Overview: In Rodez, in 1817, the former imperial prosecutor Antoine Bernardin Fualdès was found dead in the waters of Aveyron. The man was slaughtered. At a time when royalists and Bonapartists are tearing each other apart, the trail of political crime should not be overlooked. The affair fascinates the whole of Europe, and makes noise as far as the United States. The ensuing trial will be the first to be so widely publicized.