A TERIBLE REVENGE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 9429, 11 July 1882, Page 3

A TERIBLE REVENGE.

A man died' recently in the lunatic asylum of Clermont sur-Oise in Prance (says the Standard) who lost his reason under very dramatic circumstances. Six or seven years ago M. Leprince was a prosperous tradesman residing in the village of Moutzeron with his handsome wife. Circumstances occurred which suggested doubts as to her fidelity ; proofs were soon forthcoming to corroborate suspicion, and the unhappy husband determined to take his revenge in a terrible manner. He was aware that during his frequent absence his wife received tho visits of a young man living in the same village, and that the interviews took place in the diningroom. He knew also there was only one hiding place in this room, a cupboard, through which the stove funnels passed, and that, the funnels being out of repair, anyone shut up in the cupboard when the fire was lighted must necessarily be suffocated. ■ Returning unexpectedly one day, when he was thought to be a long way off, what he anticipated occurred. The young man was concealed in the fatal cupboard, and he had nothing to do but carry out his plan of vengeance. Ho requested his wife to light a good five in the stove, insisted when she demurred, and finally, the fire being kindled, sat down to await the regult. The young man

hidden in the cupboard met his fate heroically. Rather than betray his presence ho allowed himself to be suffocated. Madame Leprince only survived him a week, and her husband, his vengeance satisfied, delivered himself up to justice. Before he could be tried, however, he went raving mad, and was sent to the Clermont Asylum, where he has just died. He had probably borrowed the idea on which he acted to revenge his wrongs from Balzac, for, unless we are mistaken, in one of the great novelist’s works an almost similar episode is described.