SENTIMENTAL BURGLAR

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 299, 21 January 1911, Page 9

SENTIMENTAL BURGLAR

HYPNOTISED BY A BEAUTIFUL CHILD. The story of Editha's burglar, over which many people 'have smiled, and perhaps still more people have groaned when amateurs have recited it, has been enacted in real life at the Hotel Britannique in the Avenue Victoria in Paris. The mail who played the burglar's part—and played it so well that he is now in prison —calls himself Kcitzner von Heidelberg. He may have other aliases. The heroine is the ten-year-old daughter of the Marquise de Vadlio, a lady of the Spanish Court, who has been visiting Paris. The Marquise, with her daughter, some friends, and a suite of ten attendants, arrived from Madrid a few days ago (writes John N. Raphael in the Daily Express) and took all the first floor of the Hotel Britannique. Yesterday morning (November 23) the Marquise went out to do some shopping. She went out early, for she feared that fog would set in again, and the visits to her dressmaker and the hat shop had to be made as far as possible by daylight. So Mme. la Marquise de Vadlio went to do her shopping with a maid, leaving her daughter Mercedes —a beautiful child of ten —asleep in her room. j Before she went the Marquise locked the bedroom door and gave her maid the key to carry. Her surprise, therefore, can be imagined when, on returning from her shopping soon after ten o'clock, she saw the bedroom door standing wide open. At first she thought that she must have got out of the lift on the wrong floor. She thought so more than ever when she saw a well-dressed man, whom she had never seen before, standing apparently in deep thought in the middle of the room. His eyes were fixed on the pillow of the bed, and the Marquise saw her daughter sleeping there. The sleeping child had started up in i bed, and was surprised and very frightened at the rush of people into her mother's room. "What is it, mother; what is it?" she said. "Nothing, my child," said the Marquise; "this gentleman made a mistake, that's all. He has apologised and he is going." "I think not," said a quiet voice; and one of the waiters, who had brought Mme. la Marquise her meals every day since she had been at the Hotel Britannique, produced a pair of handcuffs from his pocket and made the well-dressed man his prisoner. "Perhaps we might go into the next room, madame," he said, "while your maid looks over your things to find out what is missing. Meanwhile there are these," and with a quick movement he produced a diamond ring and small golden thimble from his prisoner's pockefc "But," said the Marquise, "I should like an explanation. How was he"— pointing to the prisoner—"in my room; and how did'you"—pointing to the waiter —"come to arrest him?"

The waiter laughed. "This man's name," he said, "is, or he says it is, Reitzner von Heidelberg. He is an Austrian, and calls himself an engineer. He understands mechanics of a kind," and with a deft movement he took from his prisoner's pockets a little set of burglar's tools and three skeleton keys. "Now, do you understand, Madame?" he said to thn Marquise. "Not quite," the lady replied, "for

v°u " . The waiter laughed again. I, madame," he explained, "am an Austrian detective. lam very much afraid that I shall be dismissed without wages or character from the Hotel Britannique this evening, but I have the money to travel to Vienna, and I shall do myself the pleasure of paying for Herr TTeitzner von Heidelberg's railway ticket as well." "Enough of this foolery," said the prisoner. "You have arrested me, and surely that is sufficient. But I owe it to this lady to explain my presence in the room where her daughter" he bowed to the Marquise—"the most beautiful child I have ever seen was asleep." "You can explain all that," said the detective, "to the Austrian criminal courts. The Paris police will find comfortable quarters for you until we leave for Vienna." "Let the. man speak," pleaded the Marquise. . "If you wish it, madame,' said the detective "I may tell you, however, that he is a well-known hotel thief who has been wanted for some time for thefts of jewellerv from Austrian hotels and hotels in other parts of Europe, which total many thousands of lhe only thing I cannot understand is why he made such poor use of his time. Your maid tells me that you had jeyellery worth £IS,OOO or more in the room where wo arrested him." "Exactly," said the Marquise. Let I him speak," and the man told his story. '•I was in Madrid," he said, "at the railway station, when you, madame, with vour friends, left for Paris. I heard from Vour talk on the platform who you were, and that you were immensely rich. I heard you'tell a friend to write to you at the' Hotel Britannique, in the Avenue Victoria. That was enough for me. "I have been waiting my opportunity to rob you, and I found it this morning. I saw you <*o out. You locked your door, but f had these"—and with his handcuffed hands he pointed to the skeleton keys on the table. "I went into your rotmi and saw the note on your dressing table. I put them in my pocket, with the little thimble and the diamond ring. May I congratulate Madame la Marquise on her exquisitely small hands? "T was making for your largest trunk when, passing the bed I saw your daughter sleeping there. 1 forgot everything. Madame la Marquise, except the child s wonderful beauty. I have never seen such beautv since—since my little daugntcr died. Will you forgive me if I say that the two might have been twin children. sn ffvent. is the resemblance? I lhou"ht. of nothing except that, sleeping child on the bed. I stood and fed my heart on her beauty until you came.