AN EXTRAORDINARY MURDER STORY.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2701, 2 November 1889, Page 6 (Supplement)

AN EXTRAORDINARY MURDER STORY.

NoTiriNe; further appears to have been heard of what in Switzerland is known as the Roustel mystery (says the Figaro). The details of the terrible tragedy in which M, Roustel was the central figure will, however, be read with interest. M. Roustel was a Bohemain artist who, having married a young wife, proceeded to Switzerland to speud the honeymoon. After the newly-married pair had enjoyed some of the beauties of the Alpine scenery, Roustel left his wife at an inn half way up the mountain, and, in company with a Swise gentleman whose acquaintance he had made during his stay in Geneva, started out to view the sunset from a well known point about half a mile from the hotel. The two men took no guide with them, as the path is an easy one, and Rouetel confessed to be very familiar with it. About an hour after the two men had left the hotel the Swiss returned alone and told a remarkablo stery concerning the fate of his companion. He said tnat they had duly reached the point for which they had started, and arrived in ample time to view the beauties of tho sunset. They were occupied in admiring tho marvellous chromatic effects, when they suddenly discovered that they were not alone. A woman stood within a few feet of them, and was gazing at the sky as if she had come to the spot for the same object as themselves. The woman was tall and muscular - looking, with a sorrowful but rather attractive face, and was clothed in the coaisest of clothing 1 . The Swiss declares that upon drawing the attention of M. Ronstol to the woman that gentleman started violently, and was about to leave tho spot hastily, when the woman, turning , round, euddeuly uttered a cry of joy and flew toward him, evidently recognising, or thinking that she recognised, an old acquaintance. The narrator states that at the request of Roustel he withdrew and left the conple to themselves. For some time they appeared tube engaged in a very earnest discussion, when suddenly and without the slightest warning the woman lifted Roustel up in her arms and hurled him over a perpendicular precipico hundreds ef feet deep, and then with a wild cry dashed herself over after him. So quickly did the 'murder and suicide take place that they could scarcely have taken more than a minute to execute, and Boustcl's companion avers that he had not the slightest opportunity to avert tho terrible catastrophe. But he also alleged that a day or two before the occurrence M. Roustel, inaburst of confidence, informed him that on a previous visit to the Alps he had fallen in love with a pretty waitress employed at one of the inns, and mentioned that he had ruined the girl, a fact which had since caused him considerable remorse. Mine. Roustel affirms that it was with the greatest difficulty she prevailed upon her husband to take her to Switzerland, and it was only iu response to persistent entreaties that he finally agreed to ascend the mountains, alleging as an excuse that his lungs were not strong enough to bear the rarefied atmosphere. With reference to the woman, whom the Swiss says he thinks must, from her appearance, have been deranged in mind, the mountaineers admit that a woman known as " inad Gretchen," who was reported to havH met with some great misfortune years before, did at oue time occassionally frequent the Finsteraar Horn, but as she has not been seen for some considerable time, and it was reported that she had bees lost in one of tho terrific snowstorms last winter, they do not believe that she is responsible for the crime. The theory of the Swiss, and hie opinion is shared by the widow, is that "mad Gretchen" was the victim to whom Roustel referred, and that she avenged herself in the manner described. But there is a simpler theory current in the neighbourhood of the Finsteraar Horn. As the body, or bodies, were swept away by the current at the foot of the precipice, there does not seem to be much chance that the mystery of Roustel'a disappearauce will be satisfactorily solved.