Germinal.
DENIZET, examining magistrate (_juge d'instruction_) at Rouen. The
son of a cattle-breeder, he studied law at Caen, but had entered the
judicial department of the Government late in life; and his peasant
origin, aggravated by his father's bankruptcy, made his promotion slow.
After being substitute in various places he was sent to Rouen, where he
acted as examining magistrate. He was fond of his profession, and at the
beginning of the inquiry into the murder of President Grandmorin allowed
himself to be carried away by his desire to elicit the facts of the
case. He received, however, a hint from Camy-Lamotte, the secretary to
the Minister of Justice, that caution must be exercised, and his desire
to be decorated and removed to Paris was so great that he sacrificed the
interests of justice, and caused the case to be hushed up. Later, the
murder of Severine Roubaud reopened the Grandmorin inquiry, and Denizet
was allowed a free hand in dealing with the affair. By a masterpiece
of logical deduction he set out to prove the complicity of Cabuche and
Roubaud, a complicity, however, which had no existence in fact, and the
demonstration of which by Denizet produced a gross error of justice.
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