TRUTH STRINGER THAN FICTION.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1160, 23 May 1884, Page 3

TRUTH STRINGER THAN FICTION.

An extraordinary trial is going on in Paris just now. M.Lifonre, young, rich, ami lbs happy hu Imn 1 of a pretty wif , who o He ha I married .uainsi the wishes ,f her family, rerariied Hntne alo"b ooe evening. M and Madame. Laiome wont out early ui tbe afternoon, inf rmiug their servants that they would not be Home to dinner. Neither on the pext nor on any of the following day did Madame return. Soon this mysterious disappearance was the talk 61 the neighbourhood, and public opinion settled down to tlie conviction that Lafohte Had killed his wife. People began to look askance at him, and one dav a crowd assem bled under his windows and threatened mi.chief. The Cnmmissaire of police ar rived, and instead of dispersing the crowd subj oted Lafonte to an interrogatory. “ What have you done with yonr wife?” ho asked Lafonte protested that he had done nothing with her, yet he was arrested and sent to the cabinet of a Judge destruction. who, being a Magistrate of higher rank than the Commissaire of Police, began with • “ And so, sir, yon have killed your wife ?” Lafonte answered : “ Nothing of the sort.” Bub his father-ia law was summoned, and a formal charge of murder was i resented.

Lafonte was arrested, an lin due time he appeared before a jury to ha tried for his life. The Court room w.is crowded and as matters began to look seiious tiie accused consented to go into fuller details on the subject of his wifes’s disappearance. His siory was that on' the day.in question before going out from his'hnlise to.dine he sat down to write a letter. His wife wished to know to whom he was writing, and on his refusal to tell her she flew into a fit of jea lonsy, reproached him with having m ir.ied her for her money, and declared that she would at once leave him. He answered her coldly to the elfect that sh might do as she pleased, and she left the room iuarage. An hoar later, when he went for her to accompany him to their friend’s house, she was not to be found, and since that day ho had not set eyes on her. When asked why he had not told this story to the Cominisaaireof Police, the Judge d’lnstruorion, and the Public Prosecutor, M. Latonte an.-wered that he had been enrage 1 by the gossip of ihe neighbors, and did not think that as an innocent man, it was his place to gratify their curiosity. The prosecution was without foundation, there was not a particle of evidence against him before the Magistrates who had committed him. and he had made up his mind to stand his trial in order to show up the malevolene of his father-in-law and the faulty way in which the Magistrates had investigated this affair. Eafonte fell so sure of his case that he conducted his defence himself, and this he did in a short speech to the jury, which was composed of twelve old men of the average intelligence—i hat is to say, a rich manufacturer, an a- chicect, a drinking saloon keeper, a relived Government clerk, an apothecary, a restaur nit keeper, a gentleman of no profess.on. mu who is the owner of several hj uses ; an ex-army officer, a butcher, a (jeahiiiet maker, a milkman, and a dancing master. 1 o this cosmopolitan crowd Lafonte said briefly there was no evidence against'him except that his wife was absent, an I th it he thought it would be a ve-y rood idea if the prosecutin ■ attorney weuld show that a crime had been commilte 1. The jury retire I, and after a short absence brought in a verdict of guilty. Lafonte was apparently lost, and the Judges were about to pronounce sentence, when a handsomely-dre-sed I dv rushed fo ward to the bar and. with tears streaming down her cheek , exolaime I. *• I am Mdme. Latonte. and I have nut bsen murdered.” in a fit of jealousy and anger she ha I left her home and hidden herself in the country with her im.se, and it was only when sue read in the papers that M Lafonte was to he tried as her murderer that she made up her mind to return to Pa is in Older to be on hand to save him, if necessary This ought to have settled the case, but it did not Poor I afonte is not yet out of the prisoners’ dock. It is true the Court, then and there ordered .a stay of judgment, and announced that the case should l>e tided over again at the next term ; hut there is no certain'y that twelve wise men of France will acquit him next time. The worst of it is all his intimate friends—they, of course, have confidence in his ultimate release—are treating him as fit man found guilty of murder.—J. H. Hayaie, iu tne San Franeisc-. Post. ■