Chapter 73

66 MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE sunk; or, having sunk, might have reappeared in twentyfour hours, or less. But no one supposes her to have been drowned; and, dying before being thrown into the river, she might have been found floating at any period afterwards whatever. “ ‘But/ says ‘L’Etoile/ ‘if the body had been kept in its mangled state on shore until Tuesday night, some trace would be found on shore of the murderers/ Here it is at first difficult to perceive the intention of the reasoner. He means to anticipate what he imagines would be an objection to his theory — viz., that the body was kept on shore two days, suffering rapid decomposition — more rapid than if immersed in water. He supposes that, had this been the case, it might have appeared at the surface on the Wednesday, and thinks that only under such circumstances it could so have appeared. He is accordingly in haste to show that it was not kept on shore; for, if so, ‘some trace would be found on shore of the murderers.’ I presume you smile at the sequitur . You cannot be made to see how the mere duration of the corpse on the shore could operate to multiply traces of the assassins. Nor can I. “ ‘And, furthermore, it is exceedingly improbable/ continues our journal, ‘that any villains who had committed such a murder as is here supposed, would have thrown the body in without weight to sink it, when such a precaution could have so easily been taken/ Observe here the laughable confusion of thought. No one — not even ‘L’Etoile’ — disputes the murder committed on the body found . The marks of violence are too obvious. It is our reasoner’s object merely to show that this body is not Marie’s. He wishes to prove that Marie is not assassinated— not that the corpse was not. Yet his observation proves only the latter point. Here is a corpse without weight attached. Murderers, casting it in, would not have failed to attach a weight. Therefore it was not thrown