News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-09-23
A TRIAL UNPRECEDENTED.
A Dominican Monk RObs the Monastery,
Fcigns suicide, and is Acquitted.

Bordeaux mas been in a state of excite
mcnt about the trial before the Assize
| Court there of Dominican named
Pierre Bro hard, Doctor in Theology,
and a remarkably fine looking man OF
30, with a long brown beard of eXcep-
| tional luxuriance. The indictment sets
! forth that on the 31st of March last a
malefactor entered the Dominican mon
astery at Lille, and with the aid of false
! keys succeeded in opening the safe in
which money, Stock Exchange securities,
/ and ether property was kept. He carried
! off twelve debentures of Austrian Rente
worth 80, 900 francs, and upward of
! 5000 francs in bank no es and gold.
/ This robbery must have been committed
by person familiar with the monastery,
as no window was broken, nor was any
noise heard by any one belonging to
| the house. Pierre Brochard, it was
further set forth left the building OH
the eve of the robbery, and on the 18th
of MAY assumed the name of Berthier.
went to the office of NJ. Molina, a
money changer of Bordeaux and sought
to get several Austrian deDentures
cashed.
as AOl1C6 hdtl bCCu ICSClNCd ny blIC
money changers of Bordeaux not to pay
the stolen bonds, NJ. Molina, finding
the numbers were the same as those on
the list sent by the Dominicans of Lille,
caused Pierre Brochard to be arrested
The monk on being Intercepted owned
that he had been enabled by false keys
which Lille locksmi h manufactured
for him on the model of the real ones,
to open the iron safe of the order. He
committed the robbery the night after
he left the monastery, when all the in
mates were in bed, simply by unlocking
every door that came in his way. On
quitting Lille he decided to renounce
an ecclesiastical life. He stimulated
suicide by leaving his monastic suit on
the bank of a river, where they were
found. He swan to the other side, and,
as he had prepared the brotherhood for
suicide, they concluded, when his frock
and under clothing were found, that he
had drowned himself. Then under the
name of Berthier he proceeded to Bor-
deaux, and told every one he met about
the suicide of the monk Brochard, so
that he was never suspected of the rob-
berry, and would not have been detected
but for the money changer noticing the
numbers of the Austrian debentures.
Nothing could be more full than the
avowal. On the Judge asking whether
he had anything to add in eXtenuation
of his offence, he said that he had a
grave malady which science was power
less to cure, and that owing to its eff
fects on his brain he was unable to
preach. 1t was under the influence OF
this arrangement that he had planned
and executed the robbery which, he
owned, he went about in a cool and
cautious manner that seemed incompat
ible with the mental state he described.
His crime was abominable, and his re-
pentance was deep and bitter. A Do
mInican brother was called by Bro
chard's counsel as witness of the cir
cumstances of the robbery. He knew
nothing bevond what had been con-
fessed, but he informed the jury that
according to the civil law there had
been no robbery, all things being in
common in a monastery. Brochard had
perhaps taken more than his share, and
prematurely, out of fund of which
be was a proprietor, for under the
decree for the expulsion of the religious
orders this money was divided equally
among the brethren, who were to be re
garded as a religious family The pre-
siding Judge Indignantly protested
against this theory, but it went home
to the jurors, who returned a unani-
nous verdict of acquittal -London
NeuS.