The Washington times., 1894-10-17
Woman s L0u6
and Haf6.

| says correspondent OF the New York Press.
One OF our trio was retired French secret
service officer, the other an Englishman who,
at the end OF the Eastern war, had forsaken
the dull life of war correspondent for the
eventful one of dairy farmer in Essex, and
the third-mysef. Our conversation turned
upon the points of agreement between the
| French character and that of the Spaniard
and Italian.
Speaking of revenge" said the French
man, sit is not all in Italy or Corsica. 1t Is
! instinctively in all the Latin nations and wa
French have plenty OF it. too. Revenge is par
ticularly feminine trait with US, and the po-
lice records show that so per cent. of crimes
| whose motive is revenge are committed by
! women
1.-The strangest thing of all is that the re-
| venge of the Frenchwoman is not always in
spired by hate, and that she sometimes loves
| the man she Furnishes with the most unsoften-
ing vengeance. When was a young man in
the secret service a case was much talked Of
which will illustrate this"
He lighted fresh cigar. while we drew up
our chairs, knowing that good story was
| coming.
after vidocq," he continued. "who was
| perhaps the greatest detective France ever
had, his successor, Coco Lacour, placed the
spy system, which had made Frances police
! the best informed in the world, in the hands
! OF ex-convicts, and the system fell into dis
repute. Then came the great Canler as chief
| OF the secret service, who took hold with an
iron hand, did away entirely with the convict
| service. which had served only through fear
and established an entirely new order OF
! things.
''Canlers plan was to work to a great ex-
| tent with women. He believed them superior
to men as detectives because of their inherent
| love OF intrigue. Canler is said to have en-
| ployed in his spy system women from every
class In Paris, from the lowest courtesan to
the highest of the nobility. and by means of
the latter he succeeded in unmasking some of
the plots which might otherwise have over
Whemed the state.
For number of years the most valuable aid
! given to Canler was that of a woman named
Bourtin He himself in his celebrated me-
moirs attributes much of his success to this
| woman, but when he wrote all of her story
was not told.
''She was said to have been born of good
French family and TO have run away when a
mere girl to become the mistress Of criIni-
nal living in the Quarter st. Denis. She was
q woman Of great beauty, and it was by her
| management that her lover became the leader
| of one OF the most finely organized and most
! dreaded band of criminals in Paris. Three
| different times it was thought TO have been
| rooted out ana the leader was sent TO prison,
| and each time his release was the signal for
series of most daring and mysterious crimes.
1.-The woman was well known in Paris but
| she laid her plans with such extraordinary
! skill that the police could not find proof
against her, and she had such hold upon
| the members of the band that not one of them
| was ever known TO have involved her in
/ confession. On one OCCASION it is said, on
\ the eve of daring robbery, she contrived to
| weave mesh of suspicious circumstances
| -
| detailed specially to watch her movements,
and, incredible as it may seem, forced him to
! be silent party to the crime by the threat
| that if he exposed her she would declare him
TO be in league with the band. This shows
| the tremendous audacity of the woman and
also her ingenuity.
At length, however, the police secured a hold
! upon both man and woman and they were
sentenced at the same time to five years i'm
| prisonment at hard labor. The woman i'm
/ medistely communicated with Canler. prom
| ising important revelations as the price of her
! pardon Canier accepted the agreement, and
| she was set at liberty. but the willy chief re-
| fused to pardon the man, judging that
! through him he might retain a hold upon her
! She loved this man with a love that would
| have made her sacrifice her companions her
| life and her soul for him, and Canler knew it,
| He therefore made an agreement with her
| that If she would serve year under his or
ders as a secret service spy he would see that
| the man was pardoned.
I 'She agreed 10 this and went to Toulon,
| where she visited every evening the bureau
| of the chief OF police and made her revela-
| uoDs. The extreme beauty OF the woman
and her powers of fascination had brought
! into her power some of the foremost states
men of France, and she had lived as complete
double life as can be imagined. With her
| only desire TO obtain the mans freedom, she
| kant nothing hack PnDpAaliDO nothing She
| betrayed her old comrades in crime and dis
| closed ripening state plots. She pointed out
men who were dangerous, and they were put
under surveillance. She enabled the police to
| put their hands upon the authors and to clear
! up the mystery shrouding crimes OF the past.
| In all of this duplicity the woman ran a terri
BILE risk, for if it had been known all the
| beauty in the world would not have spared
| her an awful vengeance. Canler did not re-
pent of his bargain, and at the end OF the
! year the man was pardoned and her connec-
| ton with the police then ceased.
This, if anything could. shows the supreme
| love OF the woman for her criminal lover
| and yet hear the sequal-
''The man became infatuated with another
| woman. and the woman Bourtin discovered
! it. 1t was without doubt only a passing
| fancy, but the fact had no palliation in her
| eyes. She covered him with scorn and drove
him from her and went to live in another part
| of the city.
"An old or ne was finally raked up against
him, and though it was said she could have
| cleared him she did not open her lips He
! was condemned to the galleys for life. and
| though she went to live where she could see
the walls of the prison which held him, she
made no effort 10 gain him pardon as she
had done before. During the years that fol-
lowed she never attempted to communicate
| with him in any way and was never known to
mention his name, but in spite of the fact
| that she never forgave him, she loved him.
| The proof of this is that when he was killed
in quarrel with another prisoner she Sc
cured his body, buried it, and lived beside It
| till she died"
When he finished there was a rather long
pause. 1 was very content to remain in the
audience, and my English friend, the one
| time journalist, was stretched out medita-
lively, blowing smoke rings. Finally the
latter spoke:
1.-The worst of it is he said, "that one can
not lay this appetite for revenge to the crimi-
nal instinct or lack of morals, which was
evidently the most noticeable thing in the
character of the woman Bourtin. Such things
| are being worked out around US here in Paris
! every day, imagine, if we could only see
them. l know OF one case of the kind in
Partisan high life-and so would you il I
mentioned the names. which don't intend to
do, for they are very we'll known here. The
story is this:
when 1 was writing from Paris here-and
| incidentally doing occasional bits for the Fig
aro-I had friend, a young marquis, who
| since then has made a great name for himself
in journalism in the capital. He was married,
but it had been marriage of ambition, and
unfortunately for both persons concerned a
most unhappy one.
''There was woman living in Paris-she is
still here-a Frenchwoman, but one who had
married, against her parents wishes, a young
/ Polish comte who was busiIY occupied when