Sacramento daily record-union., 1889-09-07
MRS. EAYBRICK IN FRENCH.
DRAMATIC STORY OF NINE. LAFARGE
AND HER CRIME.
A Pretty French Wife Ends an Unhappy
Alliance by Poisoning Her
Husband.

Late in the reign of Louis Philippe a
celebrated French dramatist, being en-
gagged in play in which the development
of insanity was a conspicuous feature, OBJ
tanned permission to visit the female luna
tic asylum of La Salpetriere. No sooner
had he set foot in the courtyard than he
was surrounded by crowd of demented
creatures, whining out their usual en-
treaties for Sfreedom and tobacco" He
noticed that one inmate, tall, gaunt
woman, with dark. flashing eyes, and some
remnants of good looks in her pallid face.
kept aloof from her sisters in misery and
did not condescend to join in their peti-
tion. As, under the guidance of Sister
of Charity, he was vending his way to an
other part of the establishment, the tall,
dark, pallid woman touched him on the
arm with a roll OF paper which she held
in one hand. Il am Marie Cappeile," she
said, "the Widow Lafarge. See here is
the letter which | wrote to my husband on
the night when he brought me home to lie
Chandler. | am innocent" Then, I'M
rolling the paper she began to read, or
rather to recite; for she bent not her eyes
on the paper, the contents of which she
had recited, by heart, hundreds upon hum
dreds of times. She was not by any means
Marie Cappelle She had been a govern
eSS in a school; but she had lost her wits
through incessant dwelling on the details
of a great Oyer of Poisoning which alb
sorbed public attention throughout France,
and it may be said throughout Europe,
during the better part of the year 1910,
and she had become the victim of con-
ing that she was Nine. Lafarge, convicted
of the murder of her husband by arsenical
poisoning. 1t is proposed, as briefly as it
may be, to tell the story Of the real and
most unhappy convict in question.
Marie-Fortunee Cappelle-there seems
almost a touch of the irony of fate in that
agnomen of "Fortunee'-was born at Vii
lers Hellon in Picardy, in 1916, and was
consequently only twenty-four years of
age when the terrible drama in which she
played so tragicai a part was enacted The
father was a colonel of artillery of some
distinction; and her mother dying early
left little Marie a fortune of about $4,000
She was educated at the famous School of
the Legion of Honor, at St. Denis, founded
by Napoleon l., and of which the original
directories was Madame Campan; and for
the discipline and intellectual curriculum
of this historic academy Marie Cappelle
appears to have entertained as lively a
hatred as Charlotte Bronte had for York
shire School at Cowan Bridge. Her father
having married again, and the idea of a
stepmother being altogether distasteful
to her, Marie was taken out of the estab-
Iishment at ST. Denis by two of her aunts,
Mesdames Carat and De Martens They
were ladies of some position; and under
their auspices Marie Cappelle seems. until
the time Of her marriage, to have mingled
in a circle of society which may be de-
fined as wealthy and cultivated, but not
devoid of SAVIOR of Bohemiauism. The
girl herself was not precisely beautiful, but
both her face and figure were full of at
tractive elegance. She had plenty of gov
ernesses and professors, and became highly
accomplished. She seems to have been of
a strongly impulsive and romantic temper
ament, and her maiden life was marked by
more than one sentimental episode very
closely approaching the proportions of es-
capades. She aSo formed a mysterious
friendship with a Mile. Nicolai who be-
came the wife of the Nicomte de Leotaud,
and who previous to her marriage, had
been the victim of a tendTeSSe for a certain
Felix Claye, who, by his own showing, was
an Italian of noble extraction, but who
seems TO have been more of the nature of a
Partisan cdijcOt. This Clave went on the
stage; the young Nicomtesse de LeOtaud
saw him on the boards; and dreading APP
parently that mis- ultimate intention might
be to extort biackmail from her, she con-
tided to Marie Cappelle valuable parlue OF
diamonds, with instructions to turn the
Jewels into money, and Herewith purchase
the silence of Clave and secure the return
of some compromising letters which she
had written him. Eventually the soidiSuat
Italian disappeared, but the diamonds were
not sold. They turned up, long afterward
in the possession of Nine. Lafarge, and al
her trial at Tulle she was charged not only
with poisoning her husband, but with
stealing the Jewels Of Nine. de Leotaud.
Meanwhile, in 1889, there arrived in
Paris NJ. Pouch-Lafarge, a widower of 2S,
and by profession an ironmaster of lie
Chandler in the Limousin. He yearned
for a second wife, and so sought aid and
agent, of one of whose congeners there is a
graphic picture in Lord Lyttons novel OF
"Night and Morning" The fact has not
been precisely ascertained, but the balance
of probability is that Lafarge was intro
duced to Marie Cappelle at one of the re.
ceptions of the Hymeneal Order; at all
events, five days after his presentation to
her the banns of marriage were published
h.a# 81, T.f,
been an individual Of Indifferent morals, OF
uncouth and uncleanly manners and hab-
It's and consummate liar to boot. One OF
his wife's complaints against him was that
his nails were always in half mourning .
He represented TO his aflianced bride that
his business rs an ironmaster brought him
IN $4,000 francs a year, and that his resi-
dence at lie Chandler was stately Gothic
castle, built on the ruins of an ancient
abbey. The pair were married, and started
for the Limousin; but they broke their
journey at Orleans, and here q tempestu-
Gus scene ensued between the bride and
bridegroom, curiously analogous to GER
tain Situation" in the "Alaitre de Forges
of NJ. Georges Ohnet. The spouse of the
master Of real life seems in the outset tc
have looked on her lord with feelings Of
simple loathing, and her adherence was
aggravated almost to frenzy when, arriving
at the house which was TO be her home
she discovered it to be no superb Gothic
castle, but a ramshackle and dilapidated
tenement almost denuded of furniture, and
there she found an acrimonious mother
and frigld sister-in-law. The iron works
were genuine enough, but I.afarge was des-
perately embarrassed, and for some time
past had been staving off bankruptcy by
'fying kites" or floating accommodation
bills in Paris.
In passion of despairing evaporation
on the very night of her arrival at Lt
Chandler, this new Pauline Deschappelle.
wrote To her very conuouplace Prince n