" this was a case, he urged, of circumstantial evidence. "we have," he said, "gone through a large number of facts. of these there is not one that does not go directly to the proof of poisoning, and that can only be explained on the supposition of poisoning; whereas, if the theory of the defence be admitted, all these facts, from the first to the last, become meaningless and absurd. they can only be refuted by arguments or explanations that are childish and ridiculous."
castaing was defended by two advocates—roussel, a schoolfellow of his, and the famous berryer, reckoned by some the greatest french orator since mirabeau. both advocates were allowed to address the jury. roussel insisted on the importance of the corpus delicti. "the delictum," he said, "is the effect, the guilty man merely the cause; it is useless to deal with the cause if the effect is uncertain," and he cited a case in which a woman had been sent for trial, charged with murdering her husband; the moral proof of her guilt seemed conclusive, when suddenly her husband appeared in court alive and well. the advocate made a good deal of the fact that the remains of the draught prescribed by dr. pigache, a spoonful of which castaing had given to auguste ballet, had been analysed and showed no trace of poison. against this the prosecution set the evidence of the chemist at saint cloud, who had made up the prescription. he said that the same day he had made up a second prescription similar to that of dr. pigache, but not made out for auguste ballet, which contained, in addition to the other ingredients, acetate of morphia. the original of this prescription he had given to a friend of castaing, who had come to his shop and asked him for it a few days after ballet's death. it would seem therefore that there had been two bottles of medicine, one of which containing morphia had disappeared.
m. roussel combatted the suggestion that the family of castaing were in a state of indigence. he showed that his father had an income of 10,000 francs, while his two brothers were holding good positions, one as an officer in the army, the other as a government official. the mistress of castaing he represented as enjoying an income of 5,000 francs. he protested against the quantity of hearsay evidence that had been admitted into the case. "in england," he said, "when a witness is called, he is asked 'what have you seen?' if he can only testify to mere talk, and hearsay, he is not heard." he quoted the concluding paragraph of the will of auguste ballet as showing his friendly feeling towards castaing: "it is only after careful reflection that i have made this final disposition of my property, in order to mark the sincere friendship which i have never for one moment ceased to feel for mm. castaing, briant and leuchere, in order to recognise the faithful loyalty of my servants, and deprive m. and mme. martignon, my brother-in-law and sister, of all rights to which they might be legally entitled on my death, fully persuaded in soul and conscience that, in doing so, i am giving to each their just and proper due." "is this," asked m. roussel, "a document wrested by surprise from a weak man, extorted by trickery? is he not acting in the full exercise of his faculties? he forgets no one, and justifies his conduct."
when m. roussel came to the incident of the noisy cats and dogs at saint cloud, he was as ingenious as the circumstances permitted: "a serious charge engrosses public attention; men's minds are concentrated on the large, broad aspects of the case; they are in a state of unnatural excitement. they see only the greatness, the solemnity of the accusation, and then, suddenly, in the midst of all that is of such tragic and surpassing interest, comes this trivial fact about cats and dogs. it makes an unfavourable impression, because it is dramatically out of keeping with the tragedy of the story. but we are not here to construct a drama. no, gentlemen, look at it merely as a trivial incident of ordinary, everyday life, and you will see it in its proper light." m. roussel concluded by saying that castaing's most eloquent advocate, if he could have been present, would have been auguste ballet. "if providence had permitted him to enter this court, he would cry out to you, 'save my friend's life! his heart is undefiled! he is innocent!'"
m. roussel concluded his speech at ten o'clock on sunday night, november 16. the next morning berryer addressed the jury. his speech in defence of castaing is not considered one of his most successful efforts. he gave personal testimony as to the taste of acetate of morphia. he said that with the help of his own chemist he had put a quarter of a grain of the acetate into a large spoonful of milk, and had found it so insupportably bitter to the taste that he could not keep it in his mouth. if, he contended, ballet had been poisoned by tartar emetic, then twelve grains given in milk would have given it an insipid taste, and vomiting immediately after would have got rid of the poison. later investigations have shown that, in cases of antimonial poisoning, vomiting does not necessarily get rid of all the poison, and the convulsions in which auguste ballet died are symptomatic of poisoning either by morphia or antimony. in conclusion, berryer quoted the words addressed by one of the kings of france to his judges: "when god has not vouchsafed clear proof of a crime, it is a sign that he does not wish that man should determine it, but leaves its judgment to a higher tribunal."
the avocat-general, in reply, made a telling answer to m. roussel's attempt to minimise the importance of the cats and dogs: "he has spoken of the drama of life, and of its ordinary everyday incidents. if there is drama in this case, it is of castaing's making. as to the ordinary incidents of everyday life, a man buys poison, brings it to the bedside of his sick friend, saying it is for experiments on cats and dogs, the friend dies, the other, his sole heir, after foretelling his death, takes possession of his keys, and proceeds to gather up the spoils—are these ordinary incidents of every-day life?"
it was nine o'clock at night when the jury retired to consider their verdict. they returned into court after two hours' deliberation. they found the prisoner "not guilty" of the murder of hippolyte ballet, "guilty" of destroying his will, and "guilty" by seven votes to five of the murder of auguste ballet. asked if he had anything to say before judgment was given, castaing, in a very loud voice, said "no; but i shall know how to die, though i am the victim of ill-fortune, of fatal circumstance. i shall go to meet my two friends. i am accused of having treacherously murdered them. there is a providence above us! if there is such a thing as an immortal soul, i shall see hippolyte and auguste ballet again. this is no empty declamation; i don't ask for human pity" (raising his hands to heaven), "i look to god's mercy, and shall go joyfully to the scaffold. my conscience is clear. it will not reproach me even when i feel" (putting his hands to his neck). "alas! it is easier to feel what i am feeling than to express what i dare not express." (in a feeble voice): "you have desired my death; you have it!" the judges retired to consider the sentence. the candles were guttering, the light of the lamps was beginning to fade; the aspect of the court grim and terrible. m. roussel broke down and burst into tears. castaing leant over to his old schoolfellow: "courage, roussel," he said; "you have always believed me innocent, and i am innocent. embrace for me my father, my mother, my brothers, my child." he turned to a group of young advocates standing near: "and you, young people, who have listened to my trial, attend also my execution; i shall be as firm then as i am now. all i ask is to die soon. i should be ashamed to plead for mercy." the judges returned. castaing was condemned to death, and ordered to pay 100,000 francs damages to the family of auguste ballet.
castaing was not ashamed to appeal to the court of cassation for a revision of his trial, but on december 4 his appeal was rejected. two days later he was executed. he had attempted suicide by means of poison, which one of his friends had brought to him in prison, concealed inside a watch. his courage failed him at the last, and he met his death in a state of collapse.
it is not often, happily, that a young man of gentle birth and good education is a double murderer at twenty-six. and such a soft, humble, insinuating young man too!—good to his mother, good to his mistress, fond of his children, kind to his patients.
yet this gentle creature can deliberately poison his two friends.
was ever such a contradictory fellow?
