The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-31 00:00:00

A FRENCII SWINDLE.R.

A most extraordinary case was three days back presented
to the Tribunal of Correctional Police of Laval. A young
man, of the name of Gisquel, for whom the Bishop of
Poitiers pronounced in one of the churches of 4,lirkt
the 30th Oct., 1860, a magnificent funeral oratiOifrin that'
belief that he had been killed in the Papal ranks at the
bAttle of Castelfidardo,was tried for numerous acts of swind-
ling.
He is only 21 years of age, is ill-looking, and of
coarse manners. An account to this effect was given of
him :—He was born at Guingamp, of extremely poor pa-
rents, and was taught the trade of a carpenter. But he was
of idle and dissolute habits, and some time back left his na-
tive town. He obtained work at Montfort, department of
the Sarthe, but in a fortnight was discharged. Whilst
there he called on the parish priest, and pretending to be a
Protestant converted to Catholicism, prayed to be baptised ;
but, for some reason, his request was not complied with.
He next went to a place called Saint-Marc-la-Briere, In the
same department, and before long, on a similar pretext,
was baptised there. But a person from whom he had
obtained work was not satisfied with him, and he left.
Ho next went to Savigne, in the Indre-et-Loire, and
there introduced himself to the parish priest as a Protes-
tant disquieted in conscience. The priest gave him in-
struction, and was so pleased with his apparent piety that
he presented him to the Archbishop of Tours. Gisquel de-
manded baptism, and a lady and gentleman undertook to be
his sponsors ; but before administering the sacrament the
Cure of Savigne wrote to Guingamp, and he learned that
when a child he had been duly baptised in that place. As
ho had obtained various sums of money from the curd and
other persons, he was given into custody as a swindler, but
no prosecution was instituted, and he was released. There
is some reason to believe that before he was arrested he had
imposed on a priest at some other place in the neighbour-
hood of Tours, and had obtained baptism from him. He
next turned up at Poitiers, and there he enlisted in the
Papal Zouaves. Until he could be sent to Italy board and
lodging were provided for him at the expense of the bishop,
of a gentleman named de Coursac, and others, and they
also gave him money. After a while he went to Italy
and in October, 1860, his protectors at Poitiers re.
ceived a letter in which he announced that he
had been mortally wounded with grape- shot, at
Castelfidardo, but that he was glad to die for religion,
and left " the course for which he had fought in the hands
of the Lord !" On the envelope were the words, apparently
in another handwriting, " Dead dead 1" From this letter,
joined to the fact of a similar one with the same ominous
words on the outside, having been received at Guingamp,
no doubt was entertained that the man had fallen in the
Pope's cause. At Gaingamp some zealous persons wished
to have a funeral service celebrated for him, but the clergy
of that place declined to perform one until they should ob-
tain positive proof of the death. At Poitiers, however, a
service for the repose of his soul was celebrated with peens
liar solemnity in the church of Sainte-Radegonde, and as
stated above, the bishop afterwards delivered a funeral ser-
mon on him. Nothing could be more pompous than the
terms in which the prelate spoke of. him ; among other
things ho said :—" He was a true Christian, a conscientious
Christian, a Christian holding in esteem. th.e sacrament of bap-
tism, a Christian who knew his own dignity, and considered
himself as the child of God, as the brother of Jesus Christ, aEi
a citizen and member of the Holy Church on earth, as heir
of the kingdom of heaven !" Some months back, the au-
thorities of Laval learned that a man was levying con-
tributions from pious persons in that town on the allegation
that he had been aide-de-camp of Gen. de Lamoriciere, and
had been wounded at Castelfidardo. As this statement was
ascertained to be untrue, he was arrested, and then the
startling d:scovery was made that he was Gisquel, who had
been treated as dead at Poitiers From inquiries, which
were afterwards instituted, it was ascertained that though
he had joined the Papal army in Italy, he had so grossly
misconducted himself, that he had been ordered for trial
before a court martial, but that his chiefs had preferred to
turn him out of the army altogether to trying him. He was
only for a very short time in the service, and never took
part in any engagement whatever. From Italy he came to
France, and at Paris, Le Mars, Nogent-le-Rotrou, Chartres,
Orleans, Tours, Rennes, and lastly Laval, he levied contri-
butions on the pretext that he was a " martyr of Castelfl-
dardo." Finally, it was ascertained that at all these places,
and even at Poitiers before his departure, he used to spend
in drunkenness and debauchery the money given hima;
was
condemned man, who defended himself with great impudence,
condemned to 15 months' imprisonment, 50f. fine, andde five
a.
years' surveillance of the police. On hearing
tion he laughed sarcastically. the.con

warming
guced with
carriages
tfi:otnhilitehyhi
yesterday,
hsvteeeLrnvat7iaeollwni
systemwt
hhioi
leayvdeeCrtnao
gomonti
fnpr
iaewasnsit
WARMING RAILWAY CARRIAGES.—Tile
success
.odrufoo;arnelveoratsßai andli
availing
nNeogx
exhausted
rhr,tn
i-ct
else
experiment) i retie:
ss:tttseersvoanmfi
winter,
Lt
tthoea
rfei.
Wolverton
a nwindl
lvcbooellvdea s onlyngri
nights
treat
ts a
abroeon triflingto expense,tho
with the most favourable results. This
in the adoption of
hismo
c 1
ea
arid unsotgththaet,
' wastettiah
ee
swintery ss
tteema m ipublic, every car-
riage bciug made comfortablQ Witt
out =option of ciao
::i

trjma