After the salad-bowl, the two men picked up five of the weighty glasses ordinarily used in wine-shops, and which, while looking as though they would contain half a bottle, are in point of fact so thick at the bottom that they hold next to nothing. Three of these glasses were broken, two were whole. All of them had contained wine the same vin a la Frangaise.
The accomplice had evidently seen Lecoq and his comrade examining the footprints, and accordingly the presence of the two women was not to be denied. "What time was this?" asked the magistrate. "About eleven o'clock." "Go on." "As soon as they sat down they ordered a bowl of wine, a la Frangaise. Without boasting, I may say that I haven't an equal in preparing that drink.
The first fruits of Lecoq's search were a large salad-bowl and a big iron spoon, the latter so twisted and bent that it had evidently been used as a weapon during the conflict. On inspecting the bowl, it became evident that when the quarrel began the victims were regaling themselves with the familiar mixture of water, wine, and sugar, known round about the barrieres as vin a la Frangaise.
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