The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-04-20
PICAULT's TWO WIVES.
A Romance Of Two Continents. Sad
Denouement Of Family History.
New York Herald,I


A very sad domestic drama has recent
ly been revealed in the course of a some
what peculiar judicial investigation be.
fore the Courts of Paris. The Magis-
trates of the Court were called upon to
give judicial decision as the nullity of
an adulterous second marriage of Eugene
Picault, who died at Sienna, Italy, on
the 22d Of December, 1871. The de-
ceased then bore the name of William
Guthry d'Arusmont, and had been at
tended by yonng and beautiful lady,
who represented herself as his wife, and
who had been travelling with him around
Europe for the benefit Of his health for
several years. Picault was not q Swiss,
as he represented himself, but a native
of France, and began life as a CONNER
4, cial traveller for q Parisian firm. In
May, 1S4S. he married Mile. Franchise
Clotilde Glandoz, the only daughter of a
respectable merchant in moderate Cir
cumstances The young girl was of a
sweet and submissive disposition, while
the husband was by nature proud and
ambitious, possessing little scruples as to
the methods he employed to advance
himself in life, and without very ar.
dent love for his wife. The yoke of
matrimony pressed but ghtly on his
shoulders, and when not engaged in
amorous conquests he spent his time and
talents in various schemes of specula-
ton, by which he hoped suddenly to en-
rich himself. At the end of six years he
had spent what little money he had
gained by his marriage, and was on the
verge of ruin. 1t was then in 1854, DUR
ing the period Of wild speculation in
buildings consequent upon the extension
of the City of Paris after the establish
ment of the Second Empire. Picault
saw his chance to profit by the prevail
ing excitement, and opened real estate
Office in Paris for the sale and exchange
of property, management Of estates, and
prosecution of attendant litigations.
One fatal day Mile. Frances d. Arusmont,
an American lady, daughter of Span
ish planter, met with the handsome spec
ulator and was favorably impressed with
his manners and conversation. She was
young and handsome, spending her
enormous wealth lavishly in European
+ tours. Her father and mother had died,
leaving her the sole heir to large estates
at Germantown, near Philadelphia, and
to some property in the vicinAy Of Gin
cinnati. She desired to find some man
capable of experimenting her estates and
collecting their large revenues. Picault
saw a way of realizing his dreams of
wealth and offered to accept the place.
A few weeks later he embarked for
America with the young heiress, leaving
behind him his wife and three daughters,
the eldest about six years of age. Reg
nlar remittances of money and frequent
letters consoled the disconsolate during
her husbands absence, which he had
solemnly promised would be only tenn
porary. After many months Of anxious
waiting, she was grieved to see that
Picault was gradually becoming alien
ated, and frequently evinced desire to
remain in America. Then came requests
for her to Join him, which finally became
80 pressing, that she at last consented.
Leaving her youngest child in the care
of it's grandmother, she took with her
the two eldest girls to the New World.
She found her husband living in lux
ury at the home of Mile. d'Arusmont,
near Germantown. Her reception was
most cordial, and whatever doubts she
had had of her husbands love were for
the time dissipated. Soon after her ar
rival, however, they arose again, and
with horror she beheld the diabolical
plot of which she had been at once the
victim and the instrument. With quick
intuitive perception she saw that the
relations Of her husband and Mile. d.
Arusmont were not merely those of heir
ess and agent, and that this situation
had been brought about by the jealousy
excited in the imperious breast of the
young American by her arrival. Picault
had played his game well. Mile. darius
mont would not yield to his designs until
the stimulus of jealousy had been added
to the coquettish love excited by fiat
terry. From the moment of his success
Picault threw aside the mask. The poor
wife was discarded and treated as a SER
vant bearing the indignity of hearing
the guilty parties converse in tongue
unknown to her, and undergoing numer-
GUS other petty sights. Her mothers let
ters which had heretofore been frequent,
ceased entirely. This, added to the
chagrin and humiliation she already felt,
made her pine for home. Thither she |
returned in 1860, leaving her two little |
girls behind her. On her arrival in |
France she found that her third child |
was well, and that her mother had been |
unfailing in her correspondence. Others
had intercepted the letters. and the full
extent of her husbands villiany was re-
vealed. Her only desire then was to re-
cover the children she had left in Amer
lea. Her letters to her husband remained |
unanswered, and she learned that he and |
Mile. d'Arusmont had changed their
place Of residence, abandoning one of
the girls, the eldest, in convent. After
two years hard labor she saved enough
from her nscanty earnings to pay the
passage Of this child to France, and once
more had the pleasure of folding it to
bar Ioson, picault fnur vaars Iatar n,