A STRANGE STORY.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1053, 25 March 1882, Page 4

A STRANGE STORY.

Facts are often stranger than fiction. The Civil Tribunal of Simharsk, in Russia, (savs the London Times) was recently the scene of one of those dramatic incident more often read in novels than witnessed in a court of law. A case was being heard belore the tribunal, the plantiff being represented by a lawyer of considerable celebrity, named Panine. The court was crowded, and counsel on either side was about to ! plead for their client. Suddenly a person present rose to liis feet, and pointing to Maitre Panine, denounced him as a dangerous criminal, whose traces the police bad been seeking for four years past without succeeding in ■discovering his whereabouts. “ That I advocate,” cried the individual in quesI lion, “ has no right to the name he ■ bears, his name being Schilling. He lis a German. I recognise him per I fectly, for we were formerly at college I together, and I declare he is the notorious Valet de Cneur.” The excitement and amazement which such an unexpected revelation caused can be well imagined.! he statement was at first delieved to be utterly false, but on the denunciator persisting in his assertion, i the President of the Tribunal, de-irons i of bringing a painful scene to a close, ■ requested the advocate to explain liimI seif. Naturally he stoutly denied that jhe and the famous Valet de Cceur j were one and the same person, his accuser emphatically maintaining the | truth of his story, to corroborate which I he asked that certain persons whom he : named, amongst others a photographer, might be sent for. This was done. Upon Maitre Panine being confronted with the latter he suddenly grew deadly I pale, and fell back fainting on his i seat. When he recovered consciousness he confessed to being Valet de Cceur. who fur years back had been the chief of a band of swindlers, robbers, prisoners, and bandits of the worst kind, whose audacity and cruelty had made them the terror of Moscow and its environs. The rank and tile of this association of ruffiians ha.l fallen into | the hands of the police, but 'he com-mander-in-chief, the famous Valet de CtEur, and associate, also a German, called Spier, had never been caught. Chance has at length thrown him into the hands of justice, and the respected, distinguished, eloquent Maitre Panine is safely lodged in prison, where he will have leisure to reflect upon the vicissitudes of life.