A Romance in Real Life.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 430, 21 December 1889, Page 3

A Romance in Real Life.

A case of mistaken identity, involving elements of dramatic interest sufficient to make the fortune of a sensational novel, has (says the • I*. M. Gazette ') just occurred in Switzerland. A young couple, named Favre, belonging to the working class, had lived happily together for some years at Neuchatel, when the husband, a working mason, began to give way to habits of drinking. Efforts were made to reclaim him, and he became an abstainer for a time. Some months ago, however, he broke out again and left his home. His wife had heaid nothing of him for three months, when one night she was awakened by a voice calling her repeatedly from the street outside, and which she felt sure was that of her husband. She rose, dressed, and went into the street, but found no one. A few days afterwards she read an account in the newspapers of a man who had committed suicide on the railway, at a small village near Bale. From the description of" him, she suspected it might be her missing husband, and became full of the idea that the voice she had heard was a communication from him at the moment of his death. She was corroborated in her belief by learning, as the result of inquiries, that he had .made application for work at a neighbouring quarry, but, being in drink at the time, had been roughly refused by the foreman. The body had now for some time been interred, but, in order to pub an end to her suspense, the poor woman, having pub together a little money, started off with the determination to have the body disinterred. She reached the village, and after some delay, secured permission to open the grave. With two or three men as assistants she pet to work. When the coffin was opened the effluvium was so terrible that her companions ran, and left her alono with her dead. For 20 minutes, unaided, she pursued her ghostly task. The body had been decapitated by the train, and the head, horribly mutilated, was wrapped by itself in a cloth. Sho uncovered it, and recognised it by the teeth. One of the stockings also ehe knew again from having mended it with a particular kind of worsted. Her worst fears thus confirmed, she returned home in the depths of sorrow. The aged mother of the man was informed of the identification, and mourning was being prepared for the wholoi-faniily, when the crowning act of the drama was furnished by a letter which has just been received from Favre himself, announcing: that he is at Winberfchur alive and well ! The wife had, after all, identified the wrong rr.an ! Who ib is bhab actually lies in that lonely grave no one knows. What would not Wilkie Collins have made out of that midnight voice, the graveyard vigil, and the extraordinary denouement !