The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-06-22 00:00:00

THE DUBOURG AFFAIR.

The Times, in a leader gives the following history of
" L'affaire Dubourg," or "Le Drame de la Rue des
Ecoles,' as the more sensational French journals have
styled it, and which created so much excitement when
it occurred :

other

Long before the principal surviving actor in the trees ly of
the Rue des Ecules was brought tip for trial at the Cour
d'Atsizes de la Seine, the occurrence had been stripped of
the tinsel of romance with which the imagination of the
Paris public hiul aderned it. Seen in Its hare renlity, it
turns out a cane of commonplace profligacy slot murder
—a woman's frality, a man's ferocity. Incidents of
that nature seem to possess an unspeakable charm fer
our French neighlaters when exhibited, its plays anti
novels, under a veil, however transparent, of m ,rbui senti-
ment. It slay be just as well, perhaps, that the truth, anti
the whole truth, should now and then confront them in all its
hieeenemeas, and that, before they waste their sympathies on
such a catastrophe as the Dubourg case, they should give
themselves time to judge it on its true merits.
M. Arthur Danbury, the murderer, was not a nobleman,
as he had been described. Though belonging to a " well-
estaldished " Norman family, he was au under-bred, 111
conditioned, anti ill-conducted man. He was 09 years old
alien he married Denise Mac-Lend, of Villiers, near
VendBme, a lady of the same rank as himself, but
ten years younger. They were married im 1569. The
young couple lived first in Normandy, and then
stayed for a winter in Paris, whence they proceeded
to Switzerland. Here the lady fell ill, and was left
by her husband at Geneva, while he returned to France ana
commended a company of Mobiles in the Army of the Leine.
The 'Peace brought the me vied couple together again at
Paris ; white a child, which had been born in toe interval,
was sent to nurse in Normandy. Presently, the lady was left
by her husband alone in Porte, and it was then that elm fell
In, at the house of a friend, with M. de le ecerlen, a young
clerk in the Prefecture de la Seine, with whore she had
been formerly acquainted, and for whom she is raid to
have entertained some par iality. But, whatever may
have heels the lady's feelings tower]. Precorbin
before her marriage, a ceunexiou sprang up all at mice
between theta upon this wanef meeting, and It was kept up
during the husband's abeence through one of Precorldn'a
fellow-clerks. M. Dutertre, who lent his garrt tin the Rue des
Ecoles 0 his friend for the purpose. Tnis counexion
began in December, and it was only In February that
Site hueband came back from Normandy. Between Si.
Dubourg and his wife there had never been much
tenderness. The lady hardly concealed her dislike of
her husband; she openly charged him with im-
proper colinexions, and tie course of their wedded life
was almost incessantly dieturbed by stormy scenes. el.
Duhourg was very intimate with a elaeame de Boos,
a lady who lived alone in a small apartment of two
rooms, bit who, upon the Dultourge being turned eat of their
own quarters at the expiration of their leaseeshared her home
with them. This lady, whose familiarity with M. Dubourg,
was, to say the least, suspicions, was at the some time
the confidante of elmlame Demure ill her Barbel° with
Precorbin, and lent herself to the devices by which it waa
carried on. Only there days after the domestication of the
Duliourg,s with Madame Da Boos, ou the Bth of Aerie there
occurred one of the usual scenes between husband and wife,
in eonaequence of which it was settled that they should live
apart, M. Dubourg continued to enjoy the hospitality of
el Mame de Boos, while his wife put up at the Hotel d'Angle-
terre, near Saint Lamm Station.
M. Bobeurg, who had long been suspecting his wife's
conduct, now set to work to watch her, and on the 22nd of
April, having tracked her to the garret in the Rue des
Ecoles, appeared stuidenly thundering at the door. Pre-
corlitn, whe was illbilia with Medame Dubourg, did not wait
till the dem was battered in, but let himself out of the window,
hoisted himself from it to the slates of the rote, and, after a
hamrdous run along us edge, let himself down through
the chamber window of a neighbouring house, thus making
gomi his etc:in° The guilty woman, left to herself, eneea
toured to parley with her indignant husband, but, up in his
saying that he only came to cemmunicate sad news of
tneir child, who was seriouely 111, she threw open the
door. M. Dubourg, entering, looked round for the • Miser-
able," whom he t xpected to fine there; but, baffled in the
revenge which he intended to wreak apex him, tarried against
his wife, and, after breaking the blade of his sword-cane in
her breast, drew a clasp-knife and stabbed her agnin and
again, till she sank on the floor, under 15 blows, several of
them mortal He then left her, shut the door, locked it on
the outside, made his way downstairs, informed the house-
porter as he passed that he had killed his wife," and then
proceeded to the church of St. Nicholas de Chardonuet,
where he begged the Cure to go and minister to a dying
wt,man, giving him minute directions aa to the house. He
then went to Madame de Boos, but, towards evening, avow-
ing his crime, he delivered himself up to the police. In the
memwhile, his victim had still strength enough V drag her-
self it the whitlow, whence her shrieks alarmed the
neighbourhood and brought up a crowd by which she
was conveyed to a hospital, where she only aurvived three
days, giving signs-of repentance, avowing that she deserved
her late, jeetifying her hueband'e deed, but stoutly refusing
to give up the name of her paramour. lie, however, after
biding till he was made acquainted with the lady's fate,
appeared also before a magistrate, by whom he was com-
mitted to prison ; but he was released upon the husband
. . . „

disclaiming all intention to tie 'Female.
M. Dubourg was tried before a jury on Friday last, and
found guilty of "voluntary homicide, but without premedita-
tion, and with extenuating circumstances The sentence
was "live years' reclusion"—a slightliunishment, as it may
appear to us t but it Is not to be expected that a French
jury would overcome the prejudice current in France that
" where the State provides no adequate compensation
for tie lose of honour, a man is entitled to take the law
into his own hands." In flagrant cases, indeed, where
a husband had come to a sudden knowledge of an unsu-
spected wrong, and no time was allowed him to master his
wounded feeluip, extenuating circumstances have ad-
mitted to the extent of a full ammittal. But in this Duleturg
affair not only aas the wife as much aiuned against as sin- i
nieg, not only had the hushami brooded over his suspicious
till they ripened into certainty, but he, evidently, with the
aid of Madame de Boos, watched his Wife into the trap
In which he hoped to surprise her He left home in full
expectation of the scene that awaited him. He may not
actually have c antemplated the musder of his wife.
Had the partner of her guilt, upon whom he looked as
the chief offender, be-n at hand, his a ife's life micht possiblg
have been spared ; bathe was thirst ing for blood stall events,
and as blood was shed with all possible aggravation of
atrocity, we can hardly admit that by a tlve years imprison-
ment the price df blood was hilly exacted. Few of our
,! readers can have forgotten what a sensation the funeral of
' the mring woman made in the French capital, what crowds
et well-dressed persona joined the procession, what a pro-
fusion of flow rs was thrown into her grave. Things are
now brought dewn to their just proportions. There was,
after all, but little of the Francesca, da Rimini about Denise
Dubourg. There is no evidence of her being, "wedded to
the MU she loathed, while her heart WB3 -bleeding for the
man she adored." Her case did not rise alaive the level of
a low intrivue. The per thing was "no better than she
should be," though, doubtless, her husband was bsfluiteiy
worse.

The Daily News also gives the (:-.ll,,wihg returo of
the case :

During the trial, which lasted nearly twelve hours, an
Immense quantity of irrelevant matter was gone into. A
French judge always begins ab era; and if the question put
before him he whether the prisoner had stolen an egg, fic
will inquire with scrupulous minuteness, whether his ante-
cedents are such as to render it probable that be might have
stolen one. In pursuance of this system, the very able
president on this occasion, M. Burin des Boaters, brought
rut the whole history of the two families of Duhourg and
MacLeod. Duhourg was a Norman, born at a small
chateau in Normandy, near Mecca, of a family which had
long been gentry of a respectable class. His wife, \Lille.
Denise MacLeod, whom, at the awe of 11, he married, in
I.F.C4i, when he was but 22, belonged to • Cork family of
great respectability, sue time settled in France. The
eldest sister of Milne Denise was married several years
since to a captain in the navy, !if . Dupetit-Thouars,
: the adopted son of the emiment Admiral Dupttir,
Thouars. The SlacLeons moved in better society slian
the Dubourgs—small Normandy equireens were In the
habit of doing. The marriage wan emote up "by a
common friend, after a turtnight's acquaintance ; act
although the President said, with an "alas i" that no hasty a
marriage afforded small prospect of happinets, he must
be as well aware as anybody that young tories of the most
respectable families have very often no longer notice of the
husbands they are expected to take. In France the English
notion that people before being married ought to have
opportunities of seeing whether they like each ether Is
now as much as ever considered a riniculons superstition.
French manners in good society, allow of n0t111153

like "flirtation." Young ladles, as in England it used to be
said of little boys, made to he seen and not heerd.,... As a
general rule they never eay anything in society but "Yes" or
" No." They know, when they have portions, that some day
or other they will be married, and they expert as a matter
of course that their father or mother will tell them whoa
they are to take. Resistance is eery rare. Preference ex-
acts only in novels and comedies, and not in real French We.
Parents of exceptional delicacy may something tell •
daughter that it she has any repugnance to the husband
designated she is free to refuse but this liberty Is go.
amorally coupled with the observation, that although
she may have no special hiving for him now, there will be
plenty of time to love him hereafter. I do not, therefore.
thii.k the judge's observations upon the circumstances under
which XL Dubourg married tid;le. Macleod hire any hearing
at all upon the tragical circumstances under which their
union was dissolved. It was a marrivge net up quite in
accordance with French custom, aid there was no &snarly
In either age, sta, ion, or fortune. But, as a matter of fact,
the marriage did not turn ont happy. For reasons in no
way explained on the trial and perfectly indifferent to the
only issue to he tried, the parties did not pull well together.
ife particularly conceived a great dislike to her hue-
hand. Very 'Alertly after the marriage she wrote t-3 a lady
friend in these tense—

'My husband and I have come to this agreement: To see
each other only at meals, and nothiim more, so far as pos-
sible, lie cons out shooting in the daytime, and Ila main lu
my own room before a good fire, where I mot read, write,
work, and weep ! In the eveniag I join in a game of whist
or 6:arW with my dear father-in-law, and then my room
closes upon my solitude and my sadness, and never opens
till I leave it to go down to breakfast. '
A small dose indeed of philosophy had this to com-
plain of such a life ass particularly hard one, when it was of
her own choosing ; far her correTondence, anticipating her
dying declarations, states repeatedly that her husbanl was
very good to her, although she had an antipathy to hint. Six
months after the marriage, she wrote to him the following
letter :

" Arthur,—What I am now shout to write to on makes
me cry, and more bitter tears were never shed ly WOW..
But IMI go on no longer. On the day when I gave you
any hand, I sincerely hoped that I might one dat give you
iny heart. But the longer I. try the more I Mid thin impos-
sible. Living together is hell when there in no agreement, and
when the merest trifle is the occasion of wows and scandal.
You have always been good to me ; you suffer from my temper,
and, in short your life united to mine is wretched. Well now !
This I know is shard thing to say but if you h eve any love left
for me anti would not goad me to destruction, let us separate.
Let me live alone, and then I will live honourably. My edu-
cation and my principles are a sufficient guarantee for that.
Let us wpande. Arthur, hut without rancour, for rancour
comes of contempt. Adveroty may possibly visit us, but At
is easier to sutler alone than in company with another It
you should be drawn to address yourself to God as I do,
your prayer will be that Ile may take to Himself epeently the
woman who has been the cause of your misery; and you
Min pardon her, won't you?
July 7,187 d.
" P.S.—lnlife or death, I rely on your word. You are free
" MINIM"
The husband did not accept his offer, hut the letter caused
him to make inquires leading to a confession of adultery,
which he condoned. Ile weld off with his wife to Geneva,
and them got her shut up for a tune in a lunatic sts)lu En with
the consent of her relations. Ile returned to•Franee, became
a captain of Mohiles in the Army of the L ire, and
behaved well at Beaugenry. During the war his
wife wrote him many affectionate letters. A child
was bon), which se spoke of in tender terms as a re.
ruiniscence of the husband. After the armistice Inc went to
Geneva to fetch her away from the an lam, and brought her
to Paris, which she liked better as a residence than any
other plate. A second cue of adultery was discovered,
and also condoned. Frd .ia all the above facts, it hi
plain -
have

_
that M. Duboorg had been an unfortunate as to
.e a very bad wife, and one that it would have
eeu very desirible to get rid of. But the only ques-
tion for the jury was whether he was Justified
in getting rid of her in the way he did, Ile took to lodge in
th house of a Maritime de Boos, whom he had known before
his Insrrisge, and who, the Judge aml the nubile pi...aerator
intimated, was his mistress. Madame de Boos wormed all her
secrets out .4 her, ano found that she had an intrigue with
M. de Plecorliin, a former beau, who wits a clerk in the Pre-
fecture of the Seine. In Madame de 8008.5 house, worse
quarrels than ever ensued. Duhourg sunl he had not
sufficient sleeping accommodation at Madame de
/tem.'s, and would go to the Hetet d'Angleterre,
near the Havre RAlway Madame Dubourg said if auybody
went there, it should be she, The Maimed encouraged this
idea, and accompanied her there to take a solitary room.
She came every day to take her meals at Madame de Roos'.
Pile husband, to throw her off her guard, pre-
tended he was going into the country, and got her
to pack his earpethag. Instead of going, he watched
personally the Hotel d'Angleterre, where she was
lodging, and employed two detectives to watch her also.
After tracking her to No 14, Rue des Puttee. where he found
she had a rendezvous with her suspected lover, M. de Prtl-
eorbill, he took some brandy with Ins detective. In a wine
shop, and, taking leave of them, said, " This will do. Bowl
take the matter into my own hands." Then he went
up the stairs to the lodging of M. Dutertre, which
De Precorhin had borrowed, and by means of the 't mdol-
blooded Bo " that he had received a telegram stat•
Inc that their child waslll induced his unfortunate
wife to open the door, while her lover, as is well known
e caped by across the rout of the house. She had
our no other clothing than a. chemise and a petticoat. lie
, sated where was De Precorbin, and, not finding him,
' attacked his wife with a sword-stick. When that Was
broken he pulled out a terrible poniard, wherewith, in spite
of hi.' resisiauce and repeated cries for mercy he inflicted
fifteen wounds, one of which was so mortal that the victim felt
it at once, and begged him to fetch a priest Ile took her at
her word, and, Instead of going to the nearest doctor, lost
twenty minutes in going to a priest with whom lie nio ac-
quainted. The poor woman lingered for some days in a hos-
pital, and died. The Judge of Instruction, who, to my great
astonishment, admitted Duhourg to bail, must have been of his
own opinion, that he was sore to be acquitted. He haa
been greatly deceived. The haughty, defiant attitude,
mingled with a certain amount of theatrical grief, which he

... •—• . . • . „ ,
displayed during insintern•gatory, was greatly changed whets
the judge summed up against him, lie fainted away, ad
heart the sentence o, five years reel.ion (a severe kind ot
imprisonment), held up by two gendarmes, with the despair-
ing look of a gambler aho has been deceived. Ile had made
sure that he had a 'right 'to kill his erring wife, and had
no remorse for the deed; but was overwhelmed with tenor
at his own fate when he found himself mistaken,