The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-04-28
THE SECRET DOOR.

A Strange Story of the Sequel to Crime.
The police of Paris have recently
stumbled across the sequel to very re-
markable tragedy which occurred over
twenty years ago, and has remained un-
til the present an impenetrable mystery
To bring all the facts of the case fully
before the reader, it will be necessary to
go back to a comparatively remote pc
Rod.
At the beginning of the year 1852, q
family named D'Eimer became the own
ers of the Vertpeuve estate, on the Sa-
one, between Chalon and Dion. Cha
teau Vert, the residence, was very large
old mansion, situated on q rising ground
on the right bank of small tributary of
the Saone. The locality was roman teal
ly beautiful, and the new tenants, who
were wealthy, speedily resuscitated the
gardens and transformed the decayed
and deserted dwelling into q comforta-
BILE and attractive homestead.
The D'Eimer family consisted of
Mons. D'Eimer, a gentleman of about
fifty; Madame, a motherly lady OF about
the same age, and three daughters and
one son-the latter boy OF fifteen, and
the youngest of the family. Within
three months of their settling at the
chateau, the three daughters and the
mother died of typhus fever. Mons.
D'Eimer was sunk in profound grief,
and some time elapsed before he was
able to look after his affairs. The fol-
lowing year young D'Eimer formed an
acquaintance with very beautiful but
uncultivated girl, named Jeanette
Foille, the daughter of charcoal burn
er, to whom Mons. D'Eimer had rented
tract of woodland. Foille was str,n-
ger in the locality, but appeared to be
industrious and honest. He was wild
ower-so he said-and his daughter had
charge of the small dwelling in which
they resided. Charles D'Eimer, the
son, spent much of his time with jean
nette, and the fact came to his fathers
knowledge. he expostulated with his
After this Mons. D'Eimer was frequently
absent from home, and in the autumn of
1854 he returned with a young wife,
whom he installed as mistress of the
chateau. After this his behavior to his
son was as kind as before, and he sup
piled him literally with funds, although
he knew that Charles acquaintance with
the daughter of the charcoal burner
continued, and that she had given birth
TO child.
On the morning of December q, 1854,
Mons. D'Eimer's domestics found him
and his young wife murdered in their
bed. They had been stabbed in several
places, and the crime had evidently been
perpetrated while they were asleep. In
vestigations disclosed certain extraordi-
nary facts.
/. The door of the bedroom was fast
ened on the inside.
2. The windows of the bedroom and
the adjoining dressing room were also
fastened within, and were, moreover,
at least fifty feet from the ground,
which sloped abruptly to the river, and
afforded scarcely sufficient foothold for a
goat.
3. Nothing was displaced in Mons.
D'Eimer's apartments, and no marks of
any kind existed to show which way the
murderer had come or gone.
In the bedroom, however, was another
door, which led into suite of apart
ments occupied by Charles D'Eimer, the
room adjoining Mons. D'Eimer's bed
room having been used as library
and the one beyond that as the son s
sleeping apartment. The door leading
into the library was locked and the key
could not be found. Charles bedroom
opened on the corridor, and the door of
that was also locked. The butler, how
ever, produced the key, and aclnowl-
edged that Charles was in the habit of
leaving it with him when he went to the
charcoal burner with the intention of
remaining all night, as he had done the
previous evening.
While the first investigation was in
progress Charles returned home, and
was stricken with horror at the scene
that awaited him. His amszement and
erief were very great, and, later on,
when The authorities made a searching