The Sun.
London, England, 1842-09-16 00:00:00

MURDER IN PRANCE.

The Court of Asizes for the Sarthe, held at. Le
Mans, was engaged on the 2d and 3d instant with
trial, which, from its lamentably interesting circum-
stances, attracted a crowded auditory. The criminals
arraigned were a peasant girl, named Madeleine Le-
mounier, and the Cure of the parish of La Chapelle-
aux-Choux, named Romagne. The crime of which
the girl stood accused was the murder of her own in-
fimt, and that with which the Cure was charged was
complicity in the murder, after an attempt made by
him to procure abortion. The following are the
circumstances of this shocking and disgusting affair,
as disclosed by the indictment. On Feb. 12 last the
prisoner and her mother want to Le Mans, and lodged
at a public-house, where they asked to be recom.-
mended to a midwife, for the purpose, as was inferred,
of obtaining a certificate that they had deposited an
infant at the Foundling Hospital of the town. Suspi7
cions of their morality being excited the Magistrates
were informed, and an investigation took place. In the
course of the inquiry M. Revery, a medical man, of
Le Lude, deposed that the female prisoner had been
with him on the Clth, to require a certificate that she
was not with child, but having ascertained that she
shad been recently delivered, he refused to sign whataantdit on
w ba:lf
she required. She stated that the child had been sent
t o Le faa rne
a s ;th
aschkoeldieroin was%
v
she lived. —M. Revery told her that he hose the
Sfeartvhiecer,
could not be.;
lieve her, as -M. Chollet was
78 years old, and she
then avowed to him that Romagne was the father, but
would give 300 fr. to have the fact kept secret. AL
Revery pretended to listen to this overture and told
her to go and get him 150 f., and if the child had not
been ill-treated, he would say nothing about the
matter. On the next day she brought him 125 f, and
on the 11th Romagne brought the remaining '25 f.
himself, affirming that the child had been chris-
tened, mid sent to Le Mans. Revery then.
gave the certificate required. Suspicions after-
wards arose in his mind that all was not right,
and these being strengthened by subsequent in-
terviews with both prisoners, he returned the money.
he had received. Romagne was thereupon informed
against and arrested. In her previous examinations,
Madeleine Lemounier, after having repeatedly preva-
ricated and contradicted herself, confessed to the ma-
gistraie, as she had done to M.Revery, that Romao.ne
was the father of the child ' • adding, that when her,:
pregnancy became known to him, he gave her drugs;
to procure abortion, naming the chemists from whore'
he had procured them, and also had bled her at least-.
twenty times with a lancet, besides applying leeches
to her. She further stated, that her intimacy with
the Cure had subsisted for fbur years. On being in-
terrogated as to the fate of her child, she declared
that after it was born, in the night of February 4th, -
Romagne took it away, and in an hour brought it back
to her dead ; that it remained concealed in a box for
three weeks, and then he carried it away, saying lie
would bury it in the cemetery. But on this point
she made so many various depositions, that it was
impossible to come at the truth. Romagne, in his
examinations, positively denied all that she had al-
leged against him, and accounted for his transaction
with M. Revery, by his anxiety to save Madeleine
Lemounier from exposure and shame. The act of
accusation having been read, the President proceeded
to the interrogation of the prisoners. The female, in her
replies, confirmed theCharges:against Romagne as to the
administration of drugs, the repeated bleedings to pro-
cure abortion, the taking away the child, and bring-
ing it back when dead. The male prisoner denied all
that was charged against him, declared that he had
never had any improper connexion with the girl—and,
striking the bar at which he was standing with great
violence, exclaimed, " I pray God to strike me dead
if I lie." The female, being asked if she had been in
the habit of confessing to the Cure, replied, that she
went to the confessional only for the purpose of talk-
ing with him ; and that he had requested her to meet
him there, as it would give the public an idea that
she was attentive to her religious duties. The Cure
having made a sign of denegation, the girl exclaimed,
in a tone of deep feeling, " Yes, what I say is true—
you corrupted and ruined me; but you would deny
even God, if he were to come down from heaven.
I was a poor innocent country girl, until I was se-
duced and corrupted by you.' Several witnesses
were called, some of whom substantiated the facts as
to the attempt to procure abortion, but there was
no direct evidence of the murder of the child. The
painful emotion produced by the details of this affeir -
was more than once lost in the amusement created
by the way in which some of the witnesses gave their -
evidence. Chollet, the old man, seventy-eight years
of age, with whom the female prisoner lived as ser-
vant, and whom she had in the first instance declared
to be the father of her child, on being asked Whether
such a thing had not been said, replied, " IlTa
.foi
nenni mon ben Monsieur, do not you think I •am
too old ?" 'When asked where the girl slept, he said,
" Alone in a room, separated from mine by a corridor _
—no, not alone, for now I recollect she had the cow
with her far company." A woman named Leruy, a
pretended fortune-teller by cards, said Lemounier
had consulted her, and that, having cut her cards, she.
replied :that she (Lemounier) had placed herself
"dans de mauvais drape Pichard, a fisherman,
being questioned as to the appearance of Romagne al;
'
a certain place, said he recollected the circumstance
very well, for he had made a present to the Cure a t
the time of two barbel, " which were by no means
small, one weighing a pound, and the other three
quarters of a pound, because when presents are made
they should always be worth receiving." The Pre-
sident, having summed up the evidence, the jury re-
tired, and, after a short deliberation, returned a ver-
dict of guilty against both prisoners, of an attempt to
procure abortion: The Court sentenced Romagne to
five years' imprisonment, and Lemounier to two years
of the same penalty.