The Express.
London, England, 1857-12-21 00:00:00

them with him into the woods and made them

believe that while they were on the watch he was
enjoying stolen interviews with his mistress. It is
to be observed that the whole of this part of the case
rests solely on the gaseonnade at GUILLOT. No
witness is produced who ever saw the young lady in
any compromising position, and it is especially
worthy of notice that not a single scrap of paper was
produced in her handwriting in answer to the pas-
..

aionate effusion' of OUILLOT. The negative force el
thin evidence is almost iosuraronntably strong. Had

she really favoured 0011. LOT'S passion, she would
have written; whatever she wrote he would have

and preeerved ; had there been a single line

of hen in possession of the Crown Prosecutor; or the
Counsel for Madame Guator, it would have been
eagerly produced, for the theory of the prosecution
was that the subsequent deed of blood was the deli-
berate revenge of a mother for the dishonour of her
daughter. The fair conclusion seems to be that
Mdlle. nos JISTYO4III3, though she may have been
imprudent, was not criminal, and that the whole
proceedings of OUILLOT were based on an assump-
tion which he knew to be false, lb order to gratify
the rancour of an unmanly resentment and wasp
the wounds of a vulgar vanity.

Madame ne Jet josse, evidently a proud, reserved,
and sensitive woman, was deeply outraged by
these scandalous proceedings. Her eldest son (tie
sons play a sorry figure throughout the whole
bashing) wrote a foolish letter to EMILE
GUILLOT, warning him that orders had been given
to fire on the intruder, and a reward offered to any-
one who should succeed in hitting him. Through-
out it is observable that in the minds of these young
men the notion seems to have been that they could
not compromise their sister by Challenging GUILLOT,
but that they might lawfully shoot him down. This
letter was intercepted by Madame GUILLOT, but
her husband was not left without warning and re-
monstrance. On the 17th of March "the neigh-
" bourhood " took it up ; the old friends of M. DE
lit Fosse met together: OUILLOT wee pent for and
expostulated with: be denied much that every one
knew to be true, bat declared that fur the future he
would carefully abstain from giving annoyance.
It would have been fortunate for him if he had
kept his word. He probably never meant to do so.
At any rate the annoyance almost immediately re-
commenced, and became worse than ever. The tuilete
dour were dropped as before, and brought to Madame
or Jet:Fosse. The heart of the mother, the blood of
the patrician, were thoroughly roused. She asked a
neighbouring magistrate whether the law would
permit her to shoot down the midnight violator of
her property and her peace. She was assured that
it would. From that moment her resolution seems
to have been taken. She would avenge the honour
of her house, and free herself from a nuisance that
had grown absolutely intolerable, in her own
way. She directed Caere:, the gamekeeper, to keep
strict watch, and fire at the intruder on the first
opportunity. Its urged in her defence, and stated,
by herself, that her intention and her direction was
merely to " pepper" her tormenter, not seriously to
wound him. The nature of her subsequent conduct
leaves it somewhat doubtful whether she troubled
herself mach as to the probable extent of the injury.
The doctor who maw her after the man was dead de_
elan@ that she seemed to regard the occurrence u
perfectly natural (tout naturel); and the strong pro-
bability is that she really considered that the law,
ander the circumstances, bad invested her with the
power of inflicting death—a power which she washy
no means indisposed to exercise. CSEPEL had not
the determination of his mistress. He watched for
weeks without effect; at last she resolved to watch
with him. For several nights preceding the cata-
strophe, she sat at her open window in the chateau;
ellen on the lawn beneath with bis doable-
barrelled gun in his band. On the 12th of June, as
they rte thus, a rutting was heard in the shruberies
sear the park wall. Omen. advanced—some one
retreated. Haire la—tss es mart, cried the game-
keeper, and tired. The shot was fatal. EMILE
Grit.kor fell, with eight slugs in his' body. eaten
ran beck instantly to the apsrtmest of Madame Di
JEr rOcSI.. Mdlle. LIVIRENCL, alarmed at the report,
and distinctly hearing groans, also descended there.
Madame DE JEDYGSSE knew that the shot had taken
effect. Meanwhile GraLor's servant, who had
followed his muter to the park wall, and heard his
cries, ran to the chateau for help. The circumstances
that follow are the most damaging part of the
case for Madame DE Jectrossx. For some time no
one attended to the outcries of the servant. At last
a single domestic followed him with a lantern to
the spot. They arrived there only jut in time to
witness the last struggle and hear the declaration of
the d) ing man, that it was CREPEL who had shot
him. What follows is worse still. The body was
left where it lay, grovelling in the dust. It
remained there all night, and was found there
the next day by the msgistrates who came to
investigate the circumstances. Had it not bean
for the interposition of M. TRIPE; who with other
friends and neighbours hurried to the chateau, not
even the decent covering of • sheet would have
been provided. All this unquestionably shows the
hardness of a haughty and malevolent nature, and
has probably had more to do than anything else with
turning the current of sympathy against the pri-
soners.

Such were the principal facts brought to light in
this remarkable investigation. M. BESIEGE, who
defended the JevcossE family with his usual con-
summate ability, of course omitted no topic which
could work on the feelings of the jury or the mind
of the judge. His principal argument WM, that
Madame DE Jeurossz, under the circumstances,
must be regarded as having acted in her own de-
fence; she was besieged, as it were, in her own
house. The article of tho Penal Code, which autho-
rizes the extreme of armed resistance to a "forcible
" and nocturnal entrance," the object of whiclois the
spoliation of property, authorises a similar resistance
when the object of the intruder is the spoliation of
a daughter's virtue. The principal cootention of the
counsel for the prosecution was that Madame DE
JIL7OBBI had exceeded the measure of resistance
which the law allowed, and had by her subsequent
conduct evinced a deadliness of animosity sufficient
to constitute that malice prepense which forms the
principal criterion between justifiable and unjustifi-
able homicide. The jury have taken the view im-
pressed upon them by M. BEERY= —and though
the morality of their verdict may be called in ques-
tion, they moat have been more or Is.. that men to
hays decided otherwise.