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

A.FRENCIT :BURGLARY

The Court of Assizes of the Haute-Gamine 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 Montauriol, resides
in a large house called Chateau des Bistards, in the
commune of Mongiscard, and has all his life been accus-
tomed to. keep a large part of his fortune, which is in
specie and bank notes, in his house.; The male priso-
ners, all worthless characters, of. the adjacent village of
Monte.tquieu, 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 inonsYe and also
taking a horse to carry their booty away. To effect an
entrance they began cutting a hale in the outer
wall, but the dogs barked so furiously that they deemed
it prudent to take to flight. Tso or three nights after
they renewed the attempt, but for the Panne reason it
failed. At length; in the pight of the Ist Dec. they
went to the house, and while some kept watch around it
the others made a hole in the wa4l which enabled them
to undo the fastenings of a door. They then entered and
ascended to the room in which old 111. 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 fee-
Weed the door. The old man having been roused uttered
loud cries, and one of the burglars, dragging him from
the bed, told Mai they were 20 in number, and would
.murder h'en 'if he stirred ; but he contieued to cry out,
and they beat him violently about the head until
he was silent. 'They then west 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 fetuale.rsereeet,, 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 teok to flight, Carry-
ing with them the money which. they had collected.
They afterwards divided the booty in different proper-.
tiona according to the share each had had in the bur-
glary. As to the vvonsen,*who were wives of six of the
men, they also rceved portions of the stolen money.
On some of the burglars being arrested, one of them made
full reveletionS 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 stated that the sum M.
it was 35,835 f. Ttes jury acquitted the six women and
one of the who was veryfro.orAld,siaxntdoc2oonvyiecatres". the
u
other seven prisoner-. The t
The court condemned theo
theperiodscourse ed haorfdtlhaeboturri,al varyingt
Mobtauriol was accnitomed to keep in his house was not
less than 1,000,000. of which about 100,000 F. were in
gold, 100,000 f. in bank notes, and the rest in silver.
bywithstanding his wealth,
1t was also stated that his total fortune is about
speculations in houses,
2lha,eno
ldoiosr
adOniOdef.
ct,
boarenndm;tohsabttunaht eitshrenarati
miserly
enmoi itnu
er,
and was stated for
many years not to have eaten meat er 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.
Gatignmii's llfessengo..