The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-17 00:00:00

SINGULAR TRIAL.

The Assize Court at Paris, on Thursday, writes
our correspondent, was crowded yesterday morning
by a well-dressed audience, among whom were
several actors and actresses, to hear a singularly
dramatic trial for an attempted murder. The pri-
soner, a young man of 19, but looking younger, was
a jeuneprenzzer (player of lover's characters) at the
little theatre of Mont Parnasse. His name is Du-
mont. He appears to have been a sort of Cheru-
bim', sighing after every lady within his ken. The
actresses to whom he made love laughed at him and
treated him as a child, and their husbands or pro-
tectors never considered him a rival worth notice. In
the course of the summer he became very seriously in
love with the wife of a brother actor, named Demon-
geot, with whom he was on terms of intimacy.
He wrote her —several amatory epistles, which
she never answered; but she gave him no encou-
ragement, reproved him when they met, and
although she did not show the love letters to her
husband, only abstained, as it seems, in mercy to
her youthful admirer. On July 5, while Demangeot
was on the stage in character at the Mont Parnasse
Theatre, Dumont went to his dressing-room, took
the key of his apartments from the pocket of the
ordinary clothes which he found there, returned to
the body of the theatre, where he vehemently ap-
plauded his friend, and then stealthily making use
of the key, got into his lodgings, There he partly
undressed himself, and, armed with a poignard and
a carving knife, took up an expectant position under
Madame Demangeot's bed. There he was when
the unsuspecting husband came home at midnight.
The wife, who had been playing at the Island
Theatre, in the Bois do Boulogne, did not get home
till half an hour later. The couple took their supper
together leisurely, and it was about two in the
morning before they retired to rest—in separate
beds. Dumont waited quietly till they were well
asleep, 'and must have remained in his hiding place
for nearly four hours. At three in the morning he
got up and made a murderous attack on M. Deman-
geot in his bed, inflicting no less than 15 wounds,
none of which, however, happily, proved fatal or
even dangerous. The wife, awakened by her
husband's screams, ran down stairs in her night-
dress, crying for help. A police-sergeant and a
neighbour quickly came to her assistance, and
Dumont was secured while struggling with his
victim, with whom he was rolling over and over on
the floor. Under these circumstances Dumont
is indicted on the capital charge of having, with
premeditation and guet a pens
(lying in wait), at-
tempted to murder Demangeot.. From the deposi-
tions and the examination of the prisoner in court,
is to be collected that his intention was to mur-
der the husband, and then, if possible, possess the
wife; or, in case of her resistance, to murder her
and kill himself. As soon as the examination of
utpri-
soner's h
witnesses was concluded, the Imperial Procurtur
moved thieeeosusretstshpaetk,emofashmllnucahs
reputed some
ed
insane,of the
strcinael hr'sswtn ould be postponed to another session, in
order to afford time for medical examination. This
motion energeticallyigereenJ
Opposed by the prisoner's
counsel, Algernon Jones (a French barrister of
English birth), who contended that during the
three months which his
client had been in prison
the public prosecutor had had plenty of time to in-
quire into the state of his mind, and abundant I

notice that the question would be raised for the
defence. The court, howe'rer, to the great disap-
pointment of the audience, acceded to the Imperial
Procureur's demand, and so the trial stands ad-
journed. •

In his letter on Saturday our correspondent
says :--"The condensed report of the extraordinary
trial at the Assize Court, yesterday, which I gave
from memory, was substantially correct as far as it
went, but I was too far off to hear all the witnesses
said, and I find in theilegal journals two or three
additional facts which are worth noticing. I men-
tioned that the prisoner Dumont obtained access
to his friend Demangeot's lodgings by taking the
key from the pocket of his trousers while the
latter was on the stage performing in costume.
The question may occur to your readers how
did Demangeot get into his own room when
ho left the theatre ? I should have said that
Dumont found a second key in the lodging, hanging
up in a place which he knew of. Taking this, he
went back to the theatre, restored a key to the
pocket of.the trousers from which he had taken one,
went into the body of the theatre, made himself con-
spicuous by vehemently applauding his friend and
intended victim, and then sneaking back to his home
to lie in wait for him under his bed. Calculating
that he would want light to strike a deadly blow
Dumont provided himself with some lucifer
matches. When, rightly judging that the hus-
band and wife must be asleep, he came out from
his lurking place, he drew a lucifer match along
the floor, to light it. Demangeot, who fortunately
for himself slept lightly, was awakened by the
slight noise, which he mistook for the scratching of a
cat, and when his half •opened eyes saw a phos-
phoric light he felt confirmed in the supposition, for
he fancied it proceed from the eyes of the cat.
He jumped out of bed, and at once felt the gash
of a knife. Then he struggled in the dark with his
assailant, as before described, and received fifteen
wounds. The wife, who ran for assistance, was not
conscious of the presence of an assassin, but fancied
that her husband was in a raving fit.
" On the occasion of this trial, it has been re-
marked that the proportion of crimes committed by
members of the theatrical profession is less than in
any other class of society. I rather think that Eng-
lish statistics silo* an analogous fact."

ASSASSINATION A 7 MEDINA.

A letter from Djeddah, in the _Levant Herald
of the sth, says :—" The latest item of news in
this quarter is the assassination of Djemal-ul.
Ell, chief the Ulemas, at Medina, and a descen-
dant of the Prophet. The incident is looked
upon by all classes here a an important political
event, and one which is likely to be attended with
grave consequences. It appears that Reschid
Seghim, Sheik of the Dubub tribe, in the neigh-
bourhood of Medina, ordered his son to proceed with
three men to the chief Ulema's residence and
despatch him. The cause assigned for this act is
that the Duhub chief had some personal animosity
against his victim, but another version has it that
political motives are mixed up with it. The young
man and his three associates, who were sent on this
bloody mission, on arriving were received with every
courtesy, the ostensible object of their visit being a
friendly one. Narghides and coffee were duly
handed to them, after partaking of which
the four drew their pistols, and, firing together,
shot the venerable Ulema dead. Two slaves,
a male and female, hearing the report en-
tered the room, where they were at once attacked,
the woman being mortally wounded, and the man
killed outright. The murderers immediately after-
wards took to flight. Reschid Seghim is a pensioner
of the Viceroy of Egypt for services rendered by him
to Mehemed Ali. Without the firmness of the go-
vernor, Izzet Pacha, and the Scheriff Abdulall
Pacha,a vast amount of intestine trouble would have
arisen in the holy places out of this outrage, and
most probably have obliged the authorities to ask
the help of Egyptian troops, which, doubtless, the
Viceroy would have readily given. Without having
recourse to such a step, Izzet Pacha at once de-
spatched a force against the Duhub tribe under
Muhabuz Suleiman Bey, who succeeded in beating
them into something like order."

GO UN7 1 111 A RILL IS.

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NORWICH—SATURDAT.
Wheat was in good supply to-day, and the prices of
last week receded is per qr. A full attendance of fanners.
There was a good show of barley offering, and late prices
declined about is per qr. Flour 6d to is per sack cheaper.
White wheat. 49s to 51= Red wheat 43s to 48s
Malting barley 34s to 37s I Chevalier barley 33s to 359
Distilling do . 28s to 30s Oats.. • • 25s to 300