A DOUBLE SUICIDE.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 712, 11 August 1870, Page 4

A DOUBLE SUICIDE.

On Sunday morning last according to a report in Le Gaulois, some peasants found in the ground of the Villa Teissere, in the Valley of Montegat, near Nice, a young woman bleeding and insensible. She was removed to the town, but expired before reaching it. From her statements , and other information it appears that she was the daughter of a bookseller, and herself a brilliant pianiste, who during the winter months resided at Nice. She there msftls the acquaintance of a man named Morplain, and a close intimacy was formed between them, the man being thirty-four and the young woman thirty years of age. The latter, Mdlle. de Hauterine, became apprehensive that her father would discontinue the allowance he had been accustomed to make, and Morplain being without resources, they determined to put an end to their anxieties by terminating their existence. According to the statement of the dying woman she left Nice with her companion. "It was," said she, "our last night. We took with us a phial of laudanum, a revolver, and a swordstick. We chose this as the best spot for our purpose. We made a bed with our outer garments laid upon the moss. We slept till daybreak. We had prepared everything, and at seven o'clock came the adieu. I had taken off my white petticoat, which Morplain hung upon the branches of a tree. We drank the laudanum. We suffered much, but we could not die. Morplain said to me, ' T can bear it no longer; I shall blow gut my brains. ' I cried out that I would not be left alone with his corpse, and I said, ' Shoot me here,' pointing to the spot where a gaping wound in her breast was visible. 1 did not wish to be disfigured, and I entreated him to aim there. He fired point blank." The correspondent of the Gaulois adds that the statement is verified by the facts of the chemise being burnt and the skin blackened by the powder. " Morplain," added the; dying woman, "shot himself through the head, and you will find him lying yonder. He feared a failure, and you will see that he yet holds his poignard in his hand. I did not feel much hurt at first, and I managed to walk hither, leaning upon the case of the swordstick." The body of the man was discovered in the position his unhappy companion had described, and was removed to Nice, where a judicial inquiry was opened. — Times, May 20.