HORRIBLE RESULTS OF A- REVOLT IN A PENITENTIARY.

Southland Times, Issue 652, 3 April 1867, Page 3

HORRIBLE RESULTS OF A- REVOLT IN A PENITENTIARY.

A trial has just terminated in France which has proved one of the most extraordinary in the annals of crime. There were sixteen of the accused, and th|ey were arraigned at the Court of Assizes of Draguignan, chief town of the department of the Var. On the 3rd October last the Penitentiary of the Levant/ the largest of the groups of isles known as the Islands of Hyeres (a reformatory where young boys are .trained to husbandry), rose in open revolt ; aad thjat rebellion had the most appalling consequences, for no less than fourteen boys were literally roasted alive by the ringleaders. " , " ! On the 24th September sixty-five Cor-t sicans who had been confined at S,t. Antoine, near Ajaccio, were landed in the Levant. In less than six days from their arrival they contrived to' raise up a rebellion in the colony which had been till then a model of discipline. They refused i to work, they disbanded, and by means of fine promises and terrible menances they succeeded in winning over a good number of the oldest boys of the Levant Penitentiary. The refractory band asked for meat at every meal, for tobacco and coffee, and for six hours of play a day. The rebellion was soon concocted, and on Tuesday, October 2, it was ushered in by seditious songs. It burst out in the evening, after bedtime. The ringleaders got up from their beds, put down the lights, broke the windows, demolished the' partitions, and expelled the. guardians. In view of preventing more devastation, one of the latter suggested to the prisoners to go down into the yard ; they went down, vociferating and making awful noises. Then they formed a band, and went towards the house of M. Fauveau, intending to pillage that house, and, perhaps, to commit crimes more terrible. But they were prevented from doing so by the improvised guard protecting M. Fauveau's house. Sixteen accused were before the Court. The first of ; the ringleaders is named Condurier. It is he who proposed to liberate the boys who were undergoing disciplinary imprisonment. His proposal was eagerly adopted, and the rebels, armed with axes, marched to the doors of the cells where the prisoners were confined. They broke open nine cells, and, of course, their occupants enlarged the number of the revolted. Then they went down to the cellars, the hogsheads were brought up into the courtyard, they were broken open, and every one drank as much as he couUL The aim of the revolt was the death of the spies. First, it had been settled that they should be taken to the heath and to the bogs, there to be killed with stones, but that idea was given up for another tenfold more atrocious. The victual storehouse was pillaged, and another warehouse, containing petroleum oil and inflammable matter, was contiguous to it.. They broke open three doors, giving access to the passage leading to that, warehouse. A fourth door, opening into the warehouse itself, more solid than the ( three others, resisted, and the only portion of it that they could break was, an upper panel, and to enter the petroleum warehouse through that aperture they: were obliged to scale the door to get up to it. The most daring went into the warehouses through that breach, and pillaged all the victuals and provisions. Condurier communicated to them an idea of his :— " Let us shut in there the spies, and then we shall set the place on fire." The plan was adopted. Two fellows, chosen from among the worst, were entrusted with the fulfilment of the diabolical deed, and they executed it too well. The young ones, enticed to come and pillage the victuals in their turn, hastened to do it. The arch plotter kept away some of them, and admitted the intended victims. Fourteen boys were in the warehouse. He judged that the moment was opportune, and he told a certain Ferandon to light a heap of paper. They had also taken the precaution of pouring on the floor a large vase full of petroleum. The flames therefore ran rapidly over the whole. That fire was to devour the fourteen boys who had been admitted into the warehouse; one could escape only through the broken upper panel of the door, and a jet of fire at that spot rendered such escape a sheer impossibility. The flames had not yet ascended to the panel, when one of the unfortunate boys, named G-aribaldi, saw the danger, jumped at the panel, and tried to get out. But another boy, Allard, true to his orders, ran at him and thrice thrust his knife in Gbtribaldi's legs and chest. The blood flew in torrents, and the poor fellow fell back in the flames. Then a heartrending scene occurred. AH the boys inside managed to get at the window, clung to the bars, and cried for assistance with the accents of the most moving despair. But the ringleaders now surveyed the victims with an implacable coolness. The poor fellows sufI fered the most excruciating agony j their faces were black, their cheeks melted in the fiery flames, their hair blazed; but soon death put an end to their, sufferings. Then the reoels wallowed in the grossest orgies. It was only during the evening of the 4th that assistance came to hand. The fire was still raging ; and if there had been a little fresh wind the whole range of buildings would have been destroyed. Thirteen of the accused were convicted, and three acquitted. Four were pen- v tencedto the galleys for life, and: the others to lighter penalties,