THE MAN IN GREY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2707, 4 September 1894, Page 4

THE MAN IN GREY.

Paris, August 30, Abbe Bruneau, a priest convicted of several crimes, including an atrocious murder, has been executed at Laval.

The Abbe Bruneau was a finished exponent of the double life. In the eye of day and Entrammes he shone a miracle of well-doing; by night he prowled in the secret places of Laval. The world watched him, habited in the decent black of his calling ; no sooner was he beyond sight of his parish than his valise was opened, and he arrayed. himself in a suit of jaunty grey. He was born of parents who were certainly poor, at AsseBerenger. He counted a dozen Chbuans among his ancestry, and brigandage swam in his blood. Even bis childhood was crimson with crimes, which the quick memory of the countryside long ago lost in the pride of having bred a priest. He stained his first cure of souls with the poor, sad sin of arson, which the bishop condoned. At Entrammes, his next benefice, he entered into his full inheritance of villainy, and here it was he devised the grey suit which brought him ruin and immortality, , To the wild, hilarious dissipation of Laval, tho nearest town, he fell an immediate and unresisting prey. Money was required, and for a while a theft here and there and some extortion of money upon promise of good works was sufficient for his necessities, but. still he hungered for a coup, and patiently he devised and watched hia opportunity. His first victim was a Madame Bourdais, a florist, whom he had previously robbed. Habited in bis suit of grey, be entered the shop with the coolness of a friend, and retreated to the parlor when two girls came to make a purchase. No sooner had the widow joined him than he cut her throat, and, with the ferocity of the beast who loves blood as well as plunder, inflicted some forty wounds upon her withered frame Next day the crime was common gossip, and the Abba’s friends took counsel with him. *One there was astonished that the culprit remained undiscovered. “ But why should you marvel ?” said Bruneau. “ 1 could kill you aud yaur wife at your own chimney-corner without a soul knowing. Had I taken to evil courses instead of to good, I would have been a terrible assassin.” The scandal of the murdered widow parsed into forgetfulness, and the Abb6 was still impoverished. Already he had robbed his vicar, and the suspicion of the Abbe Fricot led on to the final and the detected crime. Now Fricot had noted the loss of money and of bonds, and though he refrained from exposure he had confessed to a knowledge of the criminal. M. Bruneau was naturally sensitive to suspicion, and he determined upon the immediate removal of this danger to his peace. On the 2nd January last M. Fricot returned to supper after administering the extreme unctiou to a parishioner. While the meal was preparing he went into his garden in sabots and bareheaded, and never again was seen alive. The supper cooled, the vicar was still absent. Suicide was dreamed of, murder hinted. Up aud down the village was the search made, and none was more zealous than the distressed curate. At last a peasant discovered some blocks of wood in the well, aud before long blood stains revealed themselves on the masonry. Speedily was the body recovered, disfigured and battered beyond recognition, and the voice of the village went up in denunciation of the Abbe Bruneau. Immunity had made the culprit callous, and in a few hours suspicion became certainty. A bleeding nose was the lame explanation given for the stains which were on his clothes, on the table, and on the keys of his harmonium. Arrest followed, and now the man has suffered tho extreme penalty of the law.—Otago Daily Times.