MELODRAMA IN COURT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2567, 22 December 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

MELODRAMA IN COURT.

A trial recently held at the Aasize Court at Nantes seems to have verified the last act of " Bells." A shoemaker had been arrested for stealing 232 francs. He denied the charge, and the evidence agniost him scarcely amounted to much. In the town a professor of hypnotism was conducting his experiments, and the judge confided to him the difficulties of the case. The professor promised help. Prison regulations are laxer in Nantes han in London, and an interview was permitted bet»ten,the accused and the hypnotist. Two or three judges were present, and several advocates. The usual stage business was gone through. Tho prisoner was very docile, and the hypnotist sanguine. Ultimately the professor, with eyes bandaged, and followed by an excited public, made his way through the town to an old garden wall near its outskirts. There he began to dig into the ground, assisted by the crowd. A treasure of "23 - 2 francs was soon found. The missing evidence thus suddenly supplied put an end to all doubt. The judsro was satisfied, and the prisoner sent for trial- The court above, however, took the matter much less credulously. The evidence of the professor was dispensed with; but tho jury had heard the Htory, and the prisoner was found guilty and tentenced. It would seem, after all, thnt some things are ordered better in England than France.