STRANGER THAN FICTION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 4, 24 January 1901, Page 3

STRANGER THAN FICTION.

A correspondent of the Melbourne Tribune sends a cutting from the Age of May 16, 1892, which reads as follows :—: — A ' convict ' of an extraordinary kind was liberated from New Caledonia the other day, and returned to France. He was the Abbe) Doumoulin, a priest of the archdiocese of Air, who, three years ago was convicted of the murder of a Madame Blanchard, a wealthy and benevolent lady. The abbe was convicted upon purely circumstantial evidence. The facts were that Madame Blanchard had occasion to call at the presbytery occupied by M. Doumoulin in order to receive from him a sum of £400 which lay in his hands to the credit of a religious society with which the lady was connected The time was midday. In approaching and returning from the presbytery Madame Blanchard had to pass through a rained and deserted monastery. It was known that the lady saw the priest and received the money from him, but she did not return home that day. Four days afterwards her dead body was discovered in one of the cells of the old monastery. The remains bore several stabs of a knife, and there was no money upon the person of the murdered lady. A table knife stained with human blood and a pocket handkerchief, which had belonged to Madame Doumoulin were found in the presbytery. The abbe was the last person known to have seen the unfortunate lady alive. Ho was arrested convicted, and sentenced to transportation for life. Five months ago the sexton of M. Doumonlin's church, a man Earned K loser confessed that he waylaid and murdered Madame Blanchard, and that on the day her body was discovered he went to confession to the abbe and acknowledged his crime. When, however, the priest was arrested and condemned, Kloeer had not the courage to publicly acknowledge his guilt. Upon Kloser avowing hia crime to the authorities, the Supreme Court ordered a new trial of the abbe by way of form, when he was acquitted, and returned to his cure in the diocese of Aix, where he was reoeived by his people with great rejoicing.