The Sun. — 1840-09-03 (London, England)

NIEVRE  DREADFUL MURDER OF A MAN BY HIS WIFE. (From the Gazette des Tribunaux.) A woman named Guyonnet was charged with the murder of her husband and stepson by administering to them arsenic in their food. Tire prisoner's age was thirty-eight. She had been left a widow with two children about five years, when sire met with and married Pierre Guyonnet, with whose murder she now stood charged, as also with that of his son. Guyonnet was himself a widower, and also had two children. It was agreed between them that each should bring but one of their children into their household, and the others should be put out. The first few months passed off happily, and nothing interfered with their domestic harmony. At length, however, the wife was heard to complain that she had married a man who was in debt, and to express a wish that she was rid aif him. In the month of November last the husband was attacked with violent pains in the stomach, followed by vomiting. During eight days he was in great danger, and he owed his recovery solely to the natural vigour of his constitution. He had scarcely recovered when his son, aged about six years, became affected in the same way, and died in less than twenty-four hours. If the authorities had now inquired into the cause of the child's death, a second would have been prevented. But the unhappy man was fated to become the victim of the confidence he reposed in his wife—a confidence which, strange to say, was not shaken by the death of his boy. In the course of the January following he was again attacked with violent internal pains. He was obliged to retire to his bed, and in four days he was a corpse. The Mayor of the commune now refused to allow the burial of the deceased without an investigation of the circumstances attending his death. The body of the child was also exhumed, and both bodies were subjected to surgical and chemical examinations, the result of which was the discovery of arsenic in considerable quantities in the stomachs of both father and child. In the face of this conclusive evidence of her guilt the wretched woman thought it useless to deny it ; and she accordingly made a partial confession, taking care to give the matter the best colouring she could put upon it. Hcr story was, that in consequence of the threats of her husband she had prepared a plate of potatoes, with which she mixed some arsenic, and , left them where he might eat them if he pleased ; trusting to Providence, as she said (se reposant a la grace de Dieu) for the issue ; that during her absence at the house of a neighbour he had eaten them ; and that therefore she had not given them to him. With re• Bard to the child, she said that he had come by his death through the carelessness of his father, who had placed some portion upon a plate to kill mice, and that the child bad accidentally eaten some soup out of the same plate. The Counsel for the prisoner told the Jury that after her confession, he could only urge upon them that there were palliating circumstances regarding the teath of the husband ; and that in the case of the child there was no proof at all of her having caused his death. The Jury found the prisoner guilty of the murder of her husband, denying by the terms of their verdict the presence of any palliating cireitra,tances in the case, and the Judge immediately sentenced her to death. No sentence of death has been passed in this Court for ten years before, and it excited the most painful interest. I.le prisoner was the only person in Court who appeared unmoved. The miserable woman is near her confinement, and a considerable time will consequently elapse before her execution can take place.