THE STORY OF A FRENCH SUICIDE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2558, 1 December 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE STORY OF A FRENCH SUICIDE.

Some weeks ago ( says the Paris correspondent of the Daily Telegraph), about nine o'clock in the evening, a cabman passing down the Avenue de Villiers was hailed by a young man, accompanied by a well-dressed lady wearing a thick veil. The couple, after taking a tour in the Bois de Boulogue, were driven back to the spot whence they had started. There the lady alighted. Her companion then told the cabman to go to the Rue de l'Ourcq ; but when he arrived there he found that his fare was dead. The medical examination showed that the young man had taken a strong dose of laudanum, and after a brief interval he was buried. The affair had almost been forgotten, when a friend of the dead man called on a police magistrate and informed him that he had just returned from a month's sojourn in the country, and had found at his town residence a letter written by the deceased only a few hours before he committed suicide. Iα this missive he related that he was to have that very evening a rendezvous with a lady whom his friend knew ; but, as too often happened, be had not a sou about him. "You are not here to lend me ten francs," be added ; " we shall drive about for some time, and when she has left me, as I cannot pay the coachman, I shall take a dose of laudanum." The strangest part of it all, however, was that a bank note of lOOfr. had boen found in one of the pockets of the overcoat of the deceased after his death. What did it all mean ? His friend was very anxious to get at the truth. He knew who the lady was who had given the rendezvous, and an inquiry was set on foot in the most discreet manner possible, as she was a married woman and her husband was in a very I good position. The lady gave the following account of the adventure. She had known the deceased a fortnight. They had met at a party, and he had written to her asking for an assignation, which she had agreed to grant. She knew that lie was in reduced circumstances, so as a provident and charitable soul, she took the bank-note with her to the rendezvous, and during the drive slipped it into her companion's pocket. When she read the account of hi 3 death in the newspapers she jumped at the conclusion that he had committed suicide through despair. He had begged and implored her to return his affection, and had frequently exclaimed that her refusal would be his death. " I consoled him as best I could," she remarked, " and was painfully surprised when I learned the fatal news." This at least is the lady's version of the affair. If it be strictly veracious there has been rarely a more extraordinary misunderstanding. She agreed to the rendezvous, as it gave her an opportunity of putting a bank note into the young man's pocket, and he, in his turn, after declaring that he would die for love of her, poisoned himself because he had not the wherewithal to pay the cabman.