The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-13 00:00:00

r'ROM T FRENCH PA PER
OO

At the Court of Ai. sizes for the Cantal held ota the
15th ult., at Aurillae,
the following infamous mint Pi-
nation of forgery,
false I:estimony, and suborned ars of
perjury,e, was tznished. An old ace,alant
between Jean Roche, of 'is, and Jean Durand, of
oexposed anfd
sLeattlßemasetnidt,e'shOltwsin; afabar balance
aiccl‘ as 1821, brought to a.
of 2,000 francs due to
Roche, which Durand was to pay, by small instal-
ments. In 1829 Roche died, and if: appeared by his
books that he had int the meantime received from
Durand no more than between 300 end 400 francs
on account. The business of Durand hasl been given
up by him to his son, who engaged to pay all his
father's debts. Applications were made to Linn by the
family of Roche to pay, or at least gradually "educe
his balance due to them. Ile constantly pleado pop-
yerty, and in the most bumble and earnest man.aer
entreated their forbearance. On anew and more u.‘s.
gent demand upon him for payment, in 1833, Du-
rand produced a receipt signed by the late Jean
Roche, dated 25th August, 1828, for the sum of
1,550 i. The signature wsss evidently in the hand-
writing of the deceased Rock.', but the body of the
receipt was in a strange hand.,,, Coupling this cir-
cumstance with the repeated acklowledgments and
promises of Durand since the death of their fa-
ther, the, family of Roche doubted h'se authen-
ticity of the document, and summoned him be-
fore a justice of the peace. No doubt of .the for-
gerey could be entertained, but n a positive proof .could
be acquired for some time. At length the &The
family learnt that a man, named Crozatier, hid
several times repeated that their father, some time be.•
fore his death, in trying a pen at an inn in Ally, had
written his name on a blank piece of paper, and?
thrown it aside, and that it afterwards got into the
hands of Durand. This induced the Roche family
to bring Durand before the Civil Tribunal of Saint-
Flour, where seven persons swore to having seen
the amount stated in the receipt paid to the de-
ceased. Subsequently, however;.i.t was ascertained
That the witnesses were perjured, and the case was re-
ferred to the Court of Assizes, Durand and all his
witnesses being prosecuted. Previous to the trial,
one of the men who had been suborned retracted his
former depositions, and exposed the whole of the
nefarious attempt. Consequently his name was with-
drawn from the indictment, and admitted as an evi-
dence for the prosecution. Another man also after-
wards made a similar confession. Their testimony
was corroborated by other circumstances, particularly
by the fact that the body of the receipt was not only
a different handwriting from the signature, but
written in a different ink. Crozatier, who was in-
cluded in the prosecution, persisted in denying all he
had previously said. They were all found guilty.
Durand wag condemned to hard labour in the hulks
for six years, and the pillory—three to hard labour
for the same period, without the pillory—one to hard
labour for five years—one to close confinement for fire
years—and one to imprisonment for one year.
'ihe Correctional Tribunal of Bayonne, on the 24th
ult., presented a curious spectacle. A man named
Castella, and his wife, appeared at the bar on a charge
of fraud and deception in exercising pretended magic
and sorcery, and in administering medicaments with-
out any legal authority. The table of the Court was
loaded with strange objeets. Among them was a
lamp of a shape never before seen,in the ancient or mo-
dern world, surrounded by a palm branch, said to have
received holy benediction, and crowned with a multitude
of cards of unknown kinds, covered with figures in co-
lours or in ink, representing saints and devils, signs of the
zodiac, and cabilistic emblems, bearing the likeness
of nothing in heaven or earth, or the waters under the
earth ; by the side of which were pots of pommades,
and phials of liquids of all sizes and hues, to which
virtues of immense power had been attributed,
and, in fine, about thirty large volumes filled
with characters which no one could decypher, and
Castella himself, perhaps, less than any one else,
though lie had pretended that they were the works
of Albert the Great and Cagliostro. The witnesses
were almost uncountable, comprising the lame and
the blind and the paralytic, who had been deluded
of their money by promises of. relief which were
never realised, and, at last, a young and pretty girl,
who, when she came to be examined, deposed that
for a pommade, which was to insure her perpetual
beauty, she had given the prisoner a Louis d'or, her
whole fortune, which, she added, with great naivete,
would not have been too much, if the promise had
been realised. The evidence was of the complexion
of fraud and dupery, which might naturally be ex-
pected in such a case. Castello was sentenced to be
imprisoned for a year and a day, to pay 50f. fine,
and all the costs, but his wife was acquitted. When
the judgment was passed, Castella, who had con-
ducted himself throughout with great effrontery, an-
nounced, with a loud voice, his intention to appeal.
On the last Mardi-Gras, February 8, some ladies
at Foix, in the Arriege, were grossly insulted in the
streets during the evening by a man in mask and
domino. On the following day, this disgraceful con-
duct having been attributed to a. young man named
Seguela, a M. Vergnies, part of whose family had
suffered from it, accosted Seguela, and, after some
severe language, struck him on the face. A challenge
was given, hut from some obstacles the meeting could
not take place before :11 arch 5, when Seguela re-
ceived his adversary's ball in the head, and, after
lingering eleven days in great agony. expired. M.
Vergnies and the four seconds were prosecuted, and
brought to trial at Foix, on the. 24th ult. . They
were all acquitted on the criminal charge, but the
Court decreed that Vergnies and his two seconds
should pay 3,000 f., as damages to the family of
Seguela. At the same assizes, a man named Dervean
Gispet, alias Cresto Rats, was condemned to 'hard
labour at the hulks for life, under the following atro-
cious circumstances :—Marie Galy, a young un-
married woman living with her mother, a widow, in
the village of Goulier, being with child, made a
confident of Gispet, who, as she deposed on her
trial, advised her to take means for procuring
abortion. This she refused, but when her child was
born she intrusted it to this man to carry to the found-
ling hospital at Foix, paying him 10f. in advance for
his trouble. The delivery havingbecome knoirn, she was
questioned by the Magistrates as to the disposal she
had made of the child. She told the truth, but On in-
quiring at the hospital no such child.had ever been
deposited there, and it was afterwards discovered Oat
the infant had been strangled and buried in a stable
belonging to her mother. Gispet having committed
the murder to save himself the trouble of the journey
to the foundling hospital. The widow Galy, her
(laughter, and Gipset, were indicted for the murder,
but the two females were acquitted. Gispet is a no-
torious character. He is 55 years of age, 20 of which
lie passed at the hulks, where he was under sentence
for life; but in 1835 he received a pardon, and re-
turned to Goulier, his native place.
The Hotel de l'Union, one of the first public esta-
blishments of the kind in Brussels', was lately robbed
of plate, jewels, and other valuable articles, to a large
amount. Suspicion at first was directed towards the
servants, and a minute search and inquiry took place,
but the innocence of all was satisfactorily proved.
During the investigation, a stranger, who bad
come to the house as a guest, under the name
of Vanden Houten, and had taken one of the best
apartments, living in a correspondent style, (Es-
' appeared without paying his bill. The police was
informed of this, but no trace of him in Belgium
could be found,' Communications were directly
made to Paris, and the myrmidons of the law here
were so active that they soon discovered that a tra-
veller answering the description given had arrived
two days before in Paris, under the name of Vanden-
haut, and was living in furnished lodgings at No. 10,
Rue du Bouloy. He was quickly taken into cus-
tody, and recognised as an old and 'notorious offen-
der, named Brown, alias Janin, who had been dis-
charged from the hulks. On searching his room,
nearly the whole of the articles stolen, together with
a considerable sum in ten florin pieces of gold,
were found and seized. Although the real name
of this thief is Gabriel Brown, he is the son of French
parents, and was born at Verdun. In March 1833 he
was condemned by the Court of Assizes of Paris to
eight years hard labour at the bulks for robbery.
During his previous examination, he contrived to
escape from the gendarmes, who were conducting him
through the Salle des Pas Perdus from prison to the
office of the examining magistrate, by throwing a
handful of snuff in their eyes. He was, however,
retaken, and on conviction, sent to the bulks at
Toulon. Thence he also escaped, was again caught,
and had three years added to his term-of punishment.
In November, 1837, he displayed so much cool
courage and zeal while, with other convicts, he was
employed in endeavouring to extinguish a fire, which
broke :out in and nearly consumed a three-decker
in the port of Toulon, that, as a_-reward, he:received
a free pardon, choosing his native town, Verdun, as
his residence, where he was to remain under. surveil- •
lance of the police. In less than a month, however,
,e ran away', and has ever since lived by robbery.
n
Three days before the robbery at Brussels, lie occu-
pied his furnished lodging in Paris, and was seen
Upon eut
several times a day. this he
found an alibi, affirming that he passed
the intervening days in the country with a young
lady, whose character he would nOtampromisti by
naming her. As to the articles, he accounts for his
genodbeigav ino endeavours to
possession of them by declaring that he purchased
them of a young Dutchman.
The Reparateur of Lyons—in which city great
alarm has been created by the appearance of several
dogs supposed- to be mad—states that a M. de Mo-
rangie, of
Mason, who his dead, had a, remedy for
hydrophobia of such efficacy, that on one occasion he
administered it to 16 out Of 18 dogs which had been
bitten by a mad dog, and they all recovered, whereas
the two to which he had not administered it, in order
to show the certainty of his remedy, went raging mad
and died. His widow, who resides in a village
between Tournus and Macon, is, adds the Reparateur
yn possession of the micret,