HOW A WOULD-BE MURDERER WAS THWARTED.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 546, 18 March 1876, Page 3

HOW A WOULD-BE MURDERER WAS THWARTED.

A very strange occurrence lately took place near Bordeaux, France, an account of which comes in the most authentic form. It seems that a woman employed at the Chateau of London recently inherited 1000 francs by the death of a relative, and the money was paid over to her in gold. A peasant, employed as gardener upon the grounds of the estate, hearing of the woman’s good fortune, determined to possess himself of the money. The woman filled the position of housekeeper, and it appears that the family were a short time since passing a few days in town and had taken the house servants with them, leaving the housekeeper alone. This chance was seized upon by the gardener to effect his object relative to the 1000 francs. He entered the woman’s room and locked the door, after which he demanded her money. This of course she refused to give him ; but he threatened to kill her instantly unless she gave him the 1000 francs, and to save her life she finally did so. Then the man declared that he must murder her to keep her from bearing witness against him, but gave her the choice of dying by the knife or tin rope, and summoned her to decide quickly. The poor woman prayed for mercy, making all sorts of promises; but the man was inexorable, and peremptorily told her that her time had come—she must die by one of the means he had named. The woman at last chose the rope as the least horrible to her imagination. The man then tied her arms behind her and fastened her to the bed-post securely, and, mounting a chair, fixed the rope he had brought -with him over a beam, making a noose at the end designed for the woman’s neck. Having fastened the rope securely, he put his arm in the noose to try and see if it would slip properly, as he dedesigued, and so choke her to death. The chair was near the bed, and the woman suddenly kicked it with all her strength from under the would-be assassin, so the man remained securely suspended by the arm. They continued thus until the morning, not being able to release themselves, and the robber being all the while in an agony of pain. At last their cries attracted some labourers, "who came to the room and burst in the door. They heard the woman’s story, and, tying the gardener, delivered him to the police. He was promptly tried and condemned to the galley for a term of years.