THE MURDER OF A FRENCH MARCHIONESS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VIII, Issue 484, 28 June 1890, Page 3

THE MURDER OF A FRENCH MARCHIONESS.

TnE long and sensational Monnier murder trial concluded at Mons Assize Court, the prisoner being acquitted. The murder was committed as far back as last summer, and the case has been before the public in various forms ever since. The victim was the well-known and wealthy Marchioness of Chasbleleer, and she was shot in a most mysterious manner while sitting by a window in the vicarage at Moulbaix, where she was residing, pending the restoration of her castle, which had been destroyed bv fire. The gun with which the murder was committed belonged to, or at any rate has been in the possession of Monnier, who was gamekeeper in the service of the Marchioness, but that was practically all the evidence against him. Ho was arrested, however, and the case was pressed against him with relentless severity by the Public Prosecutor. His trial last February was suddenly interrupted. In the course of the proceedings a witness named Delrivier had persisted in giving evidence very strongly favourable to Monnier, and the Public Prosecutor, suspecting collusion, insisted that Delrivier should bo put on trial for perjury, and Monnier be sent before another jury. Delrivier was tried and acquitted on the charge of perjury, and this, of course, had the effect of adding to the value of his evidence on behalf of Monnier, having, in fact, virtually secured his acquittal.