TWO FRENCH LADIES SUFFOCATED.

Patea Mail, 8 March 1881, Page 4

TWO FRENCH LADIES SUFFOCATED.

A Paris correspondent writes: Parisian society has just been distressed to hear of the untimely fate of a young drawing-room belle, Mademoiselle Renee de Perrot de Thanberg, who was stifled in her sleep a few nights ago under somewhat singular circumstances. Mademoiselle Renee and a lady friend went together to the Opera Comique to witness the performance of “ Jean de Nevelle,” and by 1 a.rn. they had returned home and gone to bed. The two girls slept in separate rooms, opening one into the other, and warmed alike by an American stove, which Mine, de la Chevaldiere had caused to be lit, fearing lest the girls should feel cold during the night. Next morning, after repeated calls with no response, fears were aroused, and the door being locked a locksmith was sent for and the door forced open. A strong smell of carbon pervaded the first apartment, and to the horror and surprise of everyone present Mademoiselle de la Chevaldiere was found lyingin her bed, literally livid with swollen veins and distorted features. In the second apartment, the door of which was open, Mademoiselle Renee de Thanberg was found in the same condition. Both were quite dead. An hour afterwards the sad news was conveyed to the Yicomte de Thanberg, who was himself ill in bed, and whose condition was naturally aggravated by the shock he experienced. It is supposed that, with a view of diminishing the heat, one or other of the young ladies

turned the key closing the stove chimney, and that the carbonate emanations which followed stifled them in their sleep. I may add that Mdlle. de la Chevaldicre was nearly 30 years of age, but Mdlle. dc Perrot de Thanberg was barely 20, being, moreover, on the point of espousing a young lieutenant of title. This sad occurrence will naturally cause several of the most aristocratic families to go into mourning.