The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1886-12-10
SELECT STORY.
A STRANGE FRENCH STORY
BY GUY DE MAUPASSANT.

The counsel for the defense had
pleaded insanity. How could so strange
a crime, he asked, be otherwise explain
ed.
Among the reeds, near Chatou, two
dead bodies had been found one morn
ing, with their arms twined about each
other--a man and woman, both we'll
known members of fashionable society,
rich, not young, and married only the
year before-the lady having been
three years a widow.
They were not known 10 have had
any enemies-the bodies had beed rob-
bed. 1t appears that they had both
been stabbed with some long, pointed
instrument, aud then flung from the
bank into the river.
The inquest had not brought any
fresh facts. The boatmen OF The neigh
borhood were questioned in vain, and
the authorities were on the point of
abandoning the investigation, when a
young cabinet-maker OF the neighbor-
ing village, named George Louis, and
nicknamed "Le Bourgeois" voluntarily
gave himself up as the murderer.
In reply 10 va ious gu stions asked,
he answered only this:
81 knew the man for two years l
knew the woman only for six months
past. They used often to come to get
me to mend old furniture for them, be-
cause ] am good hand at the business" "
And when they asked him:
"What did you kill them for :"
He replied obstinately:
II killed them because I wanted TO
kill them
Nothing further could be got out of
him.
The man was of illegitimate birth no
| doubt as a child he had been first left
in the care of paid nurse in the coun-
try, and had been subsequently aban-
doned by his parents. He had no other
real name than George Louis, but, as
he grew up, he proved t, be remark
able intelligent boy, with naturally fine
tastes and good manners. and his COM
rades had, therefore, nicknamed him
'the bourgeois" by which name alone
he bt tcame subsequently known. He
had the reputation of being remarkably
skiful at the trade of cabinet maker,
which he had adopted. He was even
able to do some wood carving. He
was also said to he very excitable in
his disposition-=a believer in Commun-
istic and even in Nlhilistic doct,ines--
a great reader of sensational novels
and tragioal light literature-also a
man of come influence at elections, and
a first-rate stump orator at working.
mems meetings or political gathering
of farmers
The counsel for the defense had
pleaded insanity
How, indeed, was it possible to sup
pose that this workman could have
knowingly killed his best customers
rich and generous customers, as ths
prisoner himself had admitted custom
ers who had given him more than 800C
francs worth Of work to do in the las,
three years 0here were his books tc
prove it)i There was only one explain
alton possible insanity--the insanity
caused by the long haunting of one
persistent idea-the idea of the dectasss
the man who deems himself socia
outcast, and who Nsenges himself OF
two bourgeois of al the bourgeois
Here the lawyer madet skilful aliusior
to the nickname of LIE Nourgaois, Civ,
en- by the country people to this found
ling, and he cried out
''ls not the very name an irony, and
an irony well calculated to intensity
still more the nervous exalLation oi
this fatherless aud motherless boy
H. Is an ardent Republ can. Nay !
what do | say2 He belongs to thai
very same political party which the
republic shot down or transported fol
life in former days, but to which she
opens her welcoming arms to-day
the party OF those with whom incen
diarism is principle, and murder the
most ordinary of political methods.
"Those atrooious doctrines-publioly
proclaimed to-day at mass meetings.
are the cause of this mans ruin. III,
heard Republlcans-yes, he even heart
women, women !-clsmor for the bloc,
of M Gambetta and for the blood o.
NJ Grevy-his i'll. balanced mind cap
sized under the shook-a thirst 10
blood came upon him-a thirst for tn
blood of the bourgeois
at is not this man should be con
demned-it is the Commune
Murmurs of applause passed through
the Court room. Everybody felt tina
the counsel for the defense had wo
his case The counsel tor the prosecu
ton did not even make an attempt I
reply.
Then the judge put the usual forma
question TO the accused;
"Prisoner, do you wish to say any
thing further in your own behalf 7"
The man got up. He was of lo'
stature and frail aspect, with fiaxer
fair hair, and bright steady, gray eye
A powerful, frank and sonorous voic
burst from the chest of the slends
youth, aud immedistely-with I'll
utterance Of his very first words-el
tirely changed the opinion that Il
audience had previously formed of hic
He spoke loudly, andfn deolam
tory manner, but so clearly that ever
| syllable was plainly audible. even