The Sun.
London, England, 1827-12-13 00:00:00

A D/EMON.

M. Reviere Sommabert, a wealthy inhabitant
of the district of Moule, was brought up before
the Cour Royale of Guadaloupe, on the 10th
September, accused of the murders of Jean
Charles, a negro, and Melie, a negress, also with
an attempt to starve to death another of his slaves,
named John Philip. The extraordinary facts of
this case denote a habit of cruelty in the prisoner,
which neither education nor consideration for his
own interests could repress. In 1824 the negro
Jean Charles died, in consequence of having re-
ceived, in the back of his head, the discharge of
a double•barrel fowling-piece, fired at him by M.
Sommabert. Proceedings were commenced
against M. Sommabert, but the Tribunal of
Point-a-Petre having, on the 12th of December,
1825, refused a motion of the public accuser for
a warrant of arrest, the prosecution was dropped.
On the 10th of December, 1826, the authorities
were informed that a negress, named Melie, had
expired, after suffering the most horrible tortures,
on the estate of M. Sommabert. An inquiry
into the circumstance was instituted. M. Som-
mabert declared that he knew not what had be-
come of the negress in question. One of the
drivers of the estate, a negro, named Cedran, led
the officers of justice to a remote part of the
plantation, and which was not the burying ground
of the negroes, and pointed to a particular spot,
which had the appearance of having been recently
turned up. On the ground being dug up here,
the earth was found to be saturated with blood,
and at a few inches depth was discovered the
body of a young negress, which was recognised
to be that of Mlle. The head and right arm
were fractured, the stomach burst open, and the
whole body covered with wounds and lacerations.
On a closer examination, it appeared that the
body, from the knees to the breast, had been sub-
mitted to the action of fire. The result of further
inquiries was, that Melie, having fled from the
estate, was recaptured and brought back—
that M. Sommabert gave the signal for her
punishment by giving her three blows de
rigoise—that he then ordered her to be tied up
to one of the arms of the mill, and to receive from
each of his eighty negroes five stripes with a
branch of acacia—that the unfortunate creature
having fainted away and fallen senseless on the
earth under the cruel torture, M. Sommabert
trampled upon her body, and jumped repeatedly
upon her bosom and stomach—that he then
called for some straw, which having lighted with
his cigar, he proceeded to scorch her body, from
the knees to the breast, in the most inhuman and
indecent manner—that after being thus tortured
b) this worse than infernal demon, she was con-
veyed, still alive, to the Purgerie, where in a
few moments death relieved her from her suffer-
ings. The wretch Sommabert then ordered the
body to be buried in a remote part of the grounds,
and recommended the most profound silence to
his negroes and dependents. After the dis-
covery of these horrors, the prisons or dungeons
belonging to the plantation were visited. In one
of them was found a negro, named John
Philip, in a state of almost complete inanima-
tion, having been deprived of all nourishment
for four days. He was loaded with chains and
had a heavy iron collar round his neck ; upon
his body were the marks of recent flagellation.—
Sommabert was immediately arrested. In his
examination he sought to shift a portion of the
horrors laid to his charge upon his wife ; he,
however, acknowledged having given the unfor-
tunate negress the three first blows de rigoise, of
having lighted the straw, and scorched her body
with it, to ascertain (as he expressed it with atro-
cious naivete) Vshe were still alive. A prosecu-
ehni cshis wife,
edoverseer,
against Sommabert,
the latter having been
tainodn witaesffeaoumz
present at the execution of Melie. Sommabert
alone was taken into custody, and before the
trial the prosecution, with regard to Relfaud,
was abandoned.

After a delay of nine months, Sommabert
and his wife were brought up for trial, before
the Tribunal of First Instance at Point-a-Petre.
Sommabert alone was found guilty, and con-
demned to death.

According to the colmnial criminal code the'
sentence was to undergo the revision of the Cour
Royale of Guadaloupe, which Court took cog-
nizance of the affair, as before stated, on the
10th September last. The prisoner's Counsel
(three in number) put forward twenty-three pleas
of nullity, also a justification on ,the ground
of insanity. At four o'clock the Pre-
sident read the judgment of the Court,
which allowed one of the pleas of nullity,
arising from the circumstance that on the pro-
ceedings in 1824, relative to the murder of
Jean Charles, M. Guichard, now one of the
Judges of the Court of First Instance, which
condemned the prisoner for the murder of Melie,
was then the public accuser, and as such com-
menced the prosecution against Sommabert. Iu
consequence, the former finding of the Court
was reversed, and the case was ordered to be
again tried before the Court at Point-a-Petre,
and by other Judges, who are to conform them-
selves to the edict of 1738, which fbrbids them
to accept the testimony of slaves against their
masters. It is said that the Attorney-Generalringe
will appeal against this decision. Du
trial, the wretch evirzced the most imperturbable
t
indifference.

o , Thursday,
and fat sheep sold remark-
ably well; there was also a fair demand for store cattle and
tinlieglit a snake was killed in the
sheep for feedinsgeTri
known at this fair for many years.---Exeter Alfred.
kilsliezlraToingEthsge.graatv awlja,lkw.herTe The
gardencwiraseYndei
ss.cottoafe:rccir.:
of al;
dragging
gpcienrg
being
seen at so late a season of the
yßaße Bank Notes, parcel,
MYSTERIOUSToe It. containingye—s,rare.—ExeterCh
sovereigns,t
jAei nßflfo
BelfastßrremEdeinformed,
Ca,
coach ntEhd.that on
o°oll .1
it
chi ene,PNsi tioChrtTihllEesri OCCURRENCE.
.
Sack-
ville-street, by direction of Messrs. GIBBONS and WIL-
LIAMS, notaries public to the Bank of Ireland, in order
that it should be transmitted to the Belfast Banking Com-
pany. The parcel has not since arrived at its destination;
nor can any clue be found which may lead to its recovery.
The different coach agency offices between this city and
Belfast have been carefully searched without effect. We
have heard that the police received early intimation of the
occurrence, and that they aro using the most diligent ex-
ertions to recover the property.—Dublin Morning
Register.

A robbery of a most curious kind was effected
at Ashton-under-Lyne a few days ago. A
woman went
into a shoemaker's shop, and requested to look at a pair of
shoes, which she tried, but they did not fit; she tried
another and another, still none would do, and the shoes
were put upon the counter again. When about to leave
the shop, the master told her that there was one pair mis-
sing, which she denied any knowledge of, and offered to
be searched. An examination of her dress accordingly
took place, but no shoes could be found; till at length the
shopkeeper's
wifejmore confident of the loss of the shoes
than her husband, determined to make a more miyte
search herself, and at length found them hanging by the
string which generally attaches the two together upon a
hook which had been affixed to her leather garters....
Manchester Mercury.