Paris is in a panic. M. Barreme, Prefect of the
Eure, has been found murdered on a railway, ten miles from Paris. He had evidently been stunned by a blow from a life-preserver, then shot in the head with a small revolver, the bullet being found in the brain, and then flung out on the line. The mur- derer is believed to have got out of the train at Mantes, where a man, known to have spoken to M. Barreme on the Paris plat- form, was seen to descend from the wrong side. He has not, however, been found. The police fancy that the murder was com- mitted by a member of a gang of card-sharpers whom M. Bari erne had hunted down ; but that is not antecedentally probable. Card-sharpers look for gain, and there is no gain in murder. It is more probable that the crime was instigated by a private revenge, or by a determination to seize incriminating papers. There is evidence of a struggle, and a statement, not yet quite verified, as to the disappearance of a pocket-book. The affair has created just alarm ; but it should be remembered that murders on railways have usually been punished. The scene selected greatly limits the area of inquiry, and therefore concentrates the attention of inquirers.
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