The Sun.
London, England, 1842-02-28 00:00:00

A SAD TRUE STORY.

" A young actress," says the Paris journal, Droit,
" who will be remembered, by the frequenters of the
theatres, on the boulevards, has just died, in a state of the
most cruel suffering and neglect, in the hospital Saint-
Louis, at the early age of twenty-five years. Beautiful,
graceful and intelligent, Mlle. Estival had made herself
remarked at her debut in several characters of the
modern drama, and her place was already marked on a
stage of more importance than that of the Ambigu-
Comique, when a singular circumstance, which had the
most fatal influence on her future fate, induced her to
leave Paris and to contract an engagement with the
director of the French theatre in London. A young
man, calling himself the Comte Gustave de Boncourt,
wearing the decoration of the Legion of Honour, and
living in great style at No. 11, in the Rue du Fauborg
Poissoniere, where .he gave himself out as Garde-Ge-
neral des Forets, procured an introduction to the young
actress, and made her considerable presents. This
young man, whose luxurious style of living, whose
horses, carrriages, and prodigality had promptly seduced
the young actress, this pretended Comte Gustave de
Boncourt, was no other than a man named Henri
Journet, who had been previously
.condemned to five
years' confinement in irons for forgery ; had been alter-
nately a sub-officer in *a regiment of cavalry, then a
domestic servant ; and who, while in this position, had
robbed his master and mistress, M. and Mme. Champy
de Boizeraud, who lived in the Rue de Baurne, of
50,000. e. in notes, I,Boof. in' cash, and a considerable
quantity of jewels, shawls, plate; &c. In 1836 Journet
was condemned, by the Court of Assizes of Paris, to
twenty years' hard labour at the hulks. Mile. Estival
was summoned to appear as a witness in this case ; but
it appeared, according to the indictment, that she had
received the greater portion of the stolen jewels, to-
gether with a considerable sum of money, without,
however, being able to suspect from what source they
had been derived ; and 'that, in order to avoid appearing
in court, she had set off for England: Since that time
she had not returned to France ; but a few months ago,
her h4alth being exhausted by late hours, by excesses,
and perhaps moved by regret, she found herself in so
deplorable a condition, that the medical men, recom-
mended her; as a last resource, to return and breathe'
her native air. She came back to Paris, but here she
found every thing changed as much as herself. A prey
to incessant suffering from a disease of the chest, she
exhausted her last resources, and soon found herself re-
duced to the necessity of soliciting admission into the
hospital St. Louis; where,however, she entered under a
false name. For four months Mlle. Estival waited for
death; calm, resigned, uttering not a single complaint,
indulging in no regret, and obstinately refusing to so-
licit favours from any one, or to call to her bedside any
of thOse who had known her in the height of her beauty
and her fortune. On Thursday last, however, when she
found herself at the last point of her incurable malady,
and perceived that she had only a short time to live,
she yielded to the solicitations of one of the religious
sisters, who watch by the bedside of the dying. She
pronounced the name of a person, from whom she had in
former days received not merely favours, but proofs of
sincere affection. A few minutes afterwards an express,
sent Oft' to the Vicomte de —, announced to him the
approach of the last hour of the young woman, in whose
future fate he had once taken so warm an interest, but
wile) had disappointed his intentions. He immediately
went to toe hospital St. Louis. On his arrival a smile
played on the pale lipS of the dyins, girl, a ray of glad-
ness sparkled in hos eyes. With a grateful .voice she
thanked him, asked his pardon for the past, and said that
she should die satisfied and resigned, since he had not
repelled her memory from his mind. In another hour
the young girl, once so brilliant ; the actress, once so
applauded—died. in the asylum opened for indigence by
the hand of pity—a terrible lessee !"