Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-28
And After Months of Labor and Skillful
Work, he Succeeds and Brings Hap
piness to the Widow.
4 PEACEFUL CHRISTMAS FOR HER.
hs Posshsr Lever When Confronted With the Evidence
Against Him, ccnfessss to Hsving
Killed the Count
AID IIGETZNs TEE COUNTESS HEART
rsY pUxLAP's CABLE conPANY.l


PARIS. Dec 27-The discovery of the
facts regarding a hitherto mysterious as
sassinatlon has brought peace to one
widowed heart here and made Christmas
tide to her a season of comfort, after under
going a period of mental anguish, extending
over months, if not OF absolute happiness.
A year ago the Comte de Nilleplaine was
residing with Nine. La Comtesse at his
chateau of Saint Chanol, not far from the
ancient city of Troyes, in Eastern France.
In the prime of lie, with a large fortune,
good looks, the Count hac plenty of idle
time upon his hands. AS an inevitable
consequence, being of an amorous disposi-
tion, he was weIl-known among the village
maidens of the vicinity, and thus made
friends with Julie Berthet
Julie was passably handsome, saucy and
not at all bashful. She was naturally fat
tered by the Counts preference, while he
was attracted by her want of reverence for
the nobility and her free-and-easy manners.
All would have gone well, and the old, old
story been told over again to its usual con-
clusion, had not Julie had a lover named,
singularlv enough, Aube, after the depart
ment
The Murder of the Count.
Aube was not overpleased at this proof of
jules powers of -2scination, and decidedly
objected to its further exercise. The hand
some Count, however, paid little atten-
tion to his rivals ill-concealed dislike, and
continued to press his suit with characteristic
ardor. These events occupied the late winter
and early spring months, and May was just
ripening into June, when one morning after
heavy thunder storm had drenched Troves
and its environs, and the clouds were still
hanging heavy over the Chateau Chanol, a
peasant passing along by-road came upon
the body of the Count lying stiff and cold
almost within the shadow of his own resi-
dence.
The local police were at once set to work
upon the case, and exhausted all the re-
sources of rural subtlity without gaining
the slightest clew to the assassin. Mean
time the widowed Countess, who had re-
moved to Paris to distract her mind from
painful associations, began to hear unpleas-
ant rumors in her letters from home.
Cruel Rumors Against the Countess.
The police not having met the popular
demand for the name and antecedents of the
criminal, the gossips set to work to unravel
the tangled skein after their own fashion,
and finding no other person equally inter-
ested in the Counts death, decided that the
Countess, if herself not actually the mur-
deress was privy to the dark deed, seeing
that she had come, at the early age OF 50,
into large and unencumbered estate
These cruel rumors stung the widow to the
quick, and without delay she laid her
troubles before NJ. Goron, the Chief du
Bureau de La Surete, or head of the Paris
detective force, resolved TO clear her reputa-
ti0n at all cost N. Goron at once contided
the case to one of his best men, by name
Bastart, who took the first train for Troyes.
aud began the quest which he has just ended
successfully. Disgusting himself as a
hawker and penetrating all the roads and
lanes in the vicinity of the ancient capital
OF Champagne, he made himself thoroughly
acquainted with the district.
The Detectives SlkiiifuI Work.
Finding in his rambes quiet country
i'm, ne made it his headquarters. and soon
discovered that it was also the rendezvous of
q gang Of pOachers. With fine detective in.
stinct he decided that the murderer lnIrbt
very possibly belong to this gang of law
breakers and began to court their confidence,
always making it APPOINT TO be on hand
when any of the gang met at the village
bostelry.
In this way il happened that Bastart
played cards almost nightly with the
poachers, and one evening last month he
rose from the table with the dishonest earn
ings Of nearly the entire party in his
pocket Not being there to make money in
that way, and wishing to do the
amiable, he offered to stand a
couple of bottles of mulled wine as
his share of the entertainment The pro-
DOsal being greedilv accepted, Bastart
slipped into the kitchen and managed to
pour into the pan, in which the wine was
being prepared, the entire contents of flask
Of pure alcohol. This soon unloosened the
tongues of the poachers, and the conversa-
tiOn alter time turned on the assassination
of the dead nObleman.
Discovery of the Murderer.
Sundry dark hints were given and inueu-
does made, that, pieced together, resulted in
producing the conviction in the detectives
mind thaG man named Aube was the mur-
derer. After collecting further in formation
that strengthened his belief in this theory.
including the facts regarding the amour be- |
tween the Count and the fair Julie, he also |
learned that the Count, in his capacity of |
landlord, had been unusually stringent in |
his treatment OF the poaeher who was his |
tenant.
rmed with these data the detective nh
tanned an order from the Central office for |
Aube's arrest who, with many protesta- |
tions, declared his innocence. On being |