The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-15
THE MAN WITH THE SCARED LIF

Walt Mason in the Kansas City Star.
EAR the town of Montluel, which
M is 12 miles from Lyons. France, ON
the Geneva road, there is a tract
of land which is accursed. No children
play there on the golden summer after
Moons; no lovers walk beneath the
spreading trees In the moonlight, and
when the peasants pass that way they
cross themselves and mutter prayers.
1t was in 1866 that hunter, thread
ing the thickets there, found the body
of a handsome young woman who had
been bruta1ly done to death. There were
six terrible wounds on her head and
face. She had been stripped of her
clothing, but her sheos and a black lace
cap were found hard by. The girl was
soon identified as Marie Baday, who had
for several years been a servant in
Lyons Before leaving that city she told
friends that she had been offered re-
markably fine situation at a chateau In
the country, and was going to take 1t.
The police in those days were baffled
as easily as they are in our own, so
Mdift Sicpt IL htA Sfo't % i''o
time before the mystery of her death
was cleared up.
On May &c, 1861, at II o'clock at night,
a woman knocked at the door of farm
house near Montluel and when the door
was opened she fell into the house ex-
hausted; her clothes were in ribbons.
Her shoes were torn and her feet bleed
ing, and her eyes were full of unspeak-
able terror: When she was able to talk
she told her story. She had been a SER
want at Lyons, and while she was cross
ing a bridge there, she was accosted by
a man who had the appearance of a re-
spectable farmer, a man with a scared
lip. He explained that he was the gar
dener at a chateau near Montluel, and
he had been instructed by his mistress
to proceed to Lyons and secure maid,
regardless of expense. His mistress was
a wonderfully generous woman; she not
only paid large wages, but was forever
making Christmas presents to the SER
wants. The proposition looked excellent
to Marie Pichon, and the nice kind old
gentleman who made 1t had such a sub
stantial appearance that there was no
questioning his sincerity. So she packed
her bag and accompanied him to Mont
luel. Leaving the train there, they
started to walk across country to the
chateau. which seemed long way off.
1t was dark, and she was becoming sus-
picious that there was something wrong,
and she was about to turn and flee when
the man, who had been walking ahead
of her,. wheeled around and tried to
throw a noosed rope over her mead She
avoided it and ran, and the would-be
murderer purslNd her. He was gaining
unon her; he was almost at her heels,
when she saw the farmhouse and reached
the door. The pursuer snarled like a
wolf and ran back into the woods.
The authorities. were notified at once,
and the police recognized the nice kind
gentleman at once when Marie Pichon
described him. His Scared lip was a
blemish familiar to everybody in the
pe;ghborhood. His name was Dumollard,
! and he lived in a neighboring hamlet
bearing the same name. He was known
as queer, morose, unsocial individual
who would have nothing to do with his
neiehbors The police went TO his house
and arrested him and his wife, and
searched the place. where they found
12Oc articles of womans attire and adorn'
n,ent. including cheap jewelry such as
French servants are given to. When she
| was arrested Madam Dumollard was
wearing a bloodstained cap that certainly
never belonged to her.
I~.xk HI {
wife, after undergoing the Latin version
of the third degree. confessed that hel
husband frequently, had occasion to use
spade and pickax at night. and she be-
lieved he dug graves with them. So the
policemen went to the lonely tract oi
land which has been accursed ever since
: end began exploring. They dug up two