The Sun.
London, England, 1847-08-28 00:00:00

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We read In the AforiMur -isikiosf...'-'4.' ' ---:-;-:'W
Pet„,_21.,,,,.....-C.•••-
" A journal, in giving its ac tkifiicifkl&.7o f
2 Duchess de Praslin, states t *ig- G-enerar -setas-
tiani, on arriving at the hotel and seeing the corpse
of his niece, fainted; and that when recovering his
senses he perceived that suspicions were entertained
of the Duke de Praslin, he exclaimed, ' Oh! it is
impossible ! M. de Praslin is not guilty. I will an-
swer for him.' We have learnt from a person who was
present that these details are altogether incorrect. The
impression produced upon the mind of Gen. Sebastiani
on his arriving at the place where the crime was com-
mitted was profound and extremely painful, but was
manifested by a great excitement. He it was who
sent to inform the Prefect of Police and the Procu-
reur-General, and gave every necessary order. Jr. a
few minutes afterwards, when the two magistrates
were arrived, it was from him they received the first
particulars. It was not till several hours after he
left the hotel that the General was made acquainted
with the suspicions that weighed upon the Duke d
Praslin.
The person who was sent to Marshal Sebastian
iinmediately after th . assassination of the Duchess de
Praslin returned to Paris yesterday, with accounts o f
the Marshal, whom he found at Veray, in Switzer-
land, before he had heard of the fatal event. It was
announced to him as carefully as possible, but the
grief of the Marshal may he conceived. His family,
however, are tranquillised as to his health. The
physician,is
mis-
sion, e
ar
Thens
and who
w‘
Ni,
Marshal was ignorant up to the moment of the mes-
senger's
leaving
wholemlvl
e'
atitsrrnutetv:hh.
eahrol
oplea.infGulenmerisa-1
willlewa charged with
,tairhtlehevaeattauhl teDihsdo rt 0 o
him
itmh e
by his
mur-
der.his
Sebastiani left this morning to meet his brother, who
will arrive in Paris this day."
The Chancellor of France, as president of the
Court of Peers, has summoned the Members to meet
fri the Chamber of Council on Saturday next, at
one o'clock.

au Wednesday morning several of the Committee
of the Chamber of Peers went to the hotel Sebas-
tiani to examine the theatre of the crime of the 18th.
A plan of the apartments has been ordered for dis-.
tribution among the Peers. The seals which had
been placed on the drawers containing papers in the
rooms of the Duke and Duchess de Praslin wer e
yesterday removed, and the papers were placed in
the hands of the Judge d'lnstruction. Two witnesses
were examined in the course of the day—M. Elouin '
chief of the municipal police, and M. Allard, chief of
the secret police. Several perquisitions were made.
We read in the Gazette des Tribunaux :
" We said yesterday that an investigation had beer.
made at Paris by M. Broussais, Judge d'lnstruction,
in order to discover the little box in which Mdlle. de
Luzy Desportes enclosed her correspondence. This
box was deposited some days ago by Mdlle. de Luzy
Desportes in the hands of one of her friends, who in
her turn gave it to a doctor. When the officers visited
the residence of the latter he was absent ; his house-
keeper, hastened to remit the box to the examining
magistrate. But the letters of the Duke de Praslin
had been removed from it; and it was only, it is said,
after considerable hesitation that the woman went
to seek for them between the pages of a volume in
the library. We are assured that in one of
these letters the Duke de Praslin held out to the
person to whom it was addressed early hopes of
happiness, but neither that letter nor the others con-
tain anything that has reference to the crime of the
18th August. The mistress of the boarding-school
in the Rue du Harley, who has been examined as a
witness, was principally called on to depose with
respect to the visit made on Tuesday, the 18th, to
Mdlle. de Luzy Desportes by the Duke de Praslin.
Mdlle. de Luzy had declared that she did not remain
alone a moment with the Duke, who was accom-
panied by his two daughters; but this declaration
has been contradicted by several depositions. All
the domestics of the Duke have been examined in
the course of the investigation, the principal hearing
of which was as to the conduct of the Duke at the
moment at which the crime was discovere I. On the
first intelligence of the horrible assassination, which
his agitated domestics communicated to him, the
Duke burst into a violent fit of anger, and cried, I
always told you that a misfortune would occur ! You
always leave the doors open !' This state of irritation
continued during a part of the morning, and be
again became exceedingly angry when he was told
that a member of his family had started to convey
the fatal news to Marshal Sebastiani. Ido not
understand,' he cried, 'his taking the liberty of such
a step without my order—l am the only master
here!' But from the moment at which he felt that
all the- suspicions were directed against him, and that
he was questioned as if guilty, he all at once
changed his tone and manner. He no longer an-
swered without hesitation, and avoided all catego-
rical explanations, sometimes even not replying at
all. Such were also the characteristics of the inter-
rogatory to which he was subjected before the com-
mittee of examination. To the questions too precise,
to the demand for a yes or no, he replied—' I know
nothing cf it—l am too ill to reply to such
question !' "
The Droit has the following:—
" It will be remembered that, on the first report o
the crime committed in the hotel Sebastiani on the
18th, the magistrates were immediately called in.
It was about six in the morning that the investigation
took place and the interrogations commenced.
Throughout the day the hotel was surrounded, and
every care taken that no person should be allowed to
leave it ; but the persons who lived in it were not
subjected to any personal, direct, and continuous sur-
veillance, nor were they gardees a rue, in the true
meaning of the words. The first suspicion fell upon
the valet de chambre, who, on his side, suggested that
his master should he closely watched. The first stage
of the affair must not be lost sight of, because it is
the key of all that follows. It was in the morning,
immediately after having been subjected to the ques-
tions of the Procureur-General, the sense and bearing
of which it NI as not difficult for the Duke to com-
prehend, that the serious derangement, which is ex-
plained by the extreme emotions of every kind he had
undergone, and the species of stupor into which his
examination had thrown him, took place. At this
time neither the magistrates nor any other person in
the hotel had any suspicion of poison. Dr. Louis,
the family physician, who was the first called in to
ascertain the condition of the Duke and Duchess,
believed that he recognised in the state of the Duke
symptoms of cholera, the causes of which were natu-
rally attributed to the terrible agitation of the pre-
ceding night. During the first day M. de Praslin re-
mainel in a state of debility, accompanied by all the
symptoms of cholera, without anything to indicate
poisoning, of which, in fact, no idea occurred to any
one.
The officers of justice, engaged deeply and ex-
clusively in investigating the circumstances of the
crime, the secret of which was not completely un-
veiled, paid but a secondary attention to the state of
iarnr
w e
asiss arm-chairtsiubclesuch,
dtiha
ra to
rtb thece be
the Duke, of whose projects they had no surmise.
On Thursday his condition became aggravated, and
the use of a bath was thought necessary, and, from
wasuvn
a the p
froml placed
wayed
which
ai
nn ktno etishts h
,e,
buteffle
o
came
his
carried weakness,
e on,a
chair was of necessity taken into the
garden, where
it remained till the 24th. On that day, in conse-
quence of the accumulating suspicions against him,
the Duke was put under the most rigid surveillance.
The symptoms taken for cholera, and which would beiso
taken again, continued, and were combated by the
treatment employed in such cases, namely, byadmi-
ni stering iced wine and other iced drinks. Things
remained in this state till Saturday morning at
o'clock, when the Duke was conductedo to the t
Lux-
embourgerre with the assent of Drs. it
u
ge de St. Pierre
was in
and Andral. On the way he drank twice.that voniitings were mentioned At least it is
error
certain that
from the time of his removal till his death,
no disorder
of this kind occurred in the system of M.
de
Praslin. He api eared to be getting a little better
until his interrogatory by the Chancellor, the only
one, in fact, he underwent. At that moment only,
from new external signs, the physicians began to be-
lieve that it was not an attack of cholera, but that
the Duke had poisoned himself. Such symptoms
could not escape the observation of Dr. Rouget, who
communicated his suspicions to the Chancellor
and the
Grand Referendary. M. Chevalier, the chemist,
sent for, and the evacuations of the
were
analysed, and found to contain
a con-iderable quan-
tity of arsenic ; enough indeed, according to the
report of M. Chevalier to • poison several persons.
The fact of poiso • ning being thus established, it re-
mained only to seek for the means •
by which it was
effected, and the three phials already mentioned were
found, and no doubt remained that the Duke had
taken a large quantity of the arsenic. Upon this
discovery the treatment was changed, and emollients
administered. On being questioned by the Chan-
cellor as to the time when he took the poison, the
Duke confessed that it was on Wednesday morning,
while being oppressed by the questions of the Chan-
cellor, and feeling all the horror Pt his position. He
stated that he brought the arsenic with him from the
Château de Praslin, where be generally kept a large
quantity for domestic purposes, and works of art in
which he took pleasure to employ himself. Such is
the recital, which we believe to be perfectly correct,
of a death which has given rise to so many
various conjectures. There is nothing precise or
uniform in the effects produced by swallowing
arsenic, which are known to vary in different per-
sons. Sometimes this poison kills immediately, some-
times it will not begin to act for four or five days.
In this particular case the poison began to act im-
mediately, although death did not ensue till a week
afterwards. It has been erroneously stated that the
person of the Duke was sensibly reduced, and that
there was a retraction of the tissues. His person
bore all the characters of strength, with a sound and
vigorous constitution, which fully explains the slow
action of the poison. The body of the Duke is
placed on a bed with all the trappings of mourning.
Near it is a crucifix with two lighted tapers, and
priest in constant prayer."