MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT TOULOUSE.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 522, 19 February 1876, Page 3

MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT TOULOUSE.

{Home News, Dec. 16). A very “ mysterious ” affair is reported from Toulouse, the inhabitants of which city will realise the meaning of Victor Hugo’s “ Annee Terrible.” When the famous church of the Cordeliers, converted during the First Revolution into a barn, was burnt down in in 1871. the tower escaped destruction, and has since been used as a lead factory. About six weeks ago “ a foreigner of distinguished appearance, accompanied by his secretary, both wearing decorations,” applied for per* mission to ascend the tower. This was readily granted, and on his descent the stranger had some conversation with the manager of the factory, who arrived at the conclusion that he must be deeply versed in scientific matters. Last Tuesday he again asked for leave to ascend the tower for himself and secretary, but in a few minutes the workmen’s attention was attracted by a loud shriek, and as soon as they got outside they saw two bodies falling to the ground. The distinguished foreigner was dead, but his secretary, who still survives, and has recovered consciousness, gives the following version of the affair:—The dead man and himself had conceived an ingenious plan for robbing the branch Bank of France at Toulouse by making a passage from the courtyard of the Cordeliers to the bank cellars.# They had nearly completed their work, and had gone up the tower to get a better notion of the dis tance, when a dispute arose as to their share in the anticipated spoil. The survivor asserts that in the heat of argument his accomplice seized him, and in the struggle which ensued fell over with him. This, at least, is his story, but as he ia under police surveillance at the hospital, he may be asked to give a more detailed account of what happened when he gets well. In the meanwhile it is certain that the passage has been discovered, and that in another hour it would have been “through.” 'f