The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-04 00:00:00

WESTMINSTER PALACE HOTEL.

The half-yearly meeting was held yesterday at
the Hotel, Victoria-street, Westminster; Viscount
Chelsea in the chair.

The Secretary read the report, an abstract of
which has already appeared.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving its adoption, said it
was so very full that it was unnecessary for him to
offer any remarks upon it.
A SHAREHOLDER asked whether the rates,
amounting to £l,OOO, were for the year or for the
half-year; because, if for the latter, it would be a
very severe tax to pay £2,000 a-year.
The CHAIRMAN said those rates and taxes were
for the half•year.

Mr. CROUCH (an auditor) thought the sum paid
for servants was enormous. They had to pay for
50 servants, which, with their board, came to about
£4,000 a-year, and they received back from the
visitors only £1,600, thus leaving a deficiency of
£2,400 a-year. This was the only item in: the
accounts they could cut down.

Several shareholders urged the directors to exer-

cise the strictest economy, and, after considerable
discussion, the report was adopted. The retiring
directors were re-elected, and a vote of thanks to
the chairman closed the proceedings.

THR _EXTRAORDINARY TRIAL FOR
MURDER IN FRANCE.

(FURTHER PARTICULARS.)

The most intense excitement has been created
throughout France by the trial of a man named
Martin Dumollard, a labourer, who, for the last
eight-years has been in the habit of murdering and
robbing servant girls under the pretence of con-
ducting them to good situations. Fifteen cases of
murder or attempted murder are alleged against
him, and it is suspected that he must be guilty of
many more crimes of a similar nature. His wife
was indicted as an accomplice. The trial, which
took place at Bourg, in the department of Ain,
commenced on Wedesday last, and was brought
to a close on Saturday. Dumollard, whose hair and
beard were rugged and unkempt, is 52 years of
age. He was attired at the trial in a blue blouse.
He regarded the audience in court with a dull and
stupid gaze, and, although he is represented as a
man of unusual acuteness and cunning, his counte-
nance denoted only the lowest passions. His wife
has nothing striking in her appearance. She was
attired during the trial in the costume ordinarily
worn by countrywomen in France. The following
account of the extraordinary and unparalleled
charges against the prisoners is obtained from the
official acte craccusation. On the 25th of May,
1861, about 11 o'clock at night, a woman knocked
at the door of M. Joly, an inhabitant of the vil-
lage of Ballau, and asked for shelter and pro-
tection from an assassin, out of whose hands she
stated she had escaped in a miraculous manner.
The terror depicted in her countenance, her
disordered garments, and the bruises on various
parts of her body bore witness to the reality of
the danger which she had encountered. The name
of this woman, who was a stranger to that part of
the country, was Marie Pichon. She was at once
taken before the police authorities at Montluel, to
whom she made the following astounding state-
ment had (she said) come from Lyons, where
she had been living as a domestic servant. That
same morning, as she was crossing the Bridge de la
Guillotiere, she was accosted by a countryman, clad
in a blue blouse, with a hump on his back, and hav-
ing a scar and a swelling on his upper lip. This
person inquired of her the address of a certain re-
gistry-office, and took the opportunity of entering
into conversation with her. He told her that he
was employed as a gardener at a chateau near
Montluel, and that he had been sent to Lyons by
his master for the purpose of engaging a domestic
servant. The place was a most advantageous one,
the wages being 250 f. a year, besides perquisites ;
the work was easy, and consisted mainly in attend-
ing to three cows. Thrown off her guard by these
unexpected proposals and the apparent simplicity
of the stranger, Marie Pichon accepted the tempt-
ing offer. She at once got ready her box of clothes,
and an hour or two afterwards, accompanied by her
guide, took the train to Montluel, where they ar-
rived soon after nightfall. The man, putting the
box upon his shoulder, told Marie to follow him,
saying that he intended to take a short 3Ut to their
destination. Suddenly, after having proceeded for
a long time through lonely and unfrequented ways,
and after having passed across several ploughed
fields, the stranger stopped in the middle of a mea-
dow and laid down the box, saying that he was
too tired to carry it any further, but that he would
go for it the next morning and take it to the cha-
teau. They then resumed their journey, but this
incident caused Marie to feel somewhat uneasy.
Soon afterwards they came to a hill and began to
ascend it. Marie Pichon observed that her com-
panion seemed anxious that she should go first. She
had before remarked that he had armed himself
with a heavy stick, and now she noticed that he
stooped down several times to pick up stones. When
they had proceeded a few paces further on she saw
him thrust his hand under his blouse, as though he
were about to draw forth a weapon. Terrified be-
yond measure, she stopped and said, "I see you
have deceived me. I will go no further." "We
have arrived at our destination," replied the
stranger, at the same time stretching out his arms
in the direction of his victim, who saw that a cord
with a slip knot was above her head. She instinc-
tively dropped a bandbox and an umbrella which
she was carrying, and, raising both her hands above
her head, arrested the fall of the diabolical instru-
ment of murder. As it was, however, her bonnet
was dragged off her head. Mario Pichon then took
to flight. She fell several times and bruised herself
severely, but on hearing the footsteps of her pur-
suer she summoned up all her energies and resumed
her headlong flight through the darkness. At last,
to her relief, she beheld a light in a cottage win-
dow, and in a minute more she was safe under the
roof of M. Joly, in the village of Dalian, which soon
became the scene of the most intense excitement.
The search made for the box and the other articles
was altogether fruitless. The disappearance of
these so soon after the commission:of the crime seemed

to indicate that the culprit was.not far distant, and
this supposition was strengthened by the evident
fact that he was perfectly acquainted with the
neighbourhood. Above all, the attack upon Marie
Pichon called to the minds of all a great number of
cases of the same kind which had been made on
previous occasions in the same locality. The cir-
cumstance of all the victims being domestic ser-
vants, the similitude of the manoeuvres by which
they were lured on, and the singular fact that the
assailant had been always described in the same
manner—all these tended irresistibly to the conclu-
sion that the attack from which ,Marie Pichon had
providentially escaped was the most recent of a series
of crimes which their authors had systematically
pursued. The attention of the officers of justice
was soon directed to the occupiers of a house situate
at Mollard, a hamlet in the commune of Dagnoux,
and in the vicinity of the place to which the
woman Pichon had been led on the night of the 25th
May. The neighbours looked with suspicion and
distrust upon this house in consequence of the my-
stery and silence maintained by its inmates. The
bad character of the man whoregided there, coupled
with the grave and dissimulated behaviour of his
wife, the strange nocturnal excursions of the hus-
band, and, lastly, the striking resemblance he bore
to the descriPtion of the malefactor who was
" wanted," induced the juge de paix to. proceed to
the house of this man—Martin. Dumollard, who
had already been twice convicted of robbery—and
to demand of him an account of how be had em-
ployed his time on the day and night of the 25th of
May. The embarrassed manner of Duraollard and
his wife, their evasive and contradictory replies,
and .the presence in their abode of a quantity of
various articles, seemed to confirm the suspicions
which were entertained. Dumollard was arrested
and forthwith conveyed to Trevoux, where he was
confronted, on the evening of the same day, with
Marie Pichon, who immediately recognised him as
the man who had made the attempt upon her life.
The evidence of identity was corroborated by the
testimony of several persons who had seen him in
Lyons in the company of his intended victim on
the day in question. The obstinate denial opposed
to this conclusive evidence by Dumollard is the less
to be wondered at when it is considered that his
mind was occupied as much with this isolated crime
as with the frightful acts which he had previously
committed. The woman, who had compromised
herself by her false and contradictory statements,
and also by the anxiety she evinced to conceal cer•
tain suspicious articles, was likewise taken into
custody. Several searches were made in the
house, Lied resulted in the discovery of a large quan-
tity of clothes, linen, trunks, boxes, fragments of
lace, and other articles, all likely to have belonged
to domestic servants. Among these spoils, of
which many bore traces of blood, particular atten-
tion was directed to some garters of different form
and colour, which appeared to have belonged to
different persons. The police also found some pieces
of stuff which had been taken from the box of Marie
Fichon, and also articles of clothing belonging to
women who had been assassinated. The crimes
which were subsequently brought to light extended
over the period between February, 1855, and May,
1861. The sate d'accusation recounts a large num-
ber of these murders and attempted murders, among
the most remarkable of which is that of Marie
Baday, a young servant of Lyons, and the attempt
upon the life of Olympe Alabert, another servant
The latter girl, being deceived by the promise of
250 f. wages, unhesitatingly departed with her pre-
tended guide and after a long jcurney they arrived
at nightfall in the environs of Tramoyes. They were
approaching the forest of Montaveral, where some
days previously the bleeding body of Marie Baday
had been discovered, when, affrighted by the soli-
tude of the place, Olympe Alabert declared that
she would proceed no further, and suddenly quitting
her companion she fled into a neighbouring farm-
house. The acts d'accusation then enters into par-
ticulars of two successive attempts made in the
months of October and November,lBss, the objects
being two servant girls, Josephine Charlety and
Jeanne Marie Bourgeois. Both of them escaped by
flight frcm the consequences of their imprudent
confidence, and both lost their luggage and money.
The acte d'accusation goes on to say that from No-
vember, 1856, to the close of the year 1858, no crime
committed by the accused has been publicly charged
against him, In December, 1858, however, he re-
sumed his diabolical avocation, for, engaging a young
servantmaid at Lyons, he conducted her to the wood
of Montbain, and there, in the middle of the night,
he first violated her and then, having wounded her,
buried her while she was still alive. After tracing a
number of robberies committed by the same means