A STARTLING INCIDENT.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3121, 29 June 1881, Page 4

A STARTLING INCIDENT.

A rather unusual accident occurred a few days ago in a Parisian suburb. An innkeeper residing at Courcelles was engaged in closing towards midnight when he peroived a conflagration on wheels going along the road. He called the attention of one of his men to this singular apparition of moving flames, from which as it came rapidly nearer, heartrending cries for help ■were heard to proceed, accompanied by the terrified neighing of a horse. The vehicle oo fire was recognised as belonging to a laundress who, with her husband, had left in the morning for Paris. The horse maddened by the flames, had become immanagable, and the two poor creatures in the waggon seemed destined to certain death, when the innkeeper, an old soldier, had a happy inspiration. Quickly fetching his gun, he'loaded it, knelt down, and fired at the horse with such good effect that the animal fell down dead. The two persons in the waggon were promptly released from their critical position, and the fire extinguished by their rescuer. Fortunately neither husband or wife were badly burned, and when they had recovered from their frighfc they explained how the conveyance had caught fire. They had passed the evening with a friend in Paris, and on the return journey both of them dozed, leaving the herse, which knew the way home, to his own guidance. They were raised from their nap by the horse running away, and perceived the waggon was on fire, the accident being caused by the young lady's shawl, which had slipped from her ehoulders, falling over one of the lamps.