The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-07-06
ROMANCE AND TRAGEDY.
A Young Girl in the Grave and Her Lever q
Life Convict
Paris Letter.

A trial which has just taken place at Saint
Etenne, France, has brought to light details of
a dramatic affair In January last a young man
threw himself from a window on the second floor
of the Hotel de Europe at Saint Etenne. He
was little hurt by the fall but when taken up lie
was found to have fired shot from a revolver
in his mouth and stabbed himself in the breast
with sword cane. In the chamber from which
he had thrown himself was found the body of
young GIRL who had been shot in the head while
asleep. The young man refused to give his
name, or that of his companion, but said that
they were lovers and had resolved to die to-
gether drawn to death by poetic impulse
He recovered, and the story of their lives was
revealed by the police investigation. The young
man, named Auray, was the son of respectable
parents at Beaujon, (Rhone) He only
twenty -four years of age, but already
afflicted with what has been called la maladie
du steele, heated imagination with inordi
nate thirst for wealth and material pleasures,
ending in morbid disgust for life and depression
Of spirits from envy and disappointment He
was medical student and had performed his
military service in the hospitals On recovering
his liberty, in August last, he absorbed by
a monomania for suicide, and as he had inner
tied from his father sum OF 7,O00f or S,O00f.
he resolved to die after having been loved by a
woman who had never been possessed by any
one but himself. He went to Lyons in search
of his ideal, and discovered it one evening at
the theater in young girl, Marguerite Vag
nair next to whom he was seated He followed
her when she left with her friends and learn ed
that she belonged to an honest family of the
working class. He succeeded in making her
acquaintance, and afterward they eloped to-
gether. To dazzle the young girl Auray
represented himself as the son of par
ents immensely rich, and he commenced
by purchasing for her elegant dresses, and then
sent back her simple clothing TO her friends as
he would not allow her to possess anything that
had belonged to her parents, They first came to
Paris, leading life of pleasure, and when near
the end OF his resources went to Saint Etenne,
and staid at the Hotel de fEurope under the
name of NJ. and Nine. Merat Their idyl was at
an end, and the young woman then learned the
melancholy reality of their situation and his res
oiuton to commit suicide. He tried to persuade
her to return to her friends, but she determined
to die with him. threatening that If he refused
she would throw herself into the Rhone All
she asked was that she should not suffer in dy-
ing. Auray, for that reason, concealed from her
the moment when he intended to carry out his
design, AMI fired four shots from q revolver
through her head while she was sleeping. He
has survived his own injuries, but the shot he
discharged in his own mouth carried away his
jawbone, and he can now only take food with
an artificial palate.
He tried for the murder of the girl and
this monomaniac of suicide will now bear the
most terrible of punishments, for he has been
condemned to drag on his wretched, remorsefu.
existence, the court having sentenced him to
hard labor for life