Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-12-09

now demanded in the name of outraged
Justice. The jury, he hoped, would not
see in the prisoners age an Alternating
circumstance. The man was completelA
RESPONSIBLE. His sanity no one could
doubt of. He asked the court to re.
move from society one who had so en-
tirely forfeited his right to belong 10 it.
1 thought all this unnecessarily So
we're, and very unsatisft ctory, and
listened with much anxiety to the pris.
oner when, on the invitation of the pres.
|ident. he rose to make his defense. We
were destined to still greater disappoint-
ment.
81 am ready for the scaffold," he said
very quietly. 81 wished to kill the
man. l regret that l failed to do SO. /
deserve death for my clumsiness. If, in
stead of striking him that blow on the
head, / had stabbed him at once, the
matter would have been done. can
only express my regret at having made a
capital mistake"
With these words he sat down, amid
the hooting of all present.
The procureur then rose again: 81
have nothing to add to my requisitoire, "
he said. "The prisoner himself has fully
established the justice of my request
against him."
A list of questions were given to the
iury to answer, and they retired to con.
slider their answers. The verdict rem.
dered an hour later, amounted to
one of guilty with alternating circum
stances.
The prisoner was then sentenced to
five years solitary confinement.
sit is less than 1 deserved" he said,
as he was removed. "You see, if l had
stabbed first instead of striking, the
business would have gone by itself
de'uffairs auralt marche toute seule. But
one always mismanages something"
The unsatisfactory conclusion of this
extraordinary affair caused, it will be
remembered, the greatest excitement
throughout France. The most varied
explanation of the notary's conduct were
suggested and discussed. Poor M. de
Licterie was obliged to leave his beloved
Paris to escape from the persistent i'm.
porrunilies of those who believed he
held the key to this mystery. Alienist
doctors innumerable visited the prisoner,
but were unable, in justice to science, to
class him homocidal monomaniac 1t
was also hoped that in time he might
come to speak; when, to the Intense dis
appointment of the public, it was
learned one day. about five months after
the trial, that hismouth had been closed
forever. Notary Lebrun had died sud.
denly in the night.
In common with thousands of other
men l had been greatly intrigued at the
at the time by this case. In common
with scores had offered the public my
theory and my explanation which, with
many arguments, l had supported. If l
remember Alright | preached from Le-
bruins conduct the sermon of Perversity,
which so eloquently inspired poor Edgar
Allan Poe. considered my analysis
defnitly established after the prisoners
death. 1t is right to say that each one
of the other theorists thought the same
of his analysis. Time passed without
bringing any fresh food for our curios y,
and soon the case was forgotten, If
ever Lebrun was referred to in CONVEX
sation in subsequent years, it was as the
"ittle notary with the iron mask" a
witticism which think was invented by
q writer in lie Figaro.
A few days ago, however, q chance
circumstance threw in my way what |
firmly believe is the key of this mystery.
was walking on the Quai des Graads
Augustins, which, like all the other
quays in Paris, is full of second. hand
bookstalls. Before one of these l
stopped. In box of old books for ten
centimes each found a paper covered
brochure which attracted my atte ntion.
1t was an old number of series of ac-
counts of the celebrated trials of all ages
and countries. On the fly leaf of this
pamphlet was reproduced reduction of
the old print which had figured at Le-
brun's trial, representing a man strapped
down to a mattress. Over this illustra
tion was printed the subject of the book
"Regicides-The case of Brunei"
In 1852 the life of Louis, the Well
Beloved of France, was attempted by a
half crazed Norman peasant called Bru.
mel, who had been ruined by the perse-
cutions of the seignieur of his village.
He had addressed many petitions to the
without receiving any answer. This,
together with other circumstances, had
prompted the unhappy man to do JUS
tice. as he thought, by sacrificing the
master of his master. He struck the
King with knife one evening as Louis
XIV was leaving the Palace OF Versailles
for the Trianon The King, on having
him arrested, gave express orders that
he was not to be harmed. In spite how.
ever, of the royal clemency the miserable
man was subjected to the most revolving
barbarities. After being tortured in the
cruelest manner he was imprisoned in
the Conciergerie, where he was secured
in the manner illustrated in the print
above mentioned. In this position he
was kept for three months. The horri-
BILE cruelty of his treatment will be un-
derstood when it is added that the con.
duct of his case was in the hands of his
original prosecutor, the seigneur against
whose tyranny he had appealed to the
King. This person also presided at the
trial, scandalous even in those days of
partiality, at which Brunei had to an
swer for his crime. The sentence pro-
nounced against the prisoner, who was
not permitted to enter one word in his
defense, was of incredible severity. 1t
is reproduced in the book and runs:
"The court, the princes and the peers
therein in session, doing justice on the
accusation of the said Jean Brunei, duly
attainted and convicted of the crime OF
Lese-majeste, divine and human, in the
first degree, for the very naughty, very
abominable and very detestable rarricide
committed on the person of the King,
and in atonement condemns the said
Brunei to d the amende honorable be.
fore the principal door of the Church of
Paris, whittier he will be led and con-
Quoted in a tumbril, clothed in his shirt
only, holding lighted candle of wax of
the weight of two pounds, and there on
his knees to say and declare that, naugh-
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