The Sun.
London, England, 1840-09-08 00:00:00

TRIAL OF MADAME LAFFARGE

This much-expected trial, which has been prefaced
in the papers by the publication of former interroga-
tories, reproducing merely the facts of the acte d'accu-
tation, really commenced on the 3d at Tulle. The
accused, to avoid her transport from the prison to the
court-house each day, was removed to an apartment
near the court. The crowd was immense. The rela-
tions of the accused were present, being M. Garat, and
the aunt and sister of Madame Laffarge. The placing
o❑ the tables the bowls and phials containing the diffe-
rent liquids analysed produced a painful sensation.
Madame Laffarge was clothed in deep mourning, and
seemed pale and worn, but without emotion. She de-
clare) herself to be twenty-four years of age, born
in Paris.

M. Decoux, the Advocate-General began by plead

ing his inability to state a case so full of tragic emotion
and fearful crimes. He then drew a picture of Laf-
farge and his family. He had been well educated, was
an owner of iron works, and devoted his whole atten-
tion to them. In 1839 Laffarge lost his first wife, and
he sought a second, with whom he might get money, to
enable him to carry on his speculations. His friends
not being able to find him a wife, he applied to M. Foy,
the marriage•broker, who introduced him to Marie Cap-
pelle, who hrd about 1,6001. fortune, with abaut 40/.
a year. They were married ; she was brought to the
country, and no sooner arrived there than she shut her-
self up in her room, and wrote to her husband as fol-
lows :

" Charles—l crave pardon of you on my knees. I
have deceived you. I do not love you. I love
another. I esteem you. But let me die. I love
another, also called Charles, handsome, noble. We
have long loved. Last year another woman deprived
me of his heart. I thought I should have died. For
despite, I resolved to marry, and, igaorant of the mys-
teries of marriage, accepted your hand. I thought a
kiss on my forehead would have contented you, and that
you would have been to me as a father. Comprehend,
then, what I have buffered these three days. I
respect you, but habits and character have put an
abyss between us. Instead of the sweet words of
love, trivial kindness, bursts of affection, nothing
but those sensual feelings which actuate you, disgust
me ! Him that I love I saw at Orleans since our mar-
riage. He has repented. He hid himself at Uzerche.
I shall be an adultress despite of me. Let me depart.
Get nue horses, disguise, I will hasten off to Smyrna.
I will live by my hands, or by giving lessons, Oh ! throw
my cloak on one of yon precipices, and give me arsenic,
I cannot give you my affection, but you may take my
life. Your caresses ere odious to me. I have swal-
lowed poison, but too little ; tried to shoot myself, but
was afraid. Savo me from myself," &c.
Laffarge returned no answer to the letter from his
newly-married wife. He consulted one of his friends,
and it was agreed not to let her go, but to try to re-
claim her with kindness, and win her affection. Madame

Laffarge, retained by her husband, effected to be
tnuched by his efforts, and consented to grant him her
affectionate caress as a wife. But with this, said the
Advocate-General, sho evidently meditated getting
rid of him Ly a crime. She became ill, or feigned ill-
ness, and wrote a will in favour of her husband. He
could do no less than-imitate her example. Soon altar
Laffarge discovered what he thought a useful secret,

. _
and went to Paris to get 4 patent for it, It
was in December when he went, Madame Laffarge
announced her desire of sending him her portrait. More-
he prepared to send him c ikes. She asked his
mother to make some ; but the one she sent him was
of another kind, and Laffarge, as soon as be ate of it,
was taken with violent vomitings. Meantime Ma-
dame Laffarge made inquiries about mourning. Laf-
farge returned ill to Cilandier on the stli of January.
Soon after his return his wife gave him a trufflA
fowl to eat. From this he became worse, and died
in nine days after, on the 14th, in great agonies.
It could be proved that Madame Laffarge was in
posses§ion of large quantities of arsenic, got under pre-
tence of J roofs would be brought that
she had put a white powder into au Laffarge drinks.
Mdlle. Brun saw her put it into different drinks—into
whey, for example. It was examine 1, and supposed to
be Mdlle. Brun questioned Madame Laffarge
as to the wfiite pOvvdcr.' Fl) a`•ra pq at this, tihe
filled the vase where the white particles appeared' with
water, and swallowed it. She had violent cholics in the

night, • They sent the drink to an apothecary at Uzerche
to be qamined. Ills reply was, that Laffarge should
take care from whom ha "reeeived qvinli or nourish,
ment. The physician Lespines suspected that poison
had been administered. He gave peroxide of iron to
onliAt lif hut it was too late. Laffarge had expired.
The counsel rlf !,,ladame Laifrage then objected to
Madame Leotand's beiiig aamitics fs w4llO/, ire
having shown her rancour to Madame Laffarge in the
affair of the robbery of the diaraoads, but the Court
overruled the objection.
Madame Latfakge the; e7arnined by the Judge
She was married, she said; not I& the intermediary oi
M. Foy, matrimonial agent, but through that of M. and
Madame Garat. She denied that she had attempted to
poison or fiboot herself, as was said in her letter written
to her huahan.;. :rho vas ul4erabie .48;fiii 11:Irqii6tr 41
the old gloomy country-house of her hniband, and mad-
dened by having seen her former lover at Orleans. At
Uzerche, at a fete, there was a quarrel 15.1tv4,31.; her and
lid `;4.1 sand, whom she excluded from her room.
Laffargo said no fallow her to the deserts of
Egypt if she quitted him. Lattarga 4iiil;!:lPc4 her by
his threats.
The Judge then questioned her about the wills, and
about the cause of Laffarge's going to Paris.
When questioned as to why she sent the cakes to tier
hohand, she replied it was to respond to his love, and
to make him 114PpY?
Judge—Did you not ask Madame Laffarge, your
mother-in-law, to make the cakes, and write a letter
about tliern ?..c •I asked her to make the cakes ; but I
asked her for no letter.