The Sun. — 1836-12-27 (London, England)

ASSIZE COURT OF AUSE.—A case is at present before this Court. It is a charge of poisoning, and eight persons arc implicated in the crime. The facts of the case are as follow :—An old man, named Varlet, of seventy-eight years of age, lived in a retired manner upon his property, and with him lived a niece, named Ambroisine Seurat, who constantly attended upon him ; and this niece, for the sake of possessing herself of the poor old man's money, administered a dose of poison to him, from the effects of which he died in a few hours. On the very night of his death she took considerable sums of money belonging to her murdered uncle, and deposited them in the hands of several neighbours, male and female, all of whom appeared with her at the bar, the greater part of the money having been found in their possession. A woman, who lived in the service of an apothecary at Troyes, stood charged with having supplied Seurat with the poison. The Keeper of the Seals was among the prisoners charged with having assisted in the spoliation which took place after the murder, and it was stated that this man and the principal female prisoner had, in the very presence of the body of the murdered uncle, indulged in the most abominable debaucheries. The parties were not brought to justice until public rumour could no longer be unheeded, when the exhumation of the body took place about a fortnight after the murder. The contents of the stomach were put to the analytical test, and the presence of arsenic was at once discovered. The guilt of the parties appears to be placed beyond a doubt, but the trial has not yet terminated. A provincial meeting of the physicians and surgeons of Munster is to be held in Cork, next month ,to consider a late legislative enactment affecting the profession. A vender of infallible nostrums, who recently travelled through the department of the Isere, in France, with his wife, exhibiting at every stage a quantity of five franc pieces ad captandum vulgus, and as so many proofs of the rapid sale of his wonder-working elixirs, recently paid dear for his imprudence at an inn at the Pont de Claix, where he put up for the night. Having, according to his custom, displayed his entire stock of worldly wealth, amounting to about 15,000 f., he had the imprudence to leave this sum enveloped in a linen bag, in a box under the seat of his cabriolet. The next morning, when he was on the point of continuing his journey, the box was found minus its valuable contents. Information was immediately given to the authorities, but as yet all attempts to discover the robber or robbers have been in vain. Dr. Davis, of Red Lion-square, called a few days ago on Mr. Perkins, in Great Marlborough-street, and after a few minutes' stay, on his return to his gig, which he had left at the door, his cloak was gone, the Doctor remarking that he thought it was quite secure, being within a few yards of the police-office. On Wednesday night last, the family of Mr. Wharf, Spinning-field, bought some cockles, but not having occasion for them then, the servant put them into a dish containing some salt and water, and put the whole into the cupboard. Late in the night, the servant hearing a squeaking noise in the cupboard, went down stairs, supposing that some of the kittens were in the cupboard, but what was her surprise, when on opening it, instead of seeing a kitten as she expected, she saw a large cockle out of the dish jumping up and down, and on taking it up, she found is had fast hold of a mouse by the tail. It would appear that the mouse must have been on the top of the dish, and its tail somehow or other must have been taken hold of by the cockle, The mouse had drawn the cockle to its hole, but the cockle being a very large one, the hole was not big enough to admit it. —Manchester Guardian. The fanatic followers of Joanna Southcote have been recently preaching at Sligo, in the north of Ireland.