"FIGARO'S REVENGE," V. " CORSICAN REVENGE."

Southland Times, Issue 1672, 6 December 1872, Page 3

"FIGARO'S REVENGE," V. " CORSICAN REVENGE."

(TO THE SDITOR OF THE TIMES.) Sib, — As your contemporary has just regaled his readers with a sensational instance of " Corsican Revenge," I think your readers will be much interested in perusing the following account of the origin of the wonderful trial, which I trust you will find space to publish in full. Your contemporary's innocence and gullibility are so well-known that no words from my pen can serve to make them more apparent. No doubt the News will be consoled by remembering that though one wise man can make many fools, there are not many fools that can make a wise man, — moreover, it has not been alone in its simplicity and credulitj. —Yours, &c, O. Kiverton, 2nd Dec, 1872.

The following is the extract referred to. It is dated Paris, August 17, and appears in the London Daily Telegraph : — In times like the present, when there fa nothing more exciting to chronicle than the practical joke in which half-a-dozen scatter-brain youths in-

dulged last Thursday at Trouville, it is^ a real^ pleasure to receive every morning with one's cafe ait lait a frolicsome sheet like the Figaro. A great many evil things have been said about this I journal ; it has been accused of taking money from a certain Government while pretending to 1 give its support to another — ot giving false news, of outraging public decency, of corrupting society, and of generally conducing to the degeneration of France. Whenever the immorality and frivolity of French journalism are attacked, it is always the Figaro that comes in for the largest measure of the foreigner's indignation. But we who reside in Paris, and who are in duty bound to mix with its " depraved" society, entirely disagree with these Puritan critics, and do not consider ourselves on that account one whib the worse friends to public morality. The French press ia undoubtedly very ill-informed — it cannot, properly speaking, boast of a single real newspaper. But f,hat is all. The rest is not peculiar to the press — it is the characteristic of the people, who are born with a love of blague and chaff which it would be hopeless to attempt to eradicate. A bon mot, a spirited sally, a pointed sarcasm, or incisive irony, whether it flashes from the pen of a journalist, or the lips of a deputy, are always p« pular. In a country like this — where a journalist usually lakes rank from his socUl position or prospects in another line, be it as a dramatist or a diplomat — a man like M. de Villemeßsant, who so identifies himself with his journal that no literary or political post which could be conferred on him would bring him greater fame than his title of Editor, is truly a remarkable character. By his own esprit and that of his staff, which is care full y picked and capitally paid, he has secured for the Figaro a monopoly of eccentric narratives, defying in their ingenuity the competition of all his contemporaries. One of his colldborateurs, who writes under the norn de plume of Rene de Pont- Zest, is generally entrusted with the reporting of all important trials ; and as these have been plentiful during the lasfc year, this gentleman haß acquired considerable dexterity in portraying the dramatic side of a law court. Latterly, however, work of this kind has become slack, more on account of the inevitable monotony of the trials than of any great diminution in their number. As one of the first principles which M. Villemessant inculcates is that his readers must be amused and excited coUte que coiite, such a trifle as the absence of facts capable of being worked up into a sensational article ie never \ookei npon as a serious impediment. Some time ago, M. Pont-Zest gave us the account of a trial said to have taken place before the Eleventh Chamber of Correctional Police. The issue of the trial was — as near as I can recollect — that a master had a right to open his servant's letters. None of the other Paris journals took any notice of this affair, for they well knew that there were no more than ten Chambers at the Prefecture de Police, and that the Eleventh Chamber, with the new theory concerning the rights of servants to their own letters, was a myth. This did not prevent a number of foreign correspondents from sending home the canard with a great display of legal learning by way of annotation. Nothing gives M. de Villemessant keener delight than to see his confreres, French or foreign, rising to these artificial flies. Indeed, in order to insure himself against the accusation of giving erroneous news, and to spare the Journal Officiel the trouble of discharging upon him a continuous fire of communiques, he has gone so far as to tell the world frankly that he inserts these stories in order to enjoy the sport of catching his provincial brethren. To be forewarned, as the wily editor well fenowp, is not always to be forearmed. About a week ago, there appeared in that part of Figaro usually devoted to legal matters, a full report of a trial stated to hare taken place at the Assize Court of Bastia in Corsica. To reduce two columns of close type to a few words, the leading tacts of the nase were the following : A young and beautiful woman stood in the prisoner's box, accused of having wilfully murdered her husband. Alter doing everything in her power to break off his liaison with her own maid, whom he had seduced, the wife caught the pair one night in flagrante delicto, The servant slipped out of the way, and sheltered herself behind the curtains, leaving the guilty husband, sound asleep, to the vengeance of his outraged wife. Advancing to the head of the bed, holding a lamp ia one hand and a revolver in the other, she fired once or twice — she cannot now recollect which ; but the head and chest were both perforated, and the sleeper was killed instantaneously. When the acte d' accusation — a very graphic and highly interesting narrative of the circumstances connected with the murder — had been read, th« poor woman, whose personal appearance and demeanor M. Betie de Pont-Zest described with his wonted vividness, was examined by the Judge. When Lucia Medelli had answered all the questions put to her, she made a very natural and affecting speech, en-.ling with the words, " I loved him so much." The guilty servant girl was then examined, and severely censured by the Judge. Alter her, M. Ferni, counsel for the accused, rose, and pleaded most eloquently — as the report showed — for his client, whose legitimate indignation as a wife and mother at seeing her husband in the arms of her own servant was earnestly dwelt on. He appealed to the jury's sense of justice not to condemn her for doing to her husband what they would have suffered the latter to do to her had the case been reversed. He reminded them that all persons were equal before the law, and, in short, pleaded against his own sex as Dumas fils had pleaded against guilty woman. The jury then withdrew for a few minutes, and returned with a verdict acquitting Lucia Medelli. The Judge ordered her to be released, and she fainted in the arms of her mother. Now— this trial never took place. There ia no Court of Assizes at Bastia ; Lucia Medelli has never existed ; nor her counsel, M. Ferni j nor any of the characters who play a part in this affair. M. de Pont-Zest — like everybody else who wields a pcn — was seized with a desire to criticise M. Dumas's •' L'Homme-Femme," and chose the judicial style as the one most familiar to him. M. "Villemessanfc, delighted with the success of this letter from Corsica, thought it a good opportunity of testing the good faith of bis contemporaries, and so carefully allowed them to swallow the bait each after his own manner. Only one or two journals had suspicions, and gave the letter a wide berth. Some of the others began by nibbling a little piece of it at a time, and, finding that nothing happened to them boldly printed it in extenso^ of course without quoting the Figaro. Still, there was a general feeling of mistrust about the authenticity of the letter, for no other journal besides the Figaro had heard of this remarkable trial. But at last all doubt was set at rest by a slightly different version of the same story appearing in M. Gambetta's sheet, the Hepublique JPrancaise, \ headed, " From our special correspondent at Ba&tia." This was the signal for which nearly all the other journals were waiting. It was too well told not to be true, and how could it not be so now that the Republique Francaise had I received an independent account ? So reasoned the hungry fishes, and a general rush was made on the bait. Even two or three of your London J contemporaries published it in all confidence. To-day, while the last Paris journals are dishing up the story, with suitable comments on the tcagic character of the scene, and a vast j amount of home-made spice in the shape of philosophical arguments based on the sanguinary vengeance of the unprotected lady, M. de Villemessant calmly announces that the trial in question is entirely due to the imagination of his collaborates. He will probably follow up this joke by prosecuting the journal which is sufficiently enterprising tosend a special correspondent to Bastia. If one could ever rely om news supplied by a French journal, one might feel overjoyed that they should be occasionally compelled to give their authority. At present, a stranger coming into Paris, and seeing the same paragraph repeated by some twenty or thirty journals in the course of twenty-four hours, might take it for granted that the information was solid news, and thereby expose himftelf t© be turned into' ridicule. i