The Sun.
London, England, 1857-07-10 00:00:00

A FRENCH- BURGLARY

The Court of Assizes of the Haute-Garonne has just
been occupied two days in trying eight men for burglary
and six women for complicity in the same. It appeared
that a very old gentleman, named Mon tauriol, resides
in a large house called Chateau dei Bastards, in the
commune of Mongiscard, and has all his life been accus-
tomed to keep a large part of his fortune, which is in
epecie and bank notes, in his house. The male priso-
ners, all worthless characters, of the adjacent village of
Montesquieu, formed the project of breaking into the
house and stealing the money. Accordingly, in
the night of the 25th of September last, they went to
the chateau, carrying with them several sacks which
they proposed to fill with the money, and also
taking a horse to carry their booty away. To effect an
entrance they began cutting a hole in the outer
wall, but the dogs barked so furiously that they deemed
it prudent to take to flight. Two or three nights after
they renewed the attempt, but for the seine reason it
failed. At length, in the night of the Ist Dec. they
went to the house, and while some kept watch around it
the others made a hole in the wall which enabled them
to undo the fastenings of a door. They then entered and
ascended to the room in which old M. Montauriol was
sleeping. His female servant, who was the only person
in the house besides himself, hearing a noise, came from
her room, but the men pushed her back into it, and fas-
tened the door. The old man having been roused uttered
loud cries, and one of the burglars, dragging him from
the bed, told him they were 20 in number, and would
murder him if he stirred ; but he continued to cry out,
and they beat him violently about the head until
he was silent. They then went into the room
in which the money was kept, and breaking open a cup-
board proceeded to fill their sacks with money. Mean-
while, the female servant, opening her window, gave
the alarm. Some farm labourers, in the service of
Mauntauriel, hearing the cries hurried to the chateau ;
and on their approach the burglars took to flight, carry-
ing with them the money which they had collected.
They afterwards divided the booty in different propor-
tions aocording to the share each had had in the bur-
glary. As to the women, who were wives of six of the
men, they also received portions of the stolen money.
On some of the burglars being arrested, one of them made
full revelations respecting the whole affair. The precise
amount which was stolen was not known by M, Mon-
tauriol, but the prisoners themselves confessed that
it was 35,835 f. The jury acquitted the six women and
one of the men, who was very old, and convicted the
other seven prisoners. The court condemned them to
periods of hard labour, varying from six to 20 years. In
the course of the trial it was stated that the sum M.
Montauriol was accustomed to keep in his house was not
less than 1,000,000 f. of which about 100,000 f. were in
gold, 100,000 f. in bank notes, and the rest in silver.
It was also stated that his total fortune is about
2,000,000 f., and that he made it by speculations in houses,
lands, and corn ; but that, notwithstanding his wealth.
he lived in the most miserly manner, and was stated for
many years not to have eaten meat cr game. The
old man, who was called as a witness, is per-
fectly blind, but he proved to the court that he could by
the mere touch tell one banknote from another. --
Galignani'a Messenger.