The Sun.
London, England, 1847-08-27 00:00:00

DEATH OF THE DUKE DE

PRASLIN.
M: de Praslin died on Tuesday afternoon, about
five o'clock, in the prison of the Luxembourg. The
cause of his death has been ascertained. It was with
arsenic in a large dose that he poisoned himself, at
the moment when he found the charges against him
had become sufficiently grave to render his arrest and
prosecution necessary. The severe vomitings which
he experienced on Wednesday evening, and in the
course of Thursday, appear alone to have retarded
the effects of the poison, which, after being checked
on Friday and Saturday, on Sunday resumed its
former force. It is stated that since his arrival at
the prison all attempts to obtain from him in his weak
state any confession or explanation of the murder was
fruitless. The Patrie states that he sometimes replied
to the questions which were put to him in a vague and
evasive way, and at other times said, " I know no-
thing." It is added that he has not had an hour's
sleep since the order was first given for bis being
considered in custody garde a vue.
The Gazette des Tribunaux, after announcing the
death of the Duke, says :
" We said yesterday that the precise moment at
which the Duke put into execution his project of
suicide was not known; but front the 19th August,
as we reported, a grave change in the state of his
health created alarm sufficiently serious to cause M.
Louis, his medical attendant, to be sent for, and, as
the symptoms continued the same, and with greater
violence, up to the moment of his death, it must be
concluded that the poisoning took place on the 19th,
and perhaps even on the first day of the preliminary
examination—that is to say, at the moment at which
the Duke felt, from the questioning of the magistrates,
all the gravity of his situation. The physician who
attended the Duke attributed his state only to the
moral emotions by which he was agitated. But soon
after the result of the investigation in the house gave
a new direction to the appreciations of the physicians.
The Duke, who had been made to quit his bedroom,
was conveyed to a room on a higher story, and in a
drawer of his table the broken handle of a poniard
and a piece of the blade of a poniard, on which were
some spots of blood, were discovered. Three little
phials were also seized. In the course of this investi-
gation one of the agents placed under the direction of
the Chief of the Secret Police, and who had aided the
domestics to convey the Duke, who was too weak to
walk to the other room, deposited in the hands of the
Juge d'lnstruction a little bottle containing a white
substance, and a cambric pocket handkerchief stained
with blood. They had been found in one of the
pockets of the dressing-gown. It appears that at that
moment the sufferings of M. de Praslin were such
that it was impossible for the magistrates to question
him on this new discovery. The contents of the
three phials found in the table, as well as that seized
in the pocket of the dressing-gown, were analysed by
M. Chevalier, professor at the Ecole de Pharmacie.
The result of this examination was that two of the
three phials discovered in the table were found to con-
tain laudanum, the third nitric acid, and that which
was delivered by the magistrate to the agent oon-
tained a very small quantity of white arsenic mixed
It
with laudanum, which had left it a yellow tint I
was evidently the contents of this phial thatthe Duke
had swallowed, for the examination
of the different
i
morbid symptoms, and the aealy
sabsorption of that
dvomit-
ings,ouble showed that there bad been an ton of the
oment of that discovery,
double poison.
all the exertions of
d to combat the effects of the
Louis were employed From
Doctorsthem Andral, Rouget, and
swallowed, had not iytheprogdrueactedqumanotritatyl
state of the Duke seemed
poison, which, by reason
consequences. nlm
immediately
under the influence of the
employed, and it was possible
transfer him on the 21st to the prison of the Lux-
to
on his arrival, he was made to change
energeticat first ttereaitmaTiPeneetve
Lux-
embourg, where,
his clothes. Although, during the passage, the vo.
ml *tings took place several times, there was reason to
believe that his state was far from being desperate,
and it was possible for the committee of examination
to static:A him to an interrogatory. The improve-
ment in the state of the Duke appeared likely to con-
tinue on Monday ; but in the afternoon the symptoms
of the poisoning re-appeared with fresh'intensity, and
all the resources of science remained powerless. In
the night the danger made new progress, horrible
sufferings tortured the Duke, and all the characte-
ristics of death presented themselves. Yesterday
morning the Cure of St. Jacques de Haut Pas was
called to the Duke, and conversed with him. Soon
after the sufferings returned with greater violence,
and the last agony commenced. It is said that an
examination of the corpse will take place to-morrow
in the presence of a magistrate specially delegated.
The committee of examination yesterday continued
its operations, and this day new witnesses will
by
heard. On Monday an examination was madethe
hotel
by_
M. Broussais, the Juge d'lnstruction,
LY
several at
nz (Laure
Desportes), and at the houses Praslin, at the residence of Mdlle.
de
per-
sons who might have received her papers. An exa-
mination.
virtue
of
was also effected by
M. Legomdeeon