Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-12-09
that of M. de la Licterie, the man whose
Ifa had been ATTEMPTED.

His appearance, as he walked up &c
the bar, attracted the sympathy OF all
present. He was man of about thirty
wears. handsome, well.dressed and evil
IDENTIFY belonging to the highest class OF
society. l looked at Lebrun when this
witness entered. His peaceful face be-
came trans6gured, and his expression be
tokeued that the bitterest passions were
working within him. At sign from
the President the two wardens laid their
hands upon the prisoners's wrists. IL
was wise precaution, for l believe that
otherwise he would have made an at
tempt to get at the young man
''It's some love affair, parbleu mutt
tered the reporter of one of the Partisan
journals to one of his colleagues, who
was sitting behind me. "It Is revenge
on Don Juan, that is clear"
II don't think so, answered the other,
the men had never met. Besides look
at the difference between their ages.
But hush! the witness has taken the
oath aud is beginning to speak"
"My name is Guillaume de la Lie
terie," deposed the witness. Il am
twenty. eight years of age. have no
profession, and live on the revenue OF
my estates in Poitou. l do not know
tho prisoner. and had neither seen him
nor known of his existence until ON the
Sh of last September. reside IN
Paris. One day toward the end OF
August my attention was called by my
valet to an advertisement that had ap'
peared in the Figaro and, / believe, in
all the other Parisian papers. in whihh
the son of Bllnche Maillart was re-
quested to put himself iuto communica.
ton with notary Labrun, of the Cours
Boleldieu, at Rouen. Complimentary
details satisfied me that l was the per.
son referred to. There was some legacy
due me, it was stated. l took no no.
tice of this advertisement. Why? Oh,
mon Dieu! the reason is clear enough. l
have already more money than know
how to spend. An increase would have
been burden. Then was too lazo to
write, and l dreaded all the bother of a
legal business. However, the adver-
tisement was SO persistently repeated
that anxious to put a stop to the un-
pleasant notoriety that was thereby be-
ing given to the name of my sdored
mother, who is dead. l caused M.
Lebrun to be written to. Wanted, the
son of Blanche Maillart,' had become
the gag of the day in Paris. You can
Judge how great was my anxiety to stop
this matter My letter was answered by
return of post. 1t forms one of the
pieces de csnyiction, think. Lebrun
wrote me that several hundred thousand
francs, and many valuable, antique
Jewels awaited the lawful heir OF the
late Blanche de Maillart. The money
left me Indifferent; the jewels--I am u
collector in my lost moments--tempted
me. After some further correspondence l
came to Rouen and called on the notary.
He received me with much courtesy and
asked me to produce my papers, 1t ap-
peared that the legacy came to me
through a remote ancestor, by the ex.
tnction of a collateral branch of our
family, and that the papers of my ances.
tors, as far back rs my great.grandfather,
who died in 1850, were necessary to
establish my claim. These papers l
had left in my apartment in Paris, and
l doubt if l should have taken any fur
ther trouble over the matter if the pris-
oner had not shown me an exceedingly
rare cameo ring, which he said, was the
least valuable of the collection of pre-.
cious stones to which he was entitled.
In consequence / sent my valet to Paris
for the missing documents, and fixed a
second rendezvous with M. Lebrun, for
the Ill III of the month. On that day, at
o'clock in the afternoon, called at his
house. was received and shown up
stairs by an old woman. The house APP
peared to beIentirely deserted. None of
the clerks | had seen there on the pre-
vious occasion were in their places.
was ushered into the notary's private
room, and was received by him with
much aft ability. l handed him my pa
pers and sat down opposite him, on the
other side of the writing table, while he
examined them. This he did with the
greatest care comparing them with some
notes he had in a big black book. After
about half an hour had ella sed he laid
the papers down and said in a tone
which struck me as peculiar: Yes, M
Guillaume de la Licterie, Baron de Gran
bourg, Count de Ia Haute .futaie, you
are the man. You are the man, he re-
peated, cropping with one hand in a
drawer OF the table in FROM of him. At
that moment noise in the street at
tracted my attention. l turned round
and looked out of the window. 1t was
nothing, and so l Immediately turned
back. l found Lebrun standing in front
of ME. He held one hand behind his
back; in the other was that old print
which see on the table there. "Will
you kindly look at this engraving? he
said, repeating all my names, and put
ting the picture into my hands. 1t was
rough print from wood block, evil
IDENTIFY of last century, 'and not uninter.
esting. 1t represented man stretched
out on a mattress, to which he was
bound down by a complicated system OF
straps attached to iron rings in the floor
on which his bed was laid, and passing
in various directions over his body. The
man was dressed in the costume OF a
peasant of the middle of last century,
and had a most repulsive appearance. l
was still bending over the curious print
when l received violent blow on my
head. sprang to my feet, and at the
same time Lebrun leaped onto me,
brandishing huge knife in his hand.
1 warded off the blow--and received a
severe wound in my arm. then closed
with him, and soon mastered him. The
noise Of the scuffle had attracted the at
tention of the housekeeper who, proba-
bly, thinking that l had assaulted her
master, had called in the police. To
these I handed over our friend, and re-
turned shortly after to Paris, to get rid
of the legacies he had given me. Be.
sides the blow on my head and the stab
in my arm, the gentleman had bitten
my hands severely as / held him down
on the floor can offer no explanation
as to the motive of his conduct. l pre-
sumo that much study had made him
mad. bear him no ill.will, and | hope
the court will deal leniently with him. Be-
yond disappointing me about those an
tique Jewels he has, en- resume, done me
no harm. | hope M. lie President will
now permit me to retire. Rouen is
a obarminu citv. medieval and pictur.