Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1862-01-31
MOrtester @aiIg Spp.
From ".All the Year Round"
LACENAIRE.

DeauneJ III Burgundy, was brought before the
magistrate to explain swindling transaction
OF which he was accused He was also charg-
cd with assuming the false name of Jacob LIE.
vi He protested SO vehementlv his Innocence
OF both these charges, in such correct, fluent,
and clear language, that the magistrate was
about to discharge him, when the kings at
torney, wishing tor further information, order.
ed him to lie detained as precautionary meas
ure.
A few days afterwards the Beaune police
were not little ast0uished to learn that their
chance prisoner was no other than the famous
Lacenaire, whom the authorities had been in
search for, as the author, amongst other crimes
OF double murder recently committed in the
Passage of the Red Horse, Paris
The noise which Lacenaire's trial for this
crime made throughout the whole OF France
is still remembered. There was revealed to
the wondering Parisians Spectator in whose
eyes murder was merely matter of busin-
ess-a man who conceived and calculated the
chances of an assassination with the GOODNESS
OF banker, and who performed the operation
with the calmness OF surgeon. He made
some people shudder, attracted others, and
found enthusiastic admirers. He received Wis
itors who were urgent to the point Of importu-
nifty, and-who would believe it ?-scented
and sympathetic notes from not few women
vi ldSIIlOll EOT lHOFe IMAM TWO months, GarlS
would listen to and talk of nothing else than
the adventures OF Lacenaire who remains fix
ed in the popular Imagination as the type of
the polished methOdical, and lettered villain
Pierre Francois Lacenaire was born in 1900,
at Frencheville, village in the environs of
Lyons. lie was the fourth child. of man past
the. middle age, possessed a fortune of twenty
thousand pounds acquired in business part.
nership, and which was afterwards lost in I'M
lucky adventures. His birth was regarded by
his parents as a misfortune rather than hap.
piness he was treated like an unwelcome
guest, and soon sent out to nurse. The elder
brother was afterwards tue tavorite The
younger, in consequence of this injustice, be-
came a jealous, i'll tempered, cunning boy.
His natural intelligence told him that he was
not wanted; he was delighted at being sent
to the college of Saint Chamond some twenty
miles off, where he made rapid progress, and
gained four prizes in the course of twelve
months
On his return for the vacation, with these
proofs vi -good conduct, he received temper.
AIRY manifestation OF parental affection. "It is
certain, Lacenaire afterwards asserted, chat
if my mother had continued to treat me with
the same affection, she would have changed
her own destiny, and mine ALSO" Perhaps
so for, in truth, as soon as these brief mo-
ments of tenderness had once passed away.
Lacenaire behaved to his mother with the
cold reserve, the silence, and the stiffness
which her early unkindness had inspired.
From that time forward it was he who was
always in the wrong. He was expelled from
Saint Chamond, then from the Seminary Of
Alix, then from the Lyceum of Lyons, unjust
ly, it is said. AT the latter establishment, in
consequence of his fathers entreaties, he was
again received as a lay pupil only, of which
bo foolr Inv trua nd
his time in low public houses. Such amnse-
ments are expensive. Consequently he made
a tool of his elder brother to rob their mother;
which went on until quarrel about Louis
dor put an end to the h0rrid partnership. Mel
ther reform nor repentance followed.
One day he and his father happened to cross
the Place DIES Tarreaux. They were not
aware that an execution was going TO take
place, until they found themselves in front of
the guiotine. NJ. Lacenaire in rage with
his son for the commission of some fresh Of
fence, stopped short, and pointing to the seal,
fold said Look there; il you don't alter
that's how you'll finish!'
"From that moment" Lacenaire subse-
quently related, q, link seemed to exist be-
tween myself and the fearful machine. | of
ten thought OF it without knowing why, AT
last | became so accustomed to the idea that
! tancied | could moi die in any other way.
How often | have been guilotined in my
dreams! %
He was dismissed from the College of
Chambers far fighting with priest An at
torney's Office, a notary's office, and bank,
had in succession the honor OF his transitional
presence. Accused OF appropriating ten francs,
he denied it with the indignant protestation,
81 am not yet a thief!' He ran away to
Paris with the illusion that he could gain his
livelihood by literature, and at the same time
lead a life of idleness. Soon undeceived, he
enlisted Tor a soldier under false name. In
subordinate and dishonest, lie deserted, to
escape the sentence OF a court martial and
Travelled homewards. An aunt lent him three
hundred francs, which 'he risked and lost at
play. Unabashed, he returned to the poor
woman, and squeezed out of her three hundred
francs more. In three strokes the gaming
table had devoured them all.
E4torton and forgery were the natural Sc
quences Of theft. "Send me money by return
post" he wrote to his brother, cor | will get
some in way that won't please the family"
No money came, but plenty of good advice;
SO the forged bills of exchange were put in
circuIa ion, which the wretched father, already
in pecunlary difficulties, bought up or stiled
at II sacrifice OF five thousand francs. After
Drawing for while the scOrn and anger OF his
native town. he reireated first to Switzerland,
and afterwards to Italy. AT Verona, advanc
ing in the career of crime, he became an as
sassin. He there committed the first murder
So that, when he returned to Paris robbery
was his profession homicide only an OCCASION
al excitement.
But the criminal intellect rIpens fast. One
Baton suggested the idea OF making whole
sale cold bloodod murder las an easy means of
robbery the profession. The proposed vic.
tins were clerks of bankers, whose duty is to
collect money about town. Baton himself was
too weak and too cowardly to serve as an &C.
tive accomplice. A swindling transaction
about a carriage procured LGnsenaire a twelve.
months imprisonment at Poissy, where he
composed plenty Of verses, and found what
he had long been seeking, a young man named
Avril, human animal, strong, hot.blooded,
sensual, obstinate, mprovident, whom lie daz.
zed by his intellectual superiority, and Tempt
ed to become the ready instrument of any
crime, SO that it did but bring in money.
Baton, the accomplish in the scheme of muir
dering bankers clerks for the cash they had
collected, was also a dancer at the theatre OF
the Ambigu Comique, and Though him La
cenare cOutrived to obtain access 10 the thea
tre He was passiOnately fond OF dramatic
art and artists, and succeeded in making ac-
quainlance with several Of them, particularly
with M. Albert, then one of the stars OF the
Boulevard. No one was less like maleac-
tor in appearance than the well gloyed scoun.
drel
One day he happened to be at the Ambigu
at the rehearsal OF new piece, when one OF
the scene Shutters fell from the flies and broke
his leg, Albert, who had part in the piece,
proposed subscription in favor OF the suffer
er. The idea was taken up Immediately, and
al and