Bridlington and Quay Gazette. — 1884-11-29 (Bridlington, Humberside, England)

FEARFUL FRENCH TRAGEDY.  A trial has just terminated at Caen which, as a revelation of the cold-blooded cruelty and tenacity in criminal purpose which a human being is capable of, is only second in intereet to the Fenayron case. In the latter the victim was the lover; in this it is the husband. The circumstances were as follows The victim and his wife, by name Aveline, were domestics in the service of an old maiden lady, 82 years of age, in Paris. Avelino, a man verging on 50, had inherited a little money, and bought some land in Normandy, and his pleasure in life was to spend a few days shooting the game that he reared for this purpose on his land. He was only waiting for the death of the old lady to retire to his little estate and there pass the rest of his days. In the , same house in Paris resided a French General, with his orderly, by name Gamier, a young man of 25. Gamier, in course of time, became the intimate friends of the Avelines, and about a year ago the lover of the wife, who, judging by her letters, appears to have been tortured by a thriet for excitement. She contracted a violent affection for Gamier, whose senior she was by 12 years. When Gamier left Paris with his master an effusive correspondence ensued between the lovers, from which it is seen that they had determined on the "auppreseion" of Avelino, and that their object was to marry and live on the wife's money, for she, too, appears to have saved no small sum. It was arranged between Gamier and the woman that they should proceed to the murder of Aveline in September, and henceforth the letters exchanged refer to the scheme as if it were one of the most virtuous of human resolves. Thus, on the 19th of March, Gamier writes :—" When we are mated, we' shall have but one prayer—namely, that God may preserve us thus for centuries." In a subsequent letter, he says —"1: shall go to mass to morrow, and pray !leaven to aid as in the accomplishment of the object we have been as long fighting for." The woman wrote in the sallie strain on the 25th of May : "I went this week to Notre Dames des Victories, where I had a taper burnt for the realisation of our project." She wrote on another occasion of Aveline, " He says he is ill (she had already begun operations). Ah. If God would take pity on me When he coin. plains I praise God in my heart." As regards her relations with her husband, she had nothing, as she confesses, to complain of. "I would," she writes, "I could blame Avelino for something, but there is nothing." She made several abortive attempts to poison her husband, and at length it was resolved that the only way to get rid of the poor man was to shoot him during the shooting season, when in Normandy. Gamier came down, and he and the wife concerted the measures to be taken. She placed him herself in ambush. On the firat occasion he , lacked the courage to fire, but the second time ho shot Avelino dead. Gamier sought to cast the blame on his mistress, whose behests he blindly carried out. The woman did not retaliate, and ' during the trial wrote a consoling letter to her lover, in which she looked forward to their meeting and yet marrying in New Caledonia. She was not aware that women were not sent to New Caledonia, but expiate their crime in France. The jury found both guilty, but Gamier with extenuating circumstances. The woman was therefore sentenced to death, and Gamier to penal servitude for life. The extraordinary feature in this strange trial is the thorough and yet almost unconacioue depratity of both parties, but especially of the woman, tho character of whose moral perversity is almost unique M the annals of sane criminals.