Shreveport daily news., 1861-05-08

Nclys dAu ASAIcu up Uy lHc sHlIcS
of a young and beautiful mistress.
1t was to this period that the atten-
ton of the inquirers was now di-
rected. These ladies had all died
Of the same ease-infammation in
the abdomen; and the majority at
that critical period III the life Of d
female, when nature prolongs the du-
ration of the human race by the per-
formance Of a miracle in the human
economy. The symptoms and cir
cumstances of the disease had been
the same in all, and the afectionate
attentions of the husband lover equal
ly remarkable in each of the cases.
At the first appearance Of approach
ing illness he took the beloved suf-
ferer under his own care no one was
even to be present during the
nightly watches of his love and des-
pair. When the moment of death
arrived, he hung over the bed, re-
piled to the last farewell Of his de-
parting companion, gazed into her
damp and pallid face, wrote down
upon his heart and memory the ira
ces Of the swift convulsions which
swept across her features, counted
one by one the heavings of her tor
tnred breast, and drank in with a
greedy ear the groans of mortal agony
that burst from her soul. In the
case Of the young Dutchwoman, who
had been his first companion, and
whose extraordinary beauty obtain
ed for her appellation of "la belle
Hollandaise," there were circumstan-
ces so singular as to induce the ply
sician to ask whether she had not
taken something to counteract his
prescriptions. "She drinks brandy"
said Lelievre !; but when NJ. Dittlnar
went to his patient to reproach her
for the fatal imprudence, la belle
Hollendaise assured him, with her
dying breath, that it was very long
since she had tasted it. A horrible
suspicion arose. Let it pass-tor we
are without proof: He married
Steph;nie Desgranges. After the
lapse Of very few months, the same
mysterious disease which had killed
the mistress attacked the wife. There
were two cups upon the table, and
when her relations We're gathered
round Ter death-bed, would have
bathed her lips with the contents OF
one-''Not that one" said she, s'it is
my husbands ;''-she drank of the
cup that was hers, and died. Mar
garet PICARD was his second wife,
and she drank Of the same cup.
Marie Riquet followed, and, swift
as the flight of months, punctual as
fate, the inscrutable disease fell upon
its fourth victim. Lelievre again
was the nurse and physician in one
a woman saw him one day admins
tering some drink which had not
been ordered, and he desisted tor
moment but soon, unable to resist
the whispers Of the demon within,
he poured the liquid down her throat
The convulsions which followed
We're too horrible for description
the witnesses-all but Lelievre-t1ed
from the room-the dark curtain of
death dropped upon the tragedy.
Besides these deeds of horror, the
prisoner was accused Of the Murder
of two Spaniards, Of that of his broth
er. and of an attempt on the
life Of his own father. IN the
course of the trial the body of his
murdered child was found, and the
guilt brought completely home to the
parent. In the meantime the crimi-
nal denied everything ''he suffered"
cd But at the foot of the scaffold
his tinnness deserted him he was
carried almost lifelcss up the steps
by the eXecutioncr, and died in hor-
ror and despair.