MADNESS OF A WHOLE FAMILY.

Southland Times, Issue 1154, 7 May 1869, Page 3

MADNESS OF A WHOLE FAMILY.

A very singular case of sudden and i unnaccountable madness, in an entire 1 family, of the Commune de Treverree (Arrondissement Brieux), has excited * much local interest, and has even, created an ineffectual enquiry into its cause on J the part of the most celebrated physio ] logists of Paris. Jean Lepage, a farmer i and proprietor of Jands, the produce t whereof enabled him to support, in comfort and respectability, his wife, his i sister-in-law, a son, and a daughter, and a whose conduct, as that of every member t of his family, had been marked by regularity and inoffensiveness ; who had lived c on the most friendly terms with his t neighbors, some time since wholly with- s drew himself from all communication v with his acquaintances ; and, imitated by p the rest of his family, retired wholly a from other society than that which his C own roof sheltered. They refused to n reply to any one they met — they spoke t not even with each other — as they passed t'< along, signs were the only medium b} r v which they conveyed their sentiments, s The hitherto well cultivated farms holden 2 by Jean Lepage were abandoned and ne d glected, and laid open to the ingress of v every species of cattle ; his grange, which "v was well stored with corn, was never n resorted to ; and, finally, after long in- b dulging in their gloomy reserve, the t characters of himself and his relations a assumed all the marks of highly-excited derangement. "Whosoever was met on j c their passage, as they walked forth in com- c pany, was certain of being assaulted, c They visited the church of their parish, t but not for the purposes of devotion ; ou a the contrary, their irreverent and riotous n behaviour interfered frequently with the due celebration of its rites ; and, at to length, in an access of frenzy, Jean n Lepage 3truck the curate, even while he q was in the performance of his sacred s functions at the foot af the altar. Ec- cl peated violence offered to their neighbors, v coupled with this last outrage, induced n an order for the arrest of the family ; - they were conducted to prison ; and sub- 1 Bequently brought up for examination p before the magistrate, but they refused h to reply to enquiry — treated exhortation p and remonstrance with disdain, and were t wholly inaccessible- to reproach or en- t treaty. The two women and the childrsn a were called separately before the magis- t trates, without the latter being enabled 1 to induce them to speak. They were, as s a necessary precaution, reconducted to i prison, but every attention their t singularly unfortunate state demanded \ was shown them. Lepage here refused a all nourishment ; for eight days he never r suffered aliment of any kind to pass his i lips ; his strength decayed rapidly ; c he sustained all the horrors of t voluntary starvation with the cou- a rage of a martyr ; and it was not until it t became too evident that his existence r would be speedily terminated by his ob- c stinate refusal of nourishment that he t and his family were released from confine- s ment. They returned to their now 1 wretched home, but the former violence s they had exhibited was not repeated ; a \ deep and settled melancholy seemed to t possess them. For the last 22 months i they had daily wandered forth, the father ( in company with his son, and, at a short i distance behind them, the three females, j They speak not among themselves, nor do 1 .they address others ; and the only i offensive peculiarity in their manner is, 1 that of never diverging from their path, s let them meet whom they may. All who < encounter them, however, from humanity i or fear, move from their way ; and thus they pursue their miserable career, to the ] astonishment and pity of those who, not : •long since, beheld the half-famiahed, : ragged, and unhappy wretches whom they now see, the most contented and the most . respected members of their small commune. — 'Athenaeum.'