The Sun.
London, England, 1835-07-28 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY TRIAL IN PARIS.

We yesterday gave some account of a case which has
excited considerable sensation in Paris, relative to an indi-
vidual named Bancal, a surgeon in the navy, who was ac-
cused of having murdered a woman, with whom he was in-
timately connected. It appeared from the act of accusa-
tion that in his capacity as a medical man he had endea-
voured to procure both his own death and that of the fe-
male, but that the latter only had fallen the sacrifice. Our
readers will learn the result of this trial with some surprise.
The prisoner is a young man, twenty-seven years of age, of
rather attractive appearance ; his height about the middle
size : his head fine and expressive, his dark eyes and hair,
and arched eyebrows, contrasting forcibly with the fullness
of his complexion. His demeanour was perfectly calm
and resigned.
The act of accusation having been read, the prisoner was
closely interrogated, from whence it resulted that he had for
some time been acquainted with the lady, Mad. Priolland,
of whose murder he was now accused ; that he had kept
up an intimate correspondence with her previous to his
leaving France for Senegal ; that during his absence he had
formed one of those connections common in the latter
country ; but that on his return in 1834, he had renewed
his intimacy with Mad. Priolland. It appeared further
that the idea of mutual destruction originated with the
lady, and that he had himself been only consenting to the
act. After entering into lengthened details relative to the
mode in which their deaths were to be effected (by adminis-
tering poison and bleeding), and which, though employing
the same means, was successful only with the female,
The PRESIDENT demanded whether he persisted in
stating that Mad. Priolland was desirous of his putting an
end to her life, and received an affirmative reply.
The following witnesses were then examined :
The first was a M. Casmecasse, a friend of the prisoner,
who seemed to have been the witness of the last acts of
the two intended victims. Mad. Priolland wrote to him

in these words :—" This evening, after you are gone, we
shall enter Charon's bark. The money we leave will meet
the necessary expenses, and procure us a wooden cross a ith
our names, Zelie and Prosper inscribed on it ; nothing
more." He it was who received a bulletin written by the
prisoner, describing the dying moments of Mad. Priolland,
and who first ran to their assistance and opened the door of
the chamber of death. The witness stated that he dined
with them on the evening of the fatal attempt. Mad.
Priolland was very gay ; she sang a romance which had
some reference to the wooden cross for which she wrote.
When questioned which of the two appeared to have the
ascendancy over the other, he replied Mad. Priolland.

Another witness, M. Mascrey, stated that a few days
before he had paid Mad. Priolland the amount of a bill
for 3,000 francs. He was well acquainted with the lady,
whose gentleness of disposition he described as being one
of her greatest charms. He did not conceive that she
was a person of an excited imagination ; that, brought up
by a mother who was very religious, she was not in the
habit of reading romances. The same witness had never
heard of domestic disagreement in her house, nor did he
ever hear of Mad. Priolland entertaining any aversion for
her husband.

Four medical men successively verified the exactness
and sincerity of the declarations of the prisoner, relative to
the various circumstances connected with the long and
frightful homicide, of which Mad. Priolland became the
victim. All were of opinion that she made no resistance,
and felt at a loss to explain how the prisoner could have
survived the two attempts made by him to commit suicide.
The ATTORNEY GENERAL (M. Plougouln) then ad-
dressed the Court. He said that Providence had withheld
the suicidal hand of the prisoner, that he might be brought
to the scaffold, to offer an example to the miserable parti-
sans of new doctrines. Without, however, dwelling on the
acts of those who sustained this fatal theory, he energeti-
cally declared that no consent on the part of the victim
could extenuate the crime. This consent must have been
given in a moment of frenzy, which should have had no
weight or authority with one who preserved his reason.
Moreover, suicide was an excuse which was not admissible ;
in such a case, the act of suicide is merely an endeavour
to escape from human laws. He cited different judgments
of the Court of Cessation, in which it was laid down that
homicide was never admissible save as a means of legiti-
mate self-defence, and that suicide itself
,cannot be urged
as a plea unless the object attempted be completed. M.
Plougouln concluded by calling upon the Jury to condemn
the prisoner in the name of morality and of civil law.
" Our justice," he added, " may extend to indulgence ; but
it will be no longer justice if it extend to impunity."
The prisoner's defence was conducted by M. HARDY,
who said that he saw only madness and fever in the acts
now brought forward for judgment, and threw the blame of
these acts on the state of public morals and literature,
which Government did nothing, he averred, to repress.
Nothing, be urged, could be effected by Courts of Justice in
attempting to re-establish the moral code. Without, how-
ever, developing his ideas further, or admitting the power of
religion to produce that restriction of morality, M. Hardy
sustained that co-operation in suicide was not murder. He
admitted the extent of the evil, but declared there was no
law which could punish it, and affirmed that Baneal could
not be condemned.

M. PLOUGOULN, after some interval, again renewed his
accusation and argument, which was eloquently answered
by M. HARDY, and the jury retired to deliberate. At a late
hour they returned into Court, and the foreman, in the
midst of the most profound silence, stated the finding of the
jury :—" Upon my honour and conscience, before God and
before men, the verdict of the jury upon all the questions of

the case before it, is, No ; the prisoner prisoier is Not Guilty.
The prisoner heard the verdict with perfect calmness,
and appeared only affected when his friends approached to
congratulate him on his escape. Thus ended this remarka-
ble trial

In future the defence of a prisoner, when accused of mur-
der, may be rendered a very simple affair. He has nothing to
do but state the concurrence of the victim to the act, and the
matter is settled perfectly to his satisfaction.

At Copenhagen great precautions are taken to pre-
vent the introduction of the oriental plague :—" In conse-
quence of the purchases said to have been made by English
merchants of the stock of cotton in Egypt, when such cotton
is brought from places not suspected, without, having been
duly purified at an acknowledged quarantine establishment,
our Supreme Board of Health has instructed all boards of
quarantine in Denmark and the duchies not to allow ships
with Levant or Egyptian cotton on board to enter.—Ham-
burgh Paper.

FORCED INSTRUCTION: How TO LEARN FRENCH.
—A friend of ours, on a recent visit to Paris, thought it well
to make a virtue of necessity ; and, in order to practice only
the language of the country, so as to acquire facility in speak-
ing it, resolved to board in a house where no English resided.
Being satisfied on his particular inquiries in this respect, ho
agreed for his "pension" for a month, sent in his luggage, and
occupied his allotted apartment. The first day's dinner-hour
arrived, and he had brushed up his French to meet the nume-
rous party who sat down to it. Besides the head of the esta-
blishment, there were twenty-five at table, and they were—all
Americans !--Literary Gazette.

LORD BYRON.—The admirers of our noble bard
will be not a little surprised to hear that an original Poem
from his Lordship's per of nearly 300 lines will appear in
the forthcoming Number of the New Monthly Mayazine—and,
when we add that the subject of the said Poem is " The Na-
tural History of Love," we think we have said enough toraise
the reader's curiosity to the highest pitch, and we doubt not
it will be most agreeably satisfied.

A twofold accident of a distressing nature happened
within the last ten days at Reading. Mrs. Young, wife of
Mr. Young, surgeon, met her death by jumping from a
four-wheeled chaise, having been alarmed by the restiveness
of the horse. At the funeral, on Tuesday, in St. Mary's
Church-yard, some poor children ran to look into the grave,
when the leg of a little boy, named Goddard, was broken,
by falling in upon the coffin.—Berks Courier.

CHlLL—During the recent earthquake in Chili,
the earth was in some places moved in waves: in proof of
which an English merchant ship, which was 94 miles front
the land, and going seven knots, in a moment seemed to ba
arrested, and her bottom grated as on a hard sand. So per-
fect was the illusion, that the master was in the act of
lowering his boats to save the crew, considering the vessel ir-
revocably wrecked, when it was ascertained that there were no
soundings even at 90 fathoms.

The number of omnibus carriages for the interior of
Paris amounts to 256, namely, 54 omnibuses, 26 Dames
Blanches, 20 Tricycles, 48 Favourites, 22 Orleannaises, 14
Diligentes, 24 Bearnaises, 18 Citadines, 18 Parisiennes, 6
Ecossaises, and 6 Batignolaises. Their gross receipts during
1834 is said to have amounted to 11,000,000frs. (44,0001.)

On Saturday morning, at six o'clock, a number of
male convicts were removed from Newgate to the hulks, at
Chatham, preparatory to their transportation. Among them
were the Rev. James Sevencroft Blomfield (convicted of steal-
ing a gold snuff-box), Octavius Smith, and Charles and Wil-
liam Mann, and several others, formerly moving in a highlY
respectable station in society, who were tried during the sit-
tings of the Central Criminal Court held this month.
THE SWAN OF LOCH OICH.---A solitary wild
swan may be seen on Loch Oich. It has sailed there for 30
or 40 years, in summer and winter " with arched neck be-
tween its white wings mantling." It had a mate, but about
b2aorbyaeraorus
sa
tghoa,nt h master
the
epukeof a
of
Cumberland tradingN'esnsehl (more wantonlyenheb
urned the
old Castle of Invergarry), shot the bird. The Glengarry
swan, however, kept its solitary range. Last winter, three
other swans lighted on the Lake ; they remained a month or
two, and it was thought the recluse would depart with them.
But it had apparently no desire to change its wonted station.
As swans have been known to live upwards of a century, we
hope this faithful bird will escape accident and cruelty, and
live through two or three generations more to grace the shore
of Loch Oich.—lnverness Courier.