The Conservative. (M'connelsville, Ohio) 1866-1871, 1869-11-26
ACAsT.OFF wIFBIN COURT.
Hnnished, and DECEASED Dead, yet
clsiming AiimOny.

of law-whether q woman who has lived
sixteen years Us the wife of a Spanish mer-
chant Is entitled to alimony after he has
deserted her. The facts in this matri-
monial litigation embrace q bitter accusa-
ton of infdelity, n confession extorted un-
der pain of death, and the publication of
an account of the burial Of the banished
woman. On Saturday night, Mr.. Durand,
the merchant who is accused of this aston
ishing catalogue of crime, was arrested in
this city at the suit of Mary Durand, who
asserts that she is legally his wife, and that
he has deserted her. She il still young
and beautiful. Mr.. Durand is o commits
sion merchant, and has an office at "a
Broadway. We take the wife's story from
her affidavit, as follows:
Mary Durand, n wife without the banns,
was born in France, where her parents still
reside. She arrived in this city sixteen
years ago, and soon afterward became &C
duairted with Mr.. Durund. The acquain-
lance ripened into love, and they lived to-
pether as man and wife without the cere-
mony Of marriage. Mary, however, often
reminded her consort OF his promise to
lead her TO the hymenial alter, and the
promise was as often repeated, but the full
hlment was postponed indefinitely. They
moved in respectable society rs Mr.. and
Mrs. Durand. and not a breath Of SANDER
was whispered. The unmarried couple
have had a family Of Ave children, but only
one-a boy Of twelve years, survives, and
he is with his fatbor.
The couple lrved in sumptuous style in q
mansion up town, and then again in hand
some apartments NJ 40 West Sixteenth-st.
and at So Clinton place. They had q hand
somo family of children, aud they buried
them. Mrs. Durand says that she hns done
nothing unbecoming a wife during the
twelve years of her cOhabitation with Du-
rand, and sho believes she is his lawful wife.
In july last Durand suddenly became angry
agd Jealous of his spouse. He charged
that she had had improper intimacy with q
mutual friend. who had visited the house.
lie accompanied the charge with threats Of
personal injury, and yehemently proclaimed
that she was not his vito. On Of the
children vas then in Neufchatel, Switzer-
land.
Early in August last, Durand announced
his decision. He told Mary that shs must
90 TO France, never 10 return 10 this coun-
try. lie further informed her that the two
could not live In the same land, and that
/, the Atlantic should separate them forever.
Dumnd threatened 10 kill her in case she
should refuse TO quit the country, and he
added that he would cast her upon the
/, streets but for the love he bore her child.
Tie repudiated wife protested that she was
n innocent, but Durand was determined.
Z Then Durand demanded that the poor
4 woman should sign a paper confessing that
n she had been untrue to her duty toward
n him. but she refused, and emphateally de-
y MED that she had ever been guilty Of any
Il offence. Durand, however, insisted. On
4 Che 31st Of July last he called on his wife al
81 Clinton place, and in the presence Of
80 NIL NNT..I l.. ..,..N.I Isa Iu.,ag.1
that she should sign o confession that she
a was virtually n harlot, on pain Of death,
She stil refused, and be loft in a passion.
[ At 4 o'clock on the next morning, while
If the other inmates Of the house we're sleep
ing, he dragged Mary from her bed. AM
10 exhibiting n written paper, ordered her Il
70 sign it. Again she refused, and protested
her innocence, but he presented q revolver
and threatened to take her life IL she would
% not comply with his request. Then, unde
L such c~ompulsion, she signed the paper, anC
confessed TO acts which she never commit
ted. The husband nolsed the story o
adultery abroad, and exhibitedth II proof II
Ia the paper she had signed.
On the 7th Of August Mrs. Durand il
m pursuance Of her sentence of Punishment
/ embarked on the steamer Vile de Paris 70
n France. Durand promised TO supply he
with money, but he insisted that the sep
aration from him and the child should b
final. He had previously circulated n re
10 port that she had gone to Europe, for tn
NJ benefit of her health.
To- Mrs. Durand reached France in safety
TO and told her atory TO her indignant parents
She had scarcely passed O month in he
new home, when she received copies @
30 the New York papers, of August 81, whic
NJ contained the following announcement /
to tho death columns
20 "Died at Geneva, at lOA. NJ, Aug. 2s
r Mary, wife of j. Durand."
We Mrs. Dumnd says that her husban
wore n weed on his hat in her memory
We aud told the story of her demise TO all hi
acquaintances. After this he wrote letter
TO her parents, informing them that sh
ne was an abandoned women, and accusin
t. her Of shameful crimes. He also mad
known the fact that Mary was not his wifi
10 and that after having lived with her e
Nj many years he had separated from her foi
OF ever.
r. When Mary's purents heard the trumpet
up story of her dishonor, their anger kne
IL no bounds. She confessed that she WI
~ not Durand's married wife. She told h'
whole history 10 her mother. Durand sti
is continued TO send across the Atlantic Ii
NJ poisonous tale of her .inidelity, and at la
buo VIE oplibSu W ny ipm hbh puiNhe
= roof, and return to this city. In extrem
poverty, without influential friends, 81
nj AYERS that DuTond has boosted that he wi
IA drive her by the exhibition of the extorte
er confession Of her imaginary guilt, to a Ii
~ of prostitution.
Mary adds in her affidavit that Durand
reported TO DO worth at least $40, 000, b'
IT. that he does not hold the money in II
own name. He arrived in this city mar
d. years ago from New Granada. South Anne
ng len. The order for his arrest was granite
nd by Judge Jones, and his bail was fixed
in $4,000. He is in the county jail. Mr.,
Ike d. Mccarthy ia Mary's counsel, and Messr
ed Brown, Hall & Vanderpool have been q
n. gagged by the defendant. H.
Of The Romance of Hnsking Corn.