Lyons mail, being an account of the crime of April 27 1796 (Floreal 8 an IV) and of the trials which followed: a study of personalities and of evidence, as also of judicial procedure, under the first French republic

The old mystery of the 'Lyons Mail' is of all crime-problems the most complicated and interesting.

It is not even yet forgotten, as those will remember who saw the elder and the younger Irving, play the double part of Lesurques and Dubosq-a sort of misreading of the problem of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. But the real story is tangled up with all manner of historical persons.

The lost money was going to General Bonaparte, then on his first victorious campaign in the Italian Alps: three of the 'Directors' La Revelliere - Lepeaux, Gohier and Merlin dispute in the affair.

Madame Tallien - 'Notre Dame de Thermidor' makes a flitting appearance: still more improbably the two famous epicures of the age - Cambaceres and Brillat-Savarin take the chair.

Even Talleyrand shows for a moment.