The Sun.
London, England, 1824-07-26 00:00:00

-AiTROCIOUS MURDER,
canmiTTED IN FRANCE BY A PRIEST ON A
•1_,,,v ?Ns., •

( From Me Constitutional of Me 1214 July. )
A brochure has been published here, giving a detailed ac-
count of the rape and assassination committed by Mingrat, ex-
curate of St. Quentin (department of the here), who was con-
demned to death (as contuntax), by the Court of Assize of
Grenoble, the 9th of December, 182'2. The following are the
principal facts : —lllingrat, a man of low extraction, was, at the
age of 28, named to the curacy of St. Quentin. He had not
been long in the situation when mune strange stories began to
circulate respecting hint. Some scandalous and criminal ad-
ventures were laid to his account, and neither his tone nor his
manners were calculated to discredit these rumours. He was a
with a sombre, false, and disdainful ex-
prece. He was possessed of immense strength,
ma
sns
ioofn o f lofty
co us tnatteunrae
n,
and has been seen to carry on his shoulders, from one part of
the church to another, a heavy wooden confessional, which ge.
ntiewralstlryenregstiisitoedi.
afourtcleieohf
atdwoalosrodtihnae Immona and arrogance.
ordinary men to move. With
However, as an element of success in his profession, he affected
a great rigorism in his sentiments and conduct, interdicting and
discountenancing, as much 'as in him lay, the amusements and
recreations of his parishioners. At a quarter of a league from
Saint Quentin, in the Hamlet of Get, lived Etienne Charne-
-1 let, a disbanded soldier, whose wife, Marie Gerin, was remark.
able for her beauty. The curate Mingrat, who had. been in-
flamed by the charms of the soldier's pretty wife, called one
day at the cottage, anti told Marie Gerin when she came to St.
Quentin, to call upon him, as he should have to charge her with
a letter for the curate Orher village. Even at this early period he
commenced his criminal designs, by engaging Marie to listen to
some pretended pious discoursea, which Ife read to her in the
most impassioned manner, but which he only. used as a pretext
to make a most warm and amorous declaration of his paasiOn
for • her. Marie, though astonished by his vivacity and agita-
tion, did not understand his object, but attributed the state of
excitation he was in to the fervour of his piety. This circum.
stance was proved on the trial by
a young man who had been
listening outside the window to the mystical declarations of
Mingrat. A few days after this, Marie went to St. Quentin,
and entered the church about six o'clock in the evening. On
seeing :Alingrat, she saluted him respectfully, and said she
came to confess to him. He, on some pretext or other, got her
into the Presbytery where he lived, adjoining the church.
There, it appears, he consummated the double crime of viola-
tion and assassination, in doing which be must have gagged
the mouth of his victim, as low, inarticulate, and stifled moans
were heard by his servant maid. The marks of strangulation
were found upon the neck of the unfortunate woman.—The
servant, attracted by the stifled moans
she heard, came
to Mingrat's 'room door anti found it fastened on the in.
side,. and thinking that he might have fallen into a tit, she
knocked anti called to him 'to open it, but received for
instantly to the kitchen.—
Hold your tongue; you
meet him, saying, th, Sir, you have frightened me dread-
3g,oretuhtuwcomerme edyohtligt
Tof O
s which he replied,
aitnte.rafugrieme hBernroauntneori t'l4te way, he told her to
"-thtotti, elle ran to
wildered
idiot
faNulrlhye.entr.. liasitehoillotagrddh etartth alteit)n
take the newspaper to one of his neighbours. But the servant,
whose curiosity was awakened, only pretended to obey, and
fortunatelT: for the disecreery of the crime, remained in the
ialrleaabne
house... llaVing spoken to some of the neighbours of what she
had heard, a vague rumour got abroad, and in a short time
the husband of Marie came to the Presby
- tell' to inquire after
his wife, On his knocking, Mingrat himself opened the door,
and stood so in the passage to prevent the husband from en.
tering. He. first dente.d having seen Marie, hUt afterwards on
the husband insisting, he pretended to recollect that he
had seen her in the church, but had refused to listen to her
confesaion, on account of the neglience and disorder of her
dress. He then led the husband down the church-yard
away from the house, and after a moment's conversatam,
abruptly quitted him anti returned, to the Presbytery. He
ordered the servant, svho did not =sleep in the house, to go
sway, without giving her time to clear away the supper.—
Then, not topposingr that he was watched, he set about
disposing of the body of 'his victim. De tied the hands
and feet, anti attaching a rope to the neck, he lowered the
body out of the window into a back-Yard t he then went
round to this yard, and taking bold of the rope he dragged
the body after him to a rising ground, called La Roche.—
The head, an it bounded over the stone*' for the i.-round was
uneven and rocky, left behind pot tionS of hair and fieshiihidt
were collected the next day, and brought forward as )3r00114 of
the horrid 1100. He had, previously To lowering the betty,
' stripped it. anti left the clothes behind,_ with the exception ore
neckerchief. which he tnhought with hint hare purpose we shall
iec by sad by. Ott reaching the spot called La Roche, it appears