The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-04-04 00:00:00

DUELLISTS IN PRISON.

The Paris Correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette thus des-
cribes a visit he has paid to an acquaintance who was recently
sentenced to imprisonment for acting as second in a duel
His ease is a hard .vie, for a man can no more refuse
to serve a friend in a duel than he can decline being
best man at a wedding or vis-a-vis in a quadrille:
moreover, this gentleman did his utmost to prevent the
duel, spending a day and a night in runnings to and
fro and bootless negotiations to induce the fiery
principals to make it up. However, the affair happened
tocause noise; and Justice, who does not weara bandage
over her eyes for nothing, was more intent on striking
the parties all round than on weighing their several
sins too nicely. So yesterday hearing that the second
in question had surrendered and been lodged in Mazas,
I called at his house and left a card of condolence, as
custom requires. It is etiquette in France to drop
cards on any acquaintance who may be imprisoned for
duelling or for offences connected with the press or
politics. I regret to add that when a man is impri-
soned for gallantry of the kind which forms the text
of most French comedies his friends are also expected
to come forward like a single man and prove their
esteem for him. My card appears to have been for-
warded to the gaol in the evening, for this morning I
received a note stating that the prisoner was " at
home" in his cell every afternoon from twelve to four ;
and as the opportunity thus afforded me of obtaining
a glimpse of duellists prison life was too good a one to
be lost, I went and passed an hour at Mazas straight-
way. This letter is written while the soothing im-
pressions of the place are fresh.
To begin with, I should mention that duellists and
journalists are not arrested in court immediately after
sentence, but are cautiously allowed a month to make
their arrangements. This, I believe, would not be the
case in England, where misdemeants, whether of first
or second class, are apprehended politely but with
despatch. Here, however, we live in a land of equality,
and it is only fair that, enjoying so much equality in
theory, we should have frequent relaxations of it in prac-
tice. My acquaintance naturally spent his month in
mustering all the influence he could toobtain the cancel-
ling of his sentence, and he went the length of getting
introduced to the Minister of Justice, at a party, and
arguing the case with him after a rubber of whist, at
which game both he and the Minister are proficient.
But he was told that hemust serve at least six months of
his term, lest there should seem to be favouring ' • and
towards the end of the third week after the trial he re-
ceived two official enclosures, the one a bill of the costs
in which he had been condemned, the other a letter
from the Public Prosecutor, begging him to surrender
at Maus before six p.m. on a specified day. Thu
i s
mention of Mazas was n itself a favour, for 11fazas is a
place for prisoners awaiting trial, and prisoners actually
sentenced by an assize court ought to be locked up in
one of the maisons cents-ales in the country. But here
again we get a little loosening of that hard bond of
equality which would make life so tedious; and, as a
matter of fact, any man can be lodged in Mazas who
has friends powerful enough to intercede for him.
My acquaintance did honour to the Public Prosecutor's
invitation by arriving at his prison in good time,
escorted by his luggage and by some furniture. An
affable correspondence had been previously exchanged
between himself and the governor on the subject of
this furniture, and the governor had kindly sent him a
list of such things so he might bring, adding that ex-
plosive materials were forbidden. This injunction
might seem needless were it not that a savant con-
demned some years ago for a press offence, utilized his
captivity at Ste. Magi(' by some chemical experiments,
in the course of which he blew off three of his fingers,
all his hair and eyebrows, and part of his cell-wall ;
since which time the only dangerous materials allowed
to prisoners are the essentials for j*n-work. I found
my captive enjoying himself in a rocking-chair, while
him breakfast things were being cleared away by a
shy-looking gentleman who will shortly be tried
by the correctional police for being in possession,
by some mistake let us trust, of money which did
not belong to him. It is the privilege of distinguished
prisoners to have a teaser prisoner to wait on them,
make their beds, &c., and the remuneration for such
services is fixed by prison rules at one franc a day.
The cell looked cosy enough by reason of the furniture
and carpets imported; but it was not comparable in
Point of size and situation to the one in which I saw
Henri Rochefort when I visited him at Ste. Pelagie
four years ago. Ste. Pelagic is, indeed, the elysium of
Frenchmen endurance. There are, or were, four cells
there, which were constantly full of good company,
and the governor, being an admirer of fine literature,
naturally took care that the numerous representatives
of it who passed through his custody should have all
the comforts and even luxuries at his disposal. A
most amiable and courtly governor he was, to whom
his "boarders," as he delicately termed them,
never failed to present dedicatory copies of
their works when released; and his blandness
was copied by his subalterns, who, down to
the lowest, applied themselves to make the
boarders feel quite at home. It was at this charm-
ing prison that a gaoler, addressing M. Clement
Duvemoin then an Opposition writes-, who had been
sentenced to two months' imprisonment for a duel with
M. Franeisque Sarcey, said "1 am an old soldier,
sir, and I think the War Office has not been just in
refusing me the Legion of Honour." "I don't see
how I am to help you," answered M. Duvernois,
astonished. "Well, no; not now," replied the gaoler;
"but one of these days you will certainly be a Mi-
nister, and then can think of me." And this shrewd
131811's prophecy was sound; for M. Duvernois did
become a Minister, and I hope he remembered the old
soldier.

But to return to the Mazas celL Maras has had
the honour of housing M. Thiers, M. Prosper IWri-
no4e, and Emile de Giradin ; but as a rule, it is not
accustomed to such tenants as Ste. Ptflagie, and when
the governor gets a decent prisoner he is almost obliged
to apologize for the deficiency of his accommodation.
M. Thiers and M. de Giratlin occupied ordinary cells,
and the latter still describes with horror and indigna-
tion how a serubbing-brush and a bath-brick were put
into his hands, with directions how to use them in
cleaning the cell floor. Things are not an bad as
this tiowadayB. At least not for prisoners who,
besides being notable, have money; and my friend
occupies; a cell which kinks towards the Lyons railway
station, and the bars of which are tastefully concealed
in summer by honeysuckles and other creeping plants.
Unfortunately; creepers are not in bloom yet, so the bars
are naked for the present ; but compensation isobtained
by a box of wallflowers, which make the air sweet in the
sunshine of spring. On one of the walls is pasted a
copy ,4 the prison rules, and fine rules they are to
read, for they enjoin-1, th a prsoner clean his own
cell and have his gas turned off at eight; 2, that he
shall receive no newspapers, and that if he have his
food brought him from outside, the loaves shall be cut
into slices, and the fruity into quarters, to see that no
niesaagas are oravermi iz thorn; and 3, that so nook-