The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1884-02-29
THE STORY OF AN OPERA.
TRAGICAL EVENTS UPON WHICH
IRA DIAVALo" Is FOUNDED.
Distortions Murder OF "a COupIc-An
Innocent Girls Punishment Dis.
COVcry of the Murderer.

innocent GIFTS punishment DiA
coVcry of tbc Murderer.
The well-known opera of &C Fra
Diavalo" is based on tragical events
which occurred in France nearly one
hundred and seventy years ago. The
facts are thus condensed from the court
records by Paris paper
AT the beginning of the last century
there was seen in the town of Lille a very
quiet house. 1t was large building,
but 1t contained only a small family-a
husband and wife and one servant. The
married couple were advanced in years,
lived quietly on their income, saw very
few visitors and admitted none to the
house, except, the people who furnished
them with provisions, or otherwise adj
ministered to their wants. One night this
couple, man and wife, were both robbed
and murdered in their bed.
The servant girl had heard nothing of
all this and knew not what was going
on. The night was hot, the air dense
and oppressively sultry, so much so that
she had taken refuge in her room, and,
for the sake of GOODNESS, Invested herself
of her garments before a large mirror.
While there, catching sight of herself,
she suddenly cried;
How hateful one looks when I'M
dressedr
Having said this, she retired and slept
till morning, and rose as usual without
suspecting what had happened.
She prepared breakfast as usual for ner
master and mistress, but they did not
come down. She was amazed and waited
for some time.
They did not appear.
Tired of waiting, she sought their
room. a horrible sight met her eyes.
Blood was smeared everywhere, and on
the bed lay the poor old couple cruelty,
horribly, Wiley butchered- mangled only
as beast or tiend could find it in his
heart to mutilate victims after murder
ing them.
The girl raised an alarm, and the null
titude came rushing in.
OF course justice came rushing after
in the shape of the police, with judicial
investigation. The criminal was sought
for, and as none other could be found,
suspicion fell on the unfortunate SER
want.
In those days they had a horrible way
OF trying to get the truth. They called
it questioning. The questions were put
with racks and thumb screws.
The LillOis servant maid was Infamous
ly tortured, even to extreme agony. Yet,
notwithstanding her weakness ana her
sex, she endured the Internal torture
without confessing.
This was most remarkable, as she was
entirely innocent and was in consequence
kept much longer under the torment to
make her confess. As there were no
proofs of her having done anything, they
finally let her go as soon as she was
healed. Unfortunately the torture had
made her a wretched cripple. She could
only hobble along and her arms were
terribly withered.
And being no longer able to sew or
work, she dragged her helpless form
through the streets of Lille for sixteen
years. This is historically true-nay,
more than historically, for history often
lies, while these accounts are drawn from
the dry and accurate records of court.
The worst part of her suiferings was that
many people believed her guilty and
Stunned her accordingly.
1t appears from the record that during
these long years, while she went about
with her wlthered arms and bent back,
her whole frame suffering from the tor
turc, begging sou to buy her bread,
that she was always resigned, mild and
exemplary in her conduct.
One day, after sixteen years of misery,
she stopped at the door of baker. She
held out through her rags her naked and
mutilated arm toward the baker, who
stood at his door sill AS she did so, he
exclaimed, in hooking tone, while OBJ
serving her garments:
'Well, Marie Anne, how hateful one
looks when undressed-h hap
Now, ii is remarkable that in all the
sixteen years which had passed, Marie
Anne had not forgotten those words
which she had spoken when alone on the
night of the murder. 1t flashed upon
her mind that the real murderer might
have heard them, and that he stood be.
fore her In brief, the journeyman baker,
when arrested, confessed the truth. He
had regularly supplied the old couple.
and knew the ways of the house. He
was hidden there on the night of the
murder, and heard the girl when she
made the remark on nakedness. And as
the criminal is often, by the will of Provi.
dence, his own accuser, so this man. fol.
lowing one of those eccentric and danger.
Gus impulses, which man often eXpe.
riences, to say the most dangerous
things, had uttered to the girl the words
OF that fatal night. He was convicted
of the crime for which Marie Anne had
been tortured and suffered a living death.