Los Angeles daily herald. [volume] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1873-1876, 1874-04-18
Death of Mrs. BoiIIeau.
Melancholy End of Noble Woman.

From the San Francisco Post,
Eastern papers just at hand an
nounce the death at Paris, on the Sth
of last month, of Susan Virginia,
youngest daughter of the late Senator
Thomas H. Benton, sister-in-law of
General John c. Fremont, and wife of
Baron Boilleau, formerly French Con-
sui General at New York, later French
Minister to Ecuador, and now pris-
oner in the Conciergerie at Paris. The
best attributes of one of the foremost
of American statesmen descended to
this woman, whose nobility of charac-
ter and wifely devotion will be long
remembered ON both sides of the At
lantic. Her death at the age of thirty
five years, in the devoted discharge Of
melancholy task, makes appropriate
brief glance at her life, as we'll as a
fuller statement Of the misfOrtunes
which lately came upon her family
than appeared in Saturdays Post. In
blooming girlhOod she was ushered
into the high circle of society at the
Capital of the United States, where
the brilliancy of her intellect and the
grace of her manner made her an at
traction in the midst Of diplomatists
and statesmen. In 1856 she was mar
ried to Baron Boilleau, then SECRETARY
to the French Legation. Shortly after
her marriage, her husband was pro-
NOTED by his Government to the post
of Consul at Calcutta, and the young
woman was removed from the happy
surroundings she had hitherto KNOWN,
to face the realities of the world among
strangers in a distant land. Several
years in that unhealthy climate suf-
feed seriously to undermine her hus-
bands health, and, finally, obtaining
the favor of a recall, with her sick
husband and her infant, leaving a
child's grave behind her, she returned
to France. The next advancement
brought her husband as COnsul-G Cen
eral to Quebec, whittier she accom-
panied him, and in 1867 she returned
Baron BOilleau, in the meantime, hav-
ing been appointed Consul-General at
New York. But in 1870 came another
promotion, which was but a new exile,
her husbands long services having
been rewarded with the post of Minis
ter PlenipOtentiary to Ecuador. Very
soon after came the first limitations
OF the browning trial, to which, it may
be said, was due the death of Mrs.
Boilleau. In 1867, General Fremont,
who was married to her sister, was Or
ganizing the Memphis and Ell Paso
Railroad. He looked to France as the
great market for his bonds. He ex-
planned the merits of the enterprise to
Baron Boilleau, and requested a favor
able introduction of the scheme to the
French Minister of the Interior, which
was given. The loan was taken up in
Paris but the road was never built.
The company's affairs were placed in
the hands of a receiver, and the French
bond-holders were the sufferers. The
French Courts, refusing to look into
the cause of the failure, pronounced
the whole scheme fraud, cOncOcted
for the purpose Of obtaining money
under false pretenses. Their own Min
lister was accused of participation in
the fraud for having recommended the
enterprise, and he was recalled and put
on trial. The decision of the Court
was q sweeping one. No element of
honesty was recognized in the whole
transaction. 1t was treated as pure
fabrication, and everyone concerned in
it was pronounced guilty from FIRE.
mont downward. The General, fortu-
nately for him, was in New York; but
Baron Boilleau, who had FASTENED
home at the first intimation of any
fault-finding with his conduct, was re-
paid for his prOmptness by sentence
to three years. imprisonment, and in
March, 1873, he was immured in the
Conciegerie. This suspense had lasted
two years, and under the final blow,
Madame Boilleau's health gave way.
A long illness followed and, after some
months, rising from what her physi-
clans thought would be her death-bed,
she commenced one untiring and fruit
less effort to obtain her husbands re-
lease. From all quarters she procured
letters, petitions, statements, showing
the true status of the railway her hus-
band had recommended, going un-
YEARLY from one Minister to another.
She took no warning from her failing
strength, until at last nature sue
cumbed, and, worn out by her exer-
tions and her sufferings, she died,
leaving her husband still in prison,
and six children, with no protection
but that of friends. 2 -. JUS 4