For political reasons it was not considered desirable that
Grandmorin's character should be publicly discussed, and the inquiry
regarding the murder was dropped. Roubaud was aware, however, that
Jacques Lantier had strong suspicions, and tried to secure his silence
by making him a friend; a friendship which soon developed into a
liaison between Lantier and Severine. With the murder of Grandmorin,
the disintegration of Roubaud's character began; he gradually became a
confirmed gambler, and having lost all his own money began to use that
which he had taken from the body of his victim in order to establish
a false motive for the crime. The relations between him and his wife
became more and more strained, until they reached such a pitch that
Lantier and she planned his murder. The homicidal frenzy of Lantier, to
which Severine fell a victim, ended the plot, but Roubaud and Cabuche,
who arrived on the scene immediately after the murder, were arrested
under what appeared to be suspicious circumstances, and, after trial,
were sentenced to penal servitude for a crime which they did not commit.
La Bete Humaine.
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