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Show HISTORIC CRMES MySEERtES Iv b rue Aor-i XtyAS:j)& )PAPU.flMtfi THE LAW AND THE LACKEY. At the close of the eighteenth century cen-tury the families of the Marquis d'Anglade d'An-glade and the Comte de Montgomerie lived in peace and harmony in a large house in the Rue Royale, Paris. They livedTather luxuriously, and while it was held that most of the marquis' funds came from the gambling tables, nobody held that against1 him. He was a man of fine appearance and charming manners, and his wife was a beauty, Pe Montgomerie had ft fortune for-tune of his own and didn't need to go to the gambling establishments to earn his bread in the sweat of his fingers. He kept a large establishment, establish-ment, with servants and horses and chariots and the d'Anglades lived in the same house because of the firm friendship existing between the two families. It came to pass that the Montgom-"ries Montgom-"ries decided to go to their country house for a while, and invited the but when a man Is Bunting a lion h doesn't want to fool away iime on rabbits. rab-bits. Five of the missing bags of Bil-ver Bil-ver were found in the servants' boxes, but this made no Impression upon the great policeman. The marquis must have put the bags where they were found, In order to throw suspicion upon the servants. The prosecution was pitiless and brutal, and the lieutenant general of police seemed to dominate everybody and everything. The marquis protested protest-ed his innocence, and was ordered to the torture, but no physical agony could draw from him a confession of guilt. He was convicted and sentenced sen-tenced to the galleys for life, and presently set forth on his mangled limbs, as a member of a chain gang bound for Toulon. The story of the persecution of the d'Anglades seems more like a chronicle of the dark ages than a record of modern happenings. hap-penings. The marquis, whose life had been spent in gilded ease, found the journey torture; and the brutes in charge of the chain gang seemed to take a vicious delight in adding to his misery in every possible way. He was chosen out for all their barbarity, perhaps because he was an aristocrat. League after league he tolled along the endless white road, his feet bleeding, bleed-ing, his legs swollen, his body covered cov-ered with bruises, and his heart broken. At last death came to his relief. He died of exhaustion at Marseilles, and it is doubtful whether any man ever greeted the deliverer with greater joy. Meanwhile his wife had been taken from a sick bed and dragged to the bar of justice by the tireless lieutenant lieuten-ant general, who was fairly basking In the well-earned fame this case had brought him. She was found guilty of something or other, and imprisoned in an underground dungeon, where, in cold and slime and darkness, she became be-came the mother of a daughter; and mother and babe were left there with no attention, except when a piece of black bread was thrown in, as to a wild beast. Afterwards the jailor who did this service said that he ofen heard the wretched woman moaning, "he Chief Criminal Was a Priest Named Gaynard Who Obtained Wax Impressions Im-pressions of the Comte's Keys. d'Anglades to go along. The invitation invita-tion was accepted but at the eleventh elev-enth hour d'Anglade begged off, saying say-ing his wife had fallen sick. The Montgomeries went away and there is every reason to suppose that they had the best kind of a time at their rural chateau. They returned to Paris a day earlier than they had expected to, arriving at their home in the evening. eve-ning. The d'Anglades spent the evening eve-ning with them. On the following morning Montgomerie Montgom-erie discovered that he had been robbed during his absence, and the robbers had made a big haul. They had opened his strong box with, a false key and had carried off thirteen bags of silver, several bags of gold, and a hundred louis d'or of a new pattern, pat-tern, not in general circulation, and a quantity of valuable jewelry. The comte sent at once for the police. The lieutenant general of police came, with several of his trusty sleuths, and after examining everything every-thing he announced his belief that somebody in the house had stolen the goods, and he began a search of the premises. In order that nobody could accuse him of impartiality, he made a search of the d'Anglades'- apartment the first thing, before going to the servants' quarters, and his surprise and delight may be imagined when he discovered a roll of 75 louis d'or, of the new coinage, wrapped up in a paper, pa-per, a part of a genealogical table, which was at once identified by Montgomerie Mont-gomerie as be'onging to him. in vain the marquis protested that he knew nothing about the money or how it came tbire. His appearance was against him. To the astute lieutenant general of police this was sufficient proof of the man's guilt. When he went to the house he expected that it was going to be a sordid affair, involving a crooked ncrvant or two, and now he had a ref.l live marquis in the toils. His delight may easily be understood. The case was bound to make a big Bensation, and the lieutenant general would be covered with glory. From Vie moment of finding the money in d'Anglade's attic, that gifted functionary function-ary bent all his efforts to tho one end the conviction of the marquis. He would consider no evidence that led In other directions. As a matter of form he went to the basement, end there found evidence against the servants far more incriminating incrim-inating than that against the marquis, "Oh, God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Surely few people have had better bet-ter reason to ask the question. But God had not forsaken her entirely. About this time a former lackey of the Comte de Montgomerie's felt within with-in him a spiritual yearning. He realized real-ized that his sins were as scarlet, and he would be as white as snow. Ha wished to become a priest, and devote his life to good works. With this praiseworthy ambition in his breast, he set about undoing the evil he had wrought, so far as he could. He knew the truth about the robbery at the Montgomeries', and he wrote an anonymous anony-mous letter to friends of the d'Anglades, d'An-glades, giving them information which enabled them to bring the facts to light. And the facts showed that the unfortunate d'Anglade had nothing whatever to do with the crime. The chief criminal was the Comte de Montgomerie's almoner, a priest named Gaynard, who had obtained wax impressions of the comte's keys. From these impressiona-a man named Belestre made false keys; several servants of the comte were in the plot, including the writer of the anonymous letter. They were all taken into custody cus-tody and subjected to the torture, one by one, and in their confessions they were unanimous in exonerating d'Anglade. d'An-glade. The uc?c-rtunate wife was released from her black dungeon, with her naked babe In her arms. She was in a dying condition, but now the sympathy sympa-thy of an entire nation was with her, and she was nursed back to health. The pp-ple of Paris raised arad for her, amounting to $20,000, and the courts made De Montgomerie dig up a large sum to make restitution for the property confiscated. There is only one bright spot in this tragic story. One morning the lieutenant lieu-tenant general of police, who had been the lien of Paris for a long time, stepped out of his door to go to his office, when a stone hit him on the side of the head. Then another rock or maybe it was a vitrified brick; anyhow, it was hard, and weighed eight pounds and a half took him in the stomach and doubled him up, and before he could unbend himself somebody some-body prodded him In the ribs with a pole. In fact, the whole population of the street had turned out to do him honor, and when his servant dragged him back Into the house he looked just like a man who has been tooling with a pile driver. |