A ROMANTIC STORY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 112, 26 March 1862, Page 6

A ROMANTIC STORY.

• An affair has just been tried before the Seine Assize Court that recalls the plots of some of George Sand's early publications. The principal actor in it was indicted for murder, but the jurymen, who were all deeply interested in him, decided that it was only a dclit d'imprudence, and pronounced a consequent acquittal. ' A Paris correspondent describes the case as: follows:— . ~.■,,'

" Two persons no longer young—one a widow, the other married and the father of a family—fall in love with each other so desperately, that they determine on committing suicide, as neither wishes to outrage society by continuing what they called their false reiqitibns/ . Both signed an agreement previous to the attempted execu'tjon.'of their project to get married in the next world •::—' We' will,' at lea.s£, be united in eternity, since we cannot be on earth.' :Tlie means by which they'strove to enter this promised land was that so often resorted to by French lovers similarly circumstanced —a p^in of charcoal ia a room almost hermetically closed. Madame Thomas, the widow, to carry out her idea the more completely, arrayed herself in a magnificent bridal costume, find paid ten francs to a perrw/uier to arrange in braids her magnificent iiaxon hair, previous to her putting on the marriage wreath and veil, Paiilin Gilbert, at her desire, also donned a wedding toilette. . Death, it was decided, was to be the priest; and, accordingly, both joined hands over the brazier, till the bride became insensible, owing to the fumes of the charcoal, and fell upon the floor, dragging after her Gilbert, who was also in a state of insensibility. She expired almost immediately after, but the unhappy man did not follow her into the other world as lie had promised. In fulling he fell across the brazier, winch caused his clothes to take fire, and the smell thereby produced attracted the attention of the neighbors. When the door was broken open the fire had almost penetrated to the bone, which, in a slight degree, by the acute pain it produced, brought back consciousness to Gilbert. Ho was at once transported to an hospital, and a cure effected, but with difficulty, for he refused medicine, and appeared determined upon following the widow lhomas._ His appearance in the dock was hideous, his face bemg so frightfully disfigured by the unhealed burns, and his body by the mass of bandages that supplied the place of clothin". The instruction contained a full history of this strange being. According to it, he is is forty-two years old, having been born in 1819 at Bourges, where his father, a retired soldier, had married a flower-milker. When he was 15 years of age he was apprenticed to a jeweller, and seven years later he came to Paris, where lie proved himself to be a steady and intelligent artisan. Two years later he married A- voting workivomanj pretty, and remaokable for her'excellent conduct. ' The'1 marriage during" several years proved to be unusually happy," and the husband,, although he lived front the time of Ills wed--ding in the same house with Madame Thomas and her husband, never showed any symptoms of any liking beyond that of friendship for the former : neither did she for him. When Thomas died,' all the neighbours said "that his wife was like a broken-hearted woman, and . all' pitied her because she was so uniyersajly good-natured. About a year and a-half-back, Mag/imp Qilbert fell dangerously ill, and begged of the widow Thomas to attend her, as well as attend to her household con-

cerns. Sua<U..l so ; .an I while e'l^.ye I i.i what there ii every ria/aoii ti bilijve. w.ts altj^etUer n';\j jipto-1 by a fu.;iin-» ol'yity for :i sick frwu.l, '.Ht'ijro uoujiivo.l for hoc a viola.it pi-Hlm, Anisiii for \£ll'o.iet.' Both ti'ir-i'il in con l-jia.-iin^ eaoh otiier, and bjtli ',vd,M ssize 1 with a ilis^uit for life, su mucih so, that t;ia jeweller entirely departed liis shop, an.l, as the witness slid, tlie wicb'.v, iustfeid of bsins • ths iijsfc iniiuigcra in tile do;nioiie, and frx>k t.> maiiiu^ courses —A ni/lhd, gaddin.i.'i.li jut. It w.vs one itft/, aIW trying to divert hareslt froru. hair morbi-l state of uiiiul by walking several time.*! round tUo giilleries of tile Louvre, that she conaoived the idea of the.suioide; an<l coaiinuiiic.'ite.iit to Gilbert, whoeajorly agreed tv its execution. The idea of suicide was then devalopsd into an eternal nuirnage, and the unhappy worn in sold the bast part'of her furniture to ba,j a suit of clothe*) worthy of so great a solemnity.