LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1966, 12 June 1880, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THE PRIMA DONNA’S HUSBAND. [From the “ Belgravia Annual.”] ( Concluded.) The court was densely crowded—M. Yervoort presiding—when Armand Jales Boisduval, aged thirty-nine, born at Malines, was brought before the Criminal Tribunal charged with the murder of the Yicomte Leon de Beanfond at the Hotel de Univers, Rue des Hirondelles. The indictment was formally read by the clerk of the court. The president then proceeded to interrogate the accused. Various unimportant facts were elicited, and he was then invited to give his own account of the circumstance attending the death of the vicomte. M. Bolsduval related that he had known Mdlle. Descharmes for some time. He had been one of the first to recognise her genius. He had written to her expressing his admiration. He had been permitted to call upon her. He had proffered her certain gifts—tokens of his esteem—he had even presented her with a carriage and horses. It was true that he was married and the father of a family. It was unnecessary, he maintained, to import that fact into the case. He was naturally generous; and he could afford to be generous, even lavish. He had corresponded with Mdlle. Descharmes. She had written to him of the vicomte; she had ridiculed the young man. The president requested the accused to pass to the night of the supper party at the Hotel de I’Univers.

‘ I was at the opera house behind the scenes. I congratulated Mdlle Descharmes npon her success. She invited me to supper. As I entered the room I perceived the vioomte. I foresaw embarrassments, but I took no notice of him. I resolved to ignore his nresence, to avoid addressing him, as far as I possibly could. But before the supper was completed he spoke to me with insolence of manner. Jealousy burned in his eyes. He became excited, approached me, and passed his hand over my face as a sign of contempt. I admit that I struck him. He seized me by the collar of the coat, and we wrestled for a while. I shook him off, for I was much the stronger. I was enraged, I oonftss. I told him that if ho advanced towards me again I would throw him out of the widow. He stood glaring fiercely at me, threatening me with his fist. I was near the side-board upon which my sword-cane rested. I took possession of it to protect myself from his violence. He sought to wrest it from me. The sheath came off. He believed me disarmed. I cannot otherwise account for his conduct. He flung himself npon me violently, and the blade entered his side. Before I quite knew what had happened I found him staggering back, the blood streaming from him as he cried “Je suis Hesse I” I made no attempt to obstruct justice. I lost no time in constituting myself a prisoner. I have confined myself to a simple statement of the facts of the case.’

Asked by the [president why he carried a sword-stick, the prisoner replied that it was an article of luxry as well as defence; that many persons carried sword-sticks ; that he had procured the weapon some time back for his own protection when he was travelling in Italy. The evidence given by Mdlle, Catmka Kertz was found to be confused and unsatisfactory. She shed copious tears when her attention was directed to the transactions of the night of the murder. She was graatly terrified, she said. The gentlemen quarreled ; she did not know why they quarrelled. She had been too much shocked to remember distinctly, Violent language was used ; and then a blow was struck—by the vicomte, she thought, but she would not swear. In a moment she saw the prisoner and the deceased straggling. She screamed ; but she was too paralysed by her feara to attempt to separate the combatants. Then she heard the vicomte cry ‘I am killed.’ She perceived that there was blood upon his waistcoat. She believed that she said to the prisoner ‘ You are an assasasin.’ But she remembered nothing more distinctly. It was a terrible scene.

‘ It is the cue of the ladies to remember as little as possible,’ noted a hook-nosed spectator of the proceedings in court. Mdlle. Kertz. shown certain letters, recognised the handwriting of Mdlle. Deacharmes. The vicomte had been for some time the accepted lover, the affianced husband, of Mdlle. Desoharmes. They wrote to each other frequently ; they quarrelled sometimes. Mdlle. Descharmea also corresponded with the prisoner, who paid her great attentions. Was Mdlle. Desoharmes weary of the vioomte? It was possible; the witness could

not be certain. The vioomte was a young roue, who was understood to have dissipated hia patrimony, Madlle. Kertz was unaware that the prisoner was a married man. She had heard that he was possessed of great wealth.

Other witnesses were called. They described the quarrel at the supper-table and the after events. But they were not clearly agreed as to the facts. Dr. Bonrniquet seemed to impute blame to the prisoner; M. Philidor scarcely supported this view. ‘ The thing bad happened suddenly, in a moment; before one could turn round, the vicomte had fallen back wounded, and the accused was left standing with the swordblade wet with blood in his hand,’ said one of the witnesses.

There was curious unosrtainty as to the words uttered by the deceased as he fell back.

The excitement of the spectators reached its height when Mdlle. Desoharmes entered the court. She seemed much agitated, and gave her evidence in faint, broken tones. The president adjured her to raise her voice; she was nor. audible to him, he said. ‘I have suffered much, and suffer still; I speak with great difficulty ; I implore the indulgence of the court,’ Mdlle. Descharmes urged in reply. * I have heard you sing forte at the opera house, mademoiselle,’ observed the president abruptly. Concerning the absolute conflict between the prisoner and the deceased, Mdlle Dcs eharmes had no evidence to offer. It was admitted that she bad left the supper room before the commencement of the quarrel; that she had returned to find the viscomte in a dying state. She was greatly distressed. He had spoken to her ; she knew not what; she could not recollect. She was quite unnerved. It was all to her as a vague but horrible dream. Yes ;he had restored her letters. They were in possession of the Court. The viscomte had followed her from place to place ; ha had even importuned her with his addresses ; he had offered her marriage; she had promised to become bis wife. It was to pacify him that she consented, She did not believe that they were suited to each other; she could not abandon her profession ; she had not contemplated immediate marriage, but rather a postponement of her marriage to a distant date. Meanwhile, M Boisdnval presented himself. He, too, professed to love her, and Implored her hand. She did not know that he was already married. She confessed that she had received costly gifts from both her lovers.

Here the witness gave way to a fit of hysterical weeping, the president conjuring her to subdue her emotions and to refrain from making a scene in Court. She avowed that she deeply deplored the fate of the viscomte; that it would be to her an unceasing cause of regret; that she was convinced of the ardour and truth of his love. She admitted that under the terms of his will she was entitled to a legacy of considerable value. She protested that if the amount ever came to her hands it should be devoted to a hospital or otherwise to the benefit of the poor. She was aware (she continued) that the vioomta was extremely jealous ; that he was even capable of paroxysms in that respect. She had heard that the prisoner was a man of violent temper. Thereupon she was confronted with certain of her letters.

Her voice grew faint as she acknowledged them. She had written to the deceased complaining that she had been insulted by the assiduities of the prisoner; she had written to the prisoner deriding the deceased as an Imbecile, a poltroon, ‘And yet you invite these two men—angry, jealous, impassioned—to meet at your table !’ said the president sternly, almost fiercely; ‘ yon inflame them against each other, and then compel tneir meeting in your apartment. Yon must have foreseen the result. It seems to me, Mdlle. Descharmes, that you are an infamous woman.’ She was removed in a fainting state Hisses were audible in court. These manifestations were directed either against the president or the witness, it was not certain which.

‘Mdlle. Hescharmes’ first fiasco,' mused a spectator in court. Medical witnesses described scientifically the wound inflicted upon the vicomte. They agreed that it was just possible—they could not be induced to say more that the deceased had met his death by flinging himself inadvertently upon the naked swordblade.

Otker witnesses testified to the general good character of the prisoner. The jury acquitted M. Boisduval, the conrt condemning him to pay the expenses of the trial, in that death had ensned from his presuming to carry abont with him habitually a prohibited weapon. A lady and a hook-nosed gentleman were leaning over a piano, the lady sounding a treble note here and there.

‘ My voice is extinguished,’ she lamented, as she withdrew her hand from the keyboard.

* Bah !’ it is extinguished as a candle is extinguished in church, to be lighted again at the next service. A period of repose is necessary to you. That dreadful trial 1’ ‘lt was nothing to you ; yon are in the background always,’ * But even background figures have their feelings. I suffered terribly, and not a soul sympathised.’ * And now the viscomte’s family dispute his will and withhold my legacy 1’ ‘ Courage! They shall pay or we will print his [letters. All Paris will buy the book,’

But the legacy was not paid, nor were the letters published.