The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-09 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY TRIAL.

Another band of the Spanish brigands, called Tea-
boucayers, chiefly, if not entirely, composed of men who
served in the army of Don Carlos, and took refuge in
France on the final discomfiture of that Prince, were
brought, on the 19th ultimo, before the Court of Assizes
for the Pyre':Ls Orienteles, upon an indictment, of
which we shall give an epitome. The number included
in it is 22, of whom 17 (in custody) were arraigned at
the bar ; the five others, including a woman named Ca-
therine Gatel, or Lacoste, having evaded capture. The
prosecution was conducted by M. Renard, Procureur-
General of the Cour Royale of Montpellier, assisted by
oA
ni .Aragon,defendede b
ruabr
yy thef2o7u
rPlBr
counsel.o4crae
tea
e adTuch
'nee ooi i
en.
dc
cTi
tuhmet prisonersehnet
e statedv evening,
nin were
Vh
teahr
that,
t
tttadhhhti
eleeyai
mg epscsnelpoalca.reveeceeahgs
spread
Tlnanl
igeocdt'lflheroneLoatmkol
yg
rsoGoonupui
rrenaotnidnie.edad
e,t o Barcelona, was stopped
Atoo\
,thrf
tedLi
teri
ordered,
whateveree Tdp
sameoe
rrodsnoel
money,
ipeosian
ieenaytTl:
ohej
fee
diligence
hlneti
egslr
ystae,acnnae
ground,Tl
aahnedr robbers
a3l Pella, e
nrntds
he near
commanded
ope thetnans
ms
aNgn'
lighted
date
eger
ddCs
oeladaet
shtr
completely
intvopd cut,
al,laeultaiegbtl yihlotps treatingtudahnnoedod)
plundered.
rshetl
ahadoyde.f
torches and searched the passengers, taking from
estnce oidNu%w.
women in the most indecent manner. Thisdone,
every one, with the most horrible threats, to cast upon
iabout them, and which might have escaped discovery.
This, however, was but a prelude to future outrages.
Three of the passengers, M. Balbier, M. Roger, of
Figuieras, and M. Massot, Darams, whose passports
indicated them to be of great consideration, were seized
and bound to be carried off for the sake of their ransom.
The mother of M. Massot, who was travelling with
him, cast herself at the ted of the bandits, and
entreated them for mercy to her son. But they repelled
her coarsely, saying that if she did not cease to annoy
them with her cries she should see her son stabbed to
death before her eyes. The sound of a shrill whistle was
then heard, upon which the brigands gathered up their
booty, cut the straps of the pantaloons of their three cap-
. tives, in order that they might be able to move more freely,
and led them away across the nymntains, recom-
mending those left not to report what had oc-
curred to them, or they would repent it. On May
3, M. Massot wrote a letter to his mother, desiring
her to send him 800 quadruples (rather more than
60,000 francs) for his ransom, saying, " I am worn out
by misery. The cold distresses me, and these men tor-
ment me. A fever is killing me, and yet lam obliged
to march day and night, with pain and grief, through
the snow. All I know is that I am traversing moun-
tains. Embrace my brothers in the name of God, and
beg them not to fall into despair from my death, for I
am already resigned to it." Balbier, who was of an
advanced age, could not long resist his great sufferings,
and in a very few days, finding himself sinking and
unable to write, dictated his last will to Roger, which,
when finished, the brigands took into their hands,
judging they might derive some advantage from its
possession. The unhappy man was left alone in his
agonies on the snow, and, with a refinement of bar-
barity, the savages took from his shoulders the cloak
he needed only for a few moments more. Three days
after that the Spanish armed force came up with
the band, and an engagement ensued in which two
of the soldiers were killd, and several of the brigands
cheei y e
da t
at a
leek
tterOnby the ret
dwiol
iugnedneede.,
Mademoiselle days
m as
fstoetr,
G i rona mail, signed with the name of Jacques Toquabus,
telling her that if she did not send the 800 quadruples
to a place indicated, she should receive her son's ears ;
and if that did not reduce her to compliance, they
would send her his eyes; and if those did not succeed,
she would, at last, have his mutilated head, at the same
time increasing their demand. On the 25th of March,
the brigands and their two prisoners, when in a house
called Perrasole de herrasole, near Tazadell, were at-
tacked by some armed police, and a conflict ensued, in
which two of the gendarmes were killed, and M. Roger,
received a ball in the back of the neck, which laid him
dead instantaneously. The band then divided into two
parties—five of them going to a place called Manors,
and eight with M. Massot, their sole remaining captive,
n search of the grotto of Passaguada, where they might
conceal and secure him. After wandering for several
days, lost in fogs, they reached and crossed the Mouga,
a river which divides the two kingdoms, and finding
the cave, were supplied two days with food by two
peasants of the country, who where included in the in-
dictment as accomplices. Hence four of the eight bandits
went to Las Salines to receive the one thousand quad-
ruples demanded of Madame Massot, for the release of
her son, taking up their abode at the inn of one of their
associates, Barot del Battle, but one of the four, named
Pijade, taking some offence, deserted the rest, returned
to his master, and became the principal means of dis-
covering and arresting the whole band of these brutal
murderers. In consequence of the measures taken by
his information, all the brigands named in the indict-
, ment were pursued, found, and arrested. In the end, on
reaching the cave or grotto of Passaguada, was dis-
covered the lifeless body of M. Massot, with the ears
cut off, the throat divided, and eleven poignard wounds
in the region of the heart. In the loft of a farm called
I)el Aloy, was afterwards found, wrapt in paper, a pair
of human ears, with some of the hair of the head still
sticking to them by the clotted blood. These were after-
wards proved to be the ears of the unfortunate Massot,
which the eight brigands, who had excised, them
carelessly left there, little thinking how clear a proof
it would be of their having been the perpetrators of
this act of cruelty. As an evidence of their insensibility
to all feeling of pity, when the cars were exhibited to
them on their being examined before the magistrate they
pretended not to know what they wete, calling them,
with the most audacious levity, dried mushrooms. It
is also stated that after the death of their two captives,

M. Balbier and M. Roger' the bandits sent letters to their
families, stipulating for large sums for their ransom,
which was to be sent- to certain spots indicated, but
which, if they had been paid, would have been in pure
loss, for those sought to be redeemed were no longer in
existence. The above are the material facts disclosed
by the accomplice Pujade, and which were confirmed by
the evidence that was produced. In support of the

prosecution, no fewer than 114 witnesses were sum
moned, all of whom attended the trial except two or
three. They consisted of the other passengers in the
diligence with the three unfortunate victims, the con-
ducteur of the diligence, farmers, and other persons
in Spain and France who had been forced by the
brigands to afford them shelter and concealment,
the Esconados, or armed police of Spain, with
whom they had the encounter, and the gendarmes in
France engaged in their capture. Their united evi-
dence, which ran to the length of eight days, is too
voluminous for us to give even any general epitome of
it, nor would it be of any great interest, inasmuch as it
only exhibited in minute detail the circumstances upon
which the indictment was founded, and which recapitu-
lates all the most prominent, all the essential facts and
circumstances. Pujade, the associate of the gang, ad-
mitted to give evidence, was a Spanish refugee Carlist,
who for two years was in the domestic service of M.
Pons, a man of independent property, living at Passe,
(Pyrones Orientales), but in February, 1845, was se-
duced away by three men, one of whom M. Pons recog-
nised among the prisoners, under the pretence of going
to see their relations in Spain. He went on leave of ab-
sence for a fortnight, but did not return till towards the
end of April, when M. Pons declined taking him back.
Another of the prisoners had also been in service with
another family in France, but loft it under the same
pretext. In the course of the evidence it appeared
that the main object of the band in attacking
the diligence was a knowledge they had obtained
by some means that there was a considerable sum of
money to be conveyed by it. This they searched for,
and not finding it, and beidg unable to learn from the
conductor or from any of the passengers where it was
encealed, they became the more violent and brutal. Ix
fact, as stated by the conductor, this money was, on the
coach being stopped, thrown by him at the bottom of the
coupe, where they never thought of looking for it, and
where it remained safe until after they were gone. The
most interesting, but at the same time, the most painful
part of the proceedings, was the examination of the
bereaved mother, Madame Massot. When called the
first time to appear in court, she was too ill to come
forward, and the President postponed her interrogation
till the following day, contenting himself with reading
her previous depositions, which gave a most interesting
but afflicting statement of the manner in which, in
spite of all her entreaties, prayers, and promises,
her son was torn from her arms by main force,
when all threats of wrong and insulting violence to
herself were insufficient to induce her to relinquish her
grasp upon her child. On the following day she ap-
peared in court, clothed in deep mourning, and so over-
whelmed in grief that she could scarcely be led to the
place from which she was to give her testimony. The
President addressed her in the kindest tones, remind-
ing her that, however cruel the task, it was her duty if
possible to rouse herself and enlighten justice. He then
desired her to look at the prisoners, and say if she re-
cognised ans of them. With terror in her countenance
she turned her eyes towards them, and, pointing to one
of them named Jean Simon, exclaimed in tones of agony
—" Oh ! that is he who tore my son away from me,
and with him tore away my own life. He it was who
rejected all my prayers. Yes ! yes ! Indeed it was he
who forced him from my arms. Murderer ! mur,l-rer 1"
Simon, who on the first entrance of Madame Massot
had hung down his head, and had ever since re-
mained immovable, now resumed all his aujacity, and
addressed the most grossly iniulting apostrophes to heird
s
The President spoke to him -in strong terms,t. s,
waia
ordered the two gens'darmes between whom an
placed to compel him to sit down in utt°
silent. Mademoiselle Massot, having
and, again sur-
degree recovered her self - comm
another,t
the tor torch
named
and
veyed the prisoners, and poindtedii,ohutd
Sagalls, as the man who
had
hi
examined the faces of the pri-oners. She could not re •
cognise any of the others. this asserted
that he saw there was a conspiracy against in, And that
it 50 such
witnesses wore brought against him, they
L would all recognise addin I shall be condemned