The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-12-25

uOuHCe HIS SpeeCn lot bne prosecution. lit
| was short, but powerful The court, he
| said was in presence of one of the most dan
| gerou5 of criminals--a murderer behind a
| hypocrite He could not explain the prs-
| oner's motive, but the motive mattered lit
| tie. Jealousy, or the mere wilful lust Of
| blood, who should say! A vile motive in
any case. The prisoner was as deSpicable
| and unworthy of mercy as the victim was
eminently sympathetic. The facts of the
case were proved 1t was with facts and
| not with suppositions they had to deal Pre-
| meditation, ambuscade and attempted exc
| cution having been established, the prisoner
had incurred the severest penalty of the
law. This penalty he 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
completely responsible. His sanity no one
could doubt of. He asked the court to re-
move from society one who had so entirely
forfeited his right to belong to it.
| thought all this unnecessarily severe
and very unsatisfactory, and | listened with
much anxiety to the prisoner when, on the
invitation of the President, he rose to make
his defense. We were destined to still
greater disappointment.
81 am ready for the scaffold," he said very
| quietly. 81 wished to kill the man. / re-
greet that failed to do 80. l deserve death
for my clumsiness. II, instead 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 so capital mistake.r
With these words he sat down, amid the
| hooting of all present ~
The procureur then rose again. ~ hare
nothing to add to my requisitoire," he said.
1.-The prisoner himself has fully established
the Justice Of my request against him"
A list of questions were given to the jury
to answer, and they retired to consider their
on nor ,
later amounted to one Of guilty with attenu-
atlng circumstances.
The prisoner was then sentenced to five
years solitary confinement.
sit is less than | deserved he said, as he
was removed you see, if | had stabbed
first instead of striking the business would
have gone by itself. But one always mis-
manages something
The unsatisfactory conclusion of this ex-
traordinary affair caused, 1t will be remem-
bered, the greatest excitement throughout
France The most varied explanations of
the notary's conduct were suggested and
discussed. Poor NJ. de la Licterie was
obliged to leave his beloved Paris to escape
from the persistent opportunities of those
who believed he held the key to this
mystery Alienist doctors inIumerable
visited the prisoner, but were unable, in
justice to science, to class him homicidal
monomaniac. 1t was also hoped that in
intense disappointment of the public, it was
learned one day, about five months after
the trial, that his mouth had been closed
forever. Notary Lebrun had died suddenly
in the night.
In common with thousands of other men
had been greatly Interested at the time by
this case. In common with scores | had
offered the public my Theory and my ex
PLANTATION, which, with many arguments, |
had supported. If | remember Alright /
preached from Lebruns conduct the SER
mon of Perversity, which SO eloquently in
spired poor Edgar Allan Poe. | considered
my analysis definitely 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 curiosity,
and soon the case was forgotten. If ever
Lebrun was referred to in conversation in
subsequent years it was as 'the little no.
tary with the iron mask a witticiSm
which, l think, was invented by writer in
lie Figaro.
A few days ago, however, chance cir
cumstance threw in my way what | firmly
believe is the key of this mystery
l was walking on the Quai des Grands-
Augustins, which like all the other quays in
Paris is full of secondhand bookstalls
Before one Of these / stopped. In box of
old books at ten centimes each | found
paper-covered brochure which attracted my
attention TWAS an odd number of series
of accounts Of the celebrated trials of all
ages and countries. On the fly leaf of this
pamphlet was reproduced a reduction of the
old print which had figured at Lebrun's
trial, representing man strapped down to
a mattress. Over this illustration was
printed the subject of the book: "Regicides
The case of Brunei"
In 1852 the life of Louis, the Well Be-
loved of France, was attempted by "a half
tsrgZn1 Norman a Rrt1nnnl tKrhN
had been ruined by the prosecutions of the
seigneur Of his village. He had addressed
many petitions to the King for the redress
OF his grievance without receiving any an
sWer This, together with other circum-
stances, mad prom Sted the unhappy man to
do justice, 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, however, of the ROYAL
clemency the miserable man was subjected
to the most revolving barblrities After be-
ing tortured in the cruelest manner he was
imprisoned in the ConciergeTi3, where he was
secured in the manner Illustrated in the
print above mentioned In this position he
was kept for three months The horrible
cruelty of his treatment will be understood
when it is added that the conduct 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 answer for his crime. The sentence
pronounced against the prisoner, who was
not permitted to enter one word in his own
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 accu-
sation of the said Jean Brunei, duly at
tainted and convicted of the crime of Lese-
Majestic, Divine and human, in the first
degree, for the very naughty, very abomin-
able and very detestable parricde commit
ted on the person of the King and in
atonement condemns the said Brunei to do
amende honorable before the principal does
of the Church Of Paris, whittier he will be
led and conducted in 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.
naughtily and proditoriously, he committed
the said very naughty and very a5ominable
parricide, and did wound the King with a
blow of knife in his right side, whereof
he repents and asks pardon of God, of the
King, of justice. This being done, he shall
be led and conducted in the said tumAril to
the Place de la Greve, and, on a scaffold
there erected, torn with burning pincers on
his breast arms, thighs and legs, his right
hand holding the knife with which he com
mitted the said parricide, to be burned in
fire of sulphur, and on the places where he
has been torn with the pincers there shall
be thrown melted lead, boiling oil, burning
resin. tar, wax and sulphur melted to-