The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-05-26
METEOROLOGICAL WONDER.
The Celebrated Case of Garreau, Who
Sacrificed seven Lives for q Book.
cincinnati Fuuuirpr

Garrcau was connection of the Compile
De Lacerteux, with whom ne lived. He had
been educated as q physician, and was
charged, at his own solicitation, with the
duty Of doctor III the counts estate.
His sympathetic kindness made him uni
versally beloved by his peasant patients, and
his profound crudition gained for him the
respect and admiration of all
was a devoted bibliomaniac and was pos
scssed of one of the finest private Libraries Of
MEDIEVAL literature In existence. Garreaus
collection WAS an equally complete one, with
one exceptional magnificent Illuminated
chronicle of the first crusade, Of which only
the one copy, bought by the count for fabu-
louS sum- was in existence.
Toward the possession of this volume Gar
rcau's every thought seems to have turned.
According to his own statement, he fought
the temptation bravely, but in vain.
81 dreamed of it, he said. 1.-The wind all
night, the crackc of the fire, the ticking of a
clock, all seemed to say, You must have it
you must have it.. The idea would come upon
me in the midst OF a conversation. ! would
go to the library a dozen times a day, and as
! examined the book, say to myself, If you
were Only mine.
The Count was a widower with four chill
dren, none OF them particularly robust. The
mother had been cO1lSumptive and the seeds
of the disease had doubtless been transmitted
to the little ones, who required Garreau 5 con-
slant care. They loved him almost as they
did their mother. One by one these poor I'M
fortunates sickened and di 3D.
Desolate, dcspairing, the bereaved father
consoled himself as best he could for their loss
bpndoptng nephew and niece, the children
of a dead brother. The boy, a hearty, manly
lad of fifteen was proud of exercise and field
spots of all sorts. One day he was brought
home from ride across country, which he
had made in the company OF Garreau, dead.
His horse, the doctor said, had SHE'D and
thrown him against a stone wall His neck
was broken.
The sister was now formally declared the
counts heiress. She was at a convent school,
her brothers death, to celebrate her fifteenth
birthday. She was of an epileptic tendency,
and one morning was found in her bed a
corpse her body distorted by frightful con-
vulsions, her lips covered with a bloody foam.
Garreau made an autopsy, and declared that
she had persisted in one of the attacks OF her
melancholy malady His statement was ac-
cepted without question, and she was buried.
The Counts reason staggered under this
final blow OF all his connections only Car
reau, his cousin, remained to him. "The hand
of God is against my house. he used to say.
One day his valet found him on the floor at
the foot of his bed. He was dead, with an
empty vial beside him. Garreau claimed to
recognize in this vial one containing pruSsic
acid which he had missed from his laboratory
some days before. The Count must have taken
it. Ergo, the Count must have committed
suicide.
His legal heir, DIR. Ludovic Garreau, took
possession OF his estate. The illuminated his
tory of the first crusade belonged to him at
last
Five years later DR., Garreaus growing
eccentrieities led to the nomination of a com
missionsto inquire into his sanity. They de-