EXTRAORDINARY TRAGEDY.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 650, 19 March 1870, Page 4

EXTRAORDINARY TRAGEDY.

An extraordinary tragedy has just taken place on the Boulevard St. Germain, Paris. A Madame B , a widow lady in easy circumstances, resided with her daughter, aged twenty, in her own house, opposite the Theatre de Cluny. She had for some time j>ast shown signs of mental derangement,' and frequently complained that she heard strange noises about her head, and imagined that she was followed by. soldiers . or police spies. The young woman appears also to have been of "very narrow intelligence, and completely under the influence of her mother. The other evening the elder lady resolved to commit suicide, and induced her daughter to consent to die with her. They first wrote, letters announcing their determination, which were afterwards found on the table, with; the will of the mother; they next lighted a pan of charcoal, but, as death did not come quickly enough, they drank some eau de Javelle (a bleaching fluid used by washerwomen),, and in which they dissolved some phosphorus scraped from lucifer matches. Even this poison did not produce any immediate result, and the mother then took a curtain-rope and strangled her daughter, with the intention of afterwards, putting an end to her own life. She lighted more charcoal, but without success, and at length went down stairs and told the house-porter's wife to come up for a moment. On the latter woman shortly after going into the room, she found Mine. B— — crouching on the ground over the body' of her daughter. ;The police were then sent for, and the mother, on being questioned, replied without emotion; giving every detail of this horrible drama, but without assign- : ing any motive for the attempted suicide. She is "detained in custody until" a medical examination as to her sanity shall be made. .