The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-01-24 00:00:00

RURAL CRIM.k.I IN FRANCE.

Lsre week au Occastonai correepondent of the Daily News
sent that I unmet a kug letter In whieh be vividly described
some of its I. ado: crimea committed Ins the rural diarists of
France; end the same Corropiudent, wrilbig from Paris on
Solidly, this c;petements his prev;ons letter :
Several other daring crimes have been added to the
already it ng list of those perpe'rated between lailt
Septemb; r and Christuaas in the L'monra district. On
January 10, at about two o'clock in the afternoon, an
old women, the wife of a rich peasant, was murdered
as elle was prejaring a coupe sax choux for the dinner
of her husband and his field labourers. She was sitting
before the kitchen fire washing cabbages and potatoes,
when somebody entered, and, with a eingla blow
of an iron bar on the back of the head, k.ded
ter. This crime was followed up by the robbery of
several thoueaml francs in nobs and specie The cot, age
is close to the village of (Lard ;suet, ehd about half •
mile across the tiehle from Forges.h r-Betas. Chardon-
net stadia at the highest point of a well-cultivated
upland. If am" are people about in the adjacent
lanes end roads, it is impossoble to get to it without
being seen by them. Ihe second murder was perpe-
trated in One Of a cluster of bootee ,on the high-
way from Limoure to Baj let, about la mile and a
half ;rem Chardonnet the murdered pereon wa
a native of the district. Ile was a widower
childless, the owner of isome fields, and of a pro'
ductive vineyard. Being, like most of his neighbours,
of penurious ways, he passed in the district for
wealthy. It wave also notorious that he bad recently
gone to Paris to sell rentes to the amount of 9,000
franca, and rumour spoke of his hating concealed the
money so realised in a double.bottomed huehe, or bin,
in which he kept his bread and other provisions. A
hatchet or cleaver must have been the instrument
with which this particular murder was committed.
Two blows were struck with terrible force on the nape
of the neck, as if by a woodman in the habit of felling
trees.
On the morning of the same day an attempt was
made to break Into a farmhouse at BriissonsForgee,
belonging to a man named Lhenreux. The bearer
of this suspicions name is provided with a licence
to keep firearms, and has always a loaded
gun and revolver at hand to defend his life and
chattels against evil-disposed persons. But on this
occasion he preferred trusting to his locks and bolts
to using his weapons. His confidence, fortunately
for himself, was not mieplaced. When the bur-
glars had vie-rowdy but vainly laboured for about
ten minutes with bar and picklock, they went away.
The faint-hearted Lheurenx remained in his hiding.
place in a loft for a long while after they had ceased
to operate on his door. Briis is a very prosaic market
town of 2,000 inhabitants, three miles from Limours,
and one from Forges. Lheureux's homestead is at
the end of the street leading to the Duke of Padua's
magnificent seat It stands in the midst of a large Hat
tilled field, and is one of the least pectin:led farmhouses
I have ever seen. M. Claude the famous Paris de-
tective, with a picked staff, has been at Limours for
the last fortnight. Ile has arrived at the conclusion
that a murderous association his been formed in the
hitherto peaceful communes of the Hurepoix district.
Had not the assassins had accomplices its the villages
whve they have left bloody traces of their passage,
they could not have acted with such boldness, and
been so successful in carrying off booty. The firing on
last Sunday. towards ten o'clock, of the grange. of
(Thal:teen de Verteaux, and, a few hours later, of the
barn of the Comtesee de Castrie (a relation of Madame
MacMahon) at Norville, near Arpojon, bears out M.
Claude's hypothesis.
The granee and homestead of Verteaux belong to
Vicomte de Verteaux, and are let to a miller named
Carnasse. They immediately, face-the Church of Van-
grineuse, and are only separated by a road and pond from
the manse in which an attempt was made In November
to kill the priest's housekeeper, as no doubt a step to.
wards plundering her master. Incredible though it may
seem, the poltroonery of the good people of Vaegri-
nava was such that they quietly suffered 6,0 rOi„
worth of wheat an 1 barley to be carted t,ff by .the
incendiaries. They had he ard the noise of the lad.
jag, and of the cart wheels coming and going, but
did not do eo much as dare tepee p through the slit of
a window shutter to nark wroat kind of vehicles
and horses were engaged taking away the contents
of their neighbour's grange.. The miller himself
and the occupants of the eV a:PAII suspected what
wag going forward among the races of c mu. But
concluding iron the b illness of the robbers that
they insist he "en force," they had not the courage
to-attack diem. It was only when the noise of the cart
wheels had died away in the distance, and the flames
were shoothig no through the thatched roofs of the
homestead buildings, ti at M. de Verteaux, his re-
taihent and tenants of the grange, ventured to give a
sign of life. Camasse, he dad not exactly know why,
had had a foreboding of what hapoeLed, and on Sun-
day morning agreed with the priest, schoolmaster,
Garde Charier e :re, and others to discharge a pistol
four times in awe -salon were an attempt made t
break into his p emises. Bat his heart utterly failed
when his wife produced the weapon, and he told her
that if she wanted the neighbours to be alarmed, she
might throw up the window and pull the trigger her.
self. This WWI not all. As naseeengers were being
sent to Forges, Brits, and Limours, to nutemon
the firemen, they ware instructed to keep out of
the incendiaries' way. It may well be supposed they
faithfully adhered to there instructions. When day
broke the course of the plunderers could be tracked
far in the direction of Briis, by the wheat and barley
that hal escaped from the carts. The Vicomte de
Verteaux hes implored the Ministry of the Interior to
send an additional brigade of gendarmerie to the
Hurepoix district. He is quite willing to give the re-
inforcements for which he asks free board and lodging.
The loss he sustains by the tiring of his homestead is
very oonsiderabs, and it might have been much
greater. I dare say the robbers wonder at their own
moderation, for of silver and gold store there is Ann.
dance at the cbiteau. The robbery committed at
Norville was less important. 2 000. francs would cover
the wheat and straw carried off from Madame de
Castrie's farmyard. thee can hardly think that
heavily laden carts could have gone from Vaugrinenae
to Norville in the course ci the same night without
being identified. Indeed, we cannot, however similar
the circumstances under which robbery and arsomwere
perpetrated in these places, but doubt the possibility
of the same men, horses, and vehicles being engaged in
both forays.
The terror reigning In that portion of the Behre-et-
Oise which has been lately the Beene of as mach ark e
is said to be emeedve. lam In receipt of a tette:

from a peesondivlng at Forges, who telis—me that
every house is barred and bolted by day as well as by
night. Licemme to carry arms havr been freely granted
to conductors if omnibusses and lettevearriers
The peasants go in gangs to work in the
fields. Their position is a sad one. None of them
has the initiative to organize a defensive associa-
tion, or the pluck to help himself if waylaid or
hroken in upon. Every one tremble. lest, if be escape
being felled like an ox in the shambles, he may fall
into the hands of justice, for there id nobody in terror.
hied Arcadia, of which Limours is the centre, who has
not a suspicious or epiteful neighbour, eager to de-
nounce him to M. Claude and his detectives. The
stand those pillass of the Rue de Jerusalem make
against the indiscriminate arrest of gipsies and
other vagrants Increases the sinister apprehensions
of the unfortunate peasants. M. Claude will have
it that a murderer er rwirderesa lurks in every village.
The earl tracks left on Sunday night in the farmyards
of Verteanz and Norville exclude the hypotheses of
the felons being peeper Bohemians or Belgians come in
search of agricultural employment, whilst the impunity
with which they have slain ant plundered stall hours
of the day and night is proof of a widespread affiliation
for criminal deed.'.