Revenge of a Rejected Lover.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 236, 7 January 1888, Page 3

Revenge of a Rejected Lover.

§NE of those terrible dramas of which t jealousy and revenge are the leading motives, and of a ? sort rare in Switzerland, though only too common in France, has taken, place at Geneva. In the street known as the Grand Rue lived a widow of the name of Jeantet, by birth a Savoyard, and by profession a dressmaker. She lived quite alone, occupying a little room on the ground floor. About 6 o'clock one morning some of the neighbours heard a noise in her room as of somebody trampling heavily, and a cry of *Au secours/ but as neither noise nor cry was very loud, and did not recur, and they were occupied with their own affairs, no further notice was taken. Towards 9 o'clock a woman who had business with Madame Jeantet knocked at the door; and as no one answered she naturally felt surprised, and mentioned the matter to a neighbour, who, after also knocking, equally without result, climbed up to the open window and lookd into the room, when he saw, to his horror, two seemingly lifeless bodies, one being that of the dressmaker, lying 1 on the floor. Information was straightway given to the police, and the door broken open. Madame Jeantet was found lying on the floor, her feet under her bed, and her hands stretched out as if when struck down she had been in the act of repulsing an aggressor* Close to her, with one of his arms round her waist, lay a man, and near his right hand was a broadbladed blood-stained knife. From both bodies was flowing a stream of blood, and a deep pool of it had formed under the corpses, for life in both cases was quite extinct. Examination of thebodies showed that the man had stabbed the woman to the heart as she advanced to meet and probably to repulse him, they had then fallen together on the floor, when theman dealt his victim a second mortal wound, and that, this done, he stabbed himself three times in the region of the heart and immediately expired. The body of the man was identified as that of Hippolyte Tournier, a workman, who, though of French birth, had lived several years in Geneva, and was domiciled there. Albeit he had reached his fortieth year, and the widow was passed fifty-five, Tournier appeared to have fallen hotly in love with her. At first she lent a willing ear to his addresses but being afterwards sought in marriage by a cab proprietor at Bellevue, who was a good deal better off than Tournier, .she rejected the latter in favour of his rival, and though a common friend let him know that his visits must cease. On this he became gloomy and taciturn, lost his appetite, and appeared to be meditating revenge. Tournier had a good character, and was esteemed an excellent workman. He had served with some distinction in the war of 1 870, was taken prisoner at Sedan, and spent thereafter several years in French Guiana.