The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-20 00:00:00

MURDER IN FRANCE.

A trial for murder, attended with circumstances of
,-,;:nzir,3, has just taken pldee. before 11,e
Court of Assizes at Brest. The facts, as proved in
evidence, are as follow : A man named Castel, an
armourer, resided at Brest with his wife, who appears
to have behaved virtuously and properly up to the year
1826, at which time her husband embarked as master
on board a ship of war. On his return after the battle
of Navarieo, at which he was present, he found that
his wife had been leading a dissolute life, and she was
no longer worthy of his affection ; but he forgave her,
and hoped to find in her repentance some return of the
happiness which he had formerly enjoyed. The wife,
however, far from replying to the kindness
of her husband by good conduct, formed a con-
nexion with a married man, named Bescond,
who resided in a village adjoining Brest, and
by a long series of cruel treatment, in which she was
aided by Bescond, drove her husband mad, and he was
sent to a lunatic asylum. On his return home, cured of
his malady, the brutality of the wife and her paramour,
who, as an excuse for his frequent visits, had placed his
daughter as a boarder lin the house of Castel, was in-
creased, and it was at length resolved, in the winter of
18:39, to deprive the unfortunate husband of his life.
For this purpose the wife pretended [hat some money
had been left to her husband at Havre, and a passport
was obtained for them to go to that place. They quitted
home in the evening in company with Bescond and his
daughter, a girl of 21 years of age, and of Augustine
Castel, the daughter of the married couple, aged 16.
It was arranged with Castel that he and his wile
should take leave of these three persons at the house
of Bescond, whose wife was absent. When Castel had
arrived there some warm wine was given to him, into
which Bescond, with the knowledge of the wife and
Augustine Castel, had put a large dose of laudanum,
and when the poison had produced its effect, Castel,
probably still living, was carried at night into a field
belonging to Bescond, where the murderers, aided by
the daughter of Bescond, who does not, however, ap-
pear to have been present at the murder, dug a grave
into which they threw the body, and Bescond having
cast over it two sacks of quick lime, in the hope of re-
moving all trace of the deed, the grave was filled up.
After the murder, Bescond and the guilty widow led a
life of great dissipation, frequented the theatres and
masked balls, and appeared insensible to remorse. To
persons who inquired for Castel, they replied that he had
embarked at Havre for the colonies. The murder
came to light in the following way :—The wife of Bes-
cond, having remonstrated with her husband and his
mistress on their adulterous intercourse, it was resolved
by them to murder her also. The plan laid by these
wretches was overheard by the daughter of Bescond,
who ran to her mother and told her to be on her guard,
or she would be served as Castel had been, and then
she related all the circumstances of the murder in the
presence of a female friend of her mother. This fe-
male recommended that the crime should be de•
nounced to the Procureur du Roi ; but to this
neither the mother nor the daughter would consent, as
they wished to spare the life of the husband and fa-
ther. The female in question, however, took an oppor-
tunity to send an anonymous letter to the Procureur
du Roi, which led to the arrest of all the parties, in-
cluding the girl Bescond, and to the discovery of the
body, which was found entire, although in an advanced
stage of decomposition, having been buried more than
six inout'as. In the grave was found a copy of the
Criminal Code, which had belonged to Bescond, and the
leaves of which were turned down at the part relating
to the proceedings in cases of murder. Sixty wit-
nesses were examined, and not the slightest doubt ex-
isted on the minds of the Jury as to the guilt of all the
parties, except the daughter of Bescond, who was ac-
quitted. Bescond and the widow Castel were sen-
tenced to death, and the daughter, Augustine Castel,
was condemned to imprisonment in a house of correc-
tion for ten years, at the expiration of which she is to
be placed for ten years under the surveillance of the
police.