Chapter 93

86 MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE posely and by hand. It is one of the rarest of accidents that a piece is ‘torn ofF from any garment such as is now in question, by the agency of a thorn . From the very nature of such fabrics, a thorn or nail becoming entangled in them, tears them rectangularly — divides them into two longitudinal rents, at right angles with each other, and meeting at an apex where the thorn enters — but it is scarcely possible to conceive the piece ‘torn off/ I never so knew it, nor did you. To tear a piece off from such fabric, two distinct forces, in different directions, will be in almost every case required. If there be two edges to the fabric — if, for example, it be a pocket-handkerchief and it is desired to tear from it a slip, then, and then only, will the one force serve the purpose. But in the present case, the question is of a dress presenting but one edge. To tear a piece from the interior, where no edge is presented, could only be effected by a miracle through the agency of thorns, and no one thorn could accomplish it. But, even where an edge is presented, two thorns will be necessary, operating, the one in two distinct directions, and the other in one. And this in the supposition that the edge is unhemmed. If hemmed, the matter is nearly out of the question. We thus see the numerous and great obstacles in the way of pieces being ‘torn off' through the simple agency of ‘thorns'; yet we are required to believe not only that one piece but that many have been so torn. ‘And one part,' too, 'was the hem of the frock!' Another piece was ‘ part of the skirt not the hem / — that is to say, was torn completely out, through the agency of thorns, from the unedged interior of the dress ! These, I say, are things which one may well be pardoned for disbelieving; yet taken collectedly, they form, perhaps, less of reasonable ground for suspicion than the one startling circumstance of the articles having been left in this thicket at all by any murderers who had enough precaution to think of removing the corpse. You