The Express.
London, England, 1851-06-05 00:00:00

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EXTRAORDINARY MURDER L' BELGIUM.

(Mum lime Dag Kw%)
Surce the trial of Madame LAIRAIGE in France
for poisoning her husband, no more remarkable case
has ever been tried than that which now slowly =-
bids itself before the High Criminal Court of
Hainanlt. at Mons. The accused are the Count and
Countess of Bowan. of a family which is stated to
Imo= of the oldest in Belgium. The crime laid to
their &age is that of having poisoned the countese's
brother, UUSTAVE Foromes, in order to obtain his

.211011 C.
The trial of the Count and his wife is now pro-
ceeding, and therefore permits us only to give the
facts of the case as they are disclosed by the wit-
nesses examined and by the document in form of in-
dictment, which is usually called acte it accusation.
Count D llocsnur resided at the chateau of
Bury; he married in 1843, for her fortune, LYDIA
FOUGNII4, the daughter of a retired grocer, and
got with her a sum representing a hundred
a-year of English money. -This, after all, was no
great sum, and as the Count was somewhat of
spendthrift, his affairs assumed gradually a moat em-
barrassed state. Ills wife's brother, GUSTAVE Fut:-
amEs, had become possessed, by his father's death, of
comiderable property, and as be was unmarried, the
Count and Countess had every prospect of inheriting
his fortune. GLISAYE, though weak in constitu-
tion. and amputated of a kg, determined, in Novem-

berg IMO, to marry.
The state of Count BOCARKE'S exchequer was a
this time quite ruinous, and it is evident from the
deposition of numerous witnesses, that he resorted to
the most disreputable artifices to contest the pay-
ment of the smallest debts. He owed large sums to
his legal advisers, and had mortgaged most of his
property. Fouo•trs' marriage would have been a
blow to his hopes. Suddenly the Count became ad-
dicted, in the beginning of 1830, to the study of
chemistry. Ile went under a false name
to a manufacturer of alembics, corresponded also
under a false name with a professor of chemistry,
and ultimately succeeded in distilling from tobacco
leaves a deadly
.poison known as nicotine, and for
which hitherto it has been impossible to find a re-
active. This poison he tried on various animals,
and, according to his own statement, he obtained
tremendous results, death being instantaneous after
the slightest absorption of the poison. In November,
Ite-iO, Gasser. FUVGN I ES, who had hitherto
refused to go to Bury because he feared
poison, was induced to accept an invitation
6o dinner at Bury, it being proposed to him to be-
come trustee for the Count and Countess during a
voyage they intended making in Germany. He came
on the morning of the 20th of November, and after
dinner on the same day died in the room where were
present both the Count and the Countess. Rumour
spread the report of sudden death, and the officers of
justice arrived next morning to report and declares
Low GUsTAVE FM:GNU:I had died. A pox, martens
examination was made, and it was found
that death had ensued, not from apoplexy,
as at first stated, but from the forcible is-
Ice t ion of a poisonous and corrosive substance.
There were marks of violence on the face of the
dead man, and part of the poison had ruts down ass
aide of his Ewe, corroding the flesh and blistering it.
An examination of Count Boesaues hands showed
the presence of a bite from human teeth, and a red
tinge on one of his nails corresponded with certain
marks and scratches on the face of Fin:II:SU:S.
The clothes of ForGxtrs and those of the Count
which ho had changed were found wet, and hanging
up to dry in an attic of the chateau. This had been
done by the Countess, as she states, by order of her
husband. 'rho floor had been scraped with glass,
but insufficiently to prevent the marks of the cor-
roding liquid, which seemed to have been spurted
all over the room.
The Count, however, denied all knowledge of the
mode of FouGnirs' death, and said only that whilst
the three sat after dinner, his brother-in-law cried
out and called for him as if in pain ; that he,
llocs•us, ran to assist; they both fell, and a crutch
breaking had wounded his hand. At this time the
doctors had not found out the poison which acted
so instantaneoludy. There were no traces of chemi-
cal instruments or of any apparatus for the distilla-
tion of poison.
'lle false name assumed by the Count in his deal-
ings with the chemical instrument maker however
bects.-ne known. After six weeks search the alembics
used in 'producing nicotine were found, and BOCARME
when informed of them discoveries, for a moment
gait, himself up to despair. He now admitted that
Ors rsv Fowl:vim had drunk poison distilled by him,
but said that he had done so accidentally, it having
been given him by Madame DE Ilocaanr, who
mistaking it for wine, poured out some, which he
drank. This statement, however, the Countess
denied, and she now openly accused her husband of
being the murderer. She said that the precautions
taken to remove all servants from the vicinity of the
room where the victim was to be despatched were
taken by her, at the instigation and orders of
her husband. She said that her husband
speculatull oil the death of Gt:srAve ; that she
knew in the first days of November that
the nicotine distilled by her husbtuid had been pre-
pared for the purpose of destroying her brother, and
that on the 21•11 of November flocAams. told her that
on that day Gusrsves life would be taken. ( Sun
affair. aerate Julie.) She knew all this, yet when
her brother come she remained silent. She described
bow aftt;r dinner her brother expressed his determi-
nation to go home, and BUCALSIE went out to order
his horses. In his absence she and her brother were
talking together, when BOCAIUIE rushed in, seized
Gi'sr.iva by the shoulders, and threw bins down. She
fled and did not return into the room till all was
over, and the body of GUSTAVE lay lifeless on the
ground.
The public prosecutors, however, pretend in their
indictment that the Countess must have been pre-
sent set the death, and poured in the poison, whilst
Its: lits:AnotE held open the mouth of their victim.
This remains yet to be proved. It is for this,
therefore, that LYDIA FOUGNIES, Counts= of '
llocianr., and VISART, Count of Bocsanr., are in-1
dieted for the crime of murder by poison, and are
now on their trial before the High Criminal Court al
Mona in: Henault.