The Sun. — 1844-05-20 (London, England)

ASSASSINATION. (From the Gazette des Tribunaux.) COUR D'ASSIZES DES BASSES PYRENEES (Pau). Jacques Hourquebie exercised the humble offices of garde champetre and garde forestier with rigorous integrity. The zeal with which he performed his duty excited the hatred of all marauders. There was one, in particular, who regarded him with a feeling of implac able resentment ; this was the accused, Mathieu Labuig, a man of a violent and passionate character, and great bodily strength. Jacques Hourquebie, it should be remarked, was deformed and of a slight make, and oppressed with infirmities, which rendered every movement of his body slow and painful. Mathieu Labuig, the accused, wearied with the constant watchfulness of the garde, which formed a continual obstacle to his marauding propensities, and irritated by an imprisonment which he had undergone for the space of three years, ceased not to utter the most horrible menaces against Hourquebie. Fifteen witnesses deposed as to the threats uttered " They will not kill that wretch," said Labuig, speaking of Hourquebie. " How I should like to cut off his hump with my bill-hook; what delight to crush him between two millstones." On one occasion he actually predicted the manner of his death, saying he ought to be killed with the bill-hook and thrown in the milldam. "Ah ! if I could find him between the dog and the wolf" (parts of the mill which are called chicn and loup). On one occasion last summer, the prisoner offered 40 francs to a witness to detain tli garde at a cabaret until night, that he, the prisoner, might have the opportunity of meeting him on his return home. On the 26th of last January, Hourquebie did not return home. His step-brother, who is the instituteur communal, uneasy at his absence, commenced an active search to discover what had become of him. At some distance from his house he found his brother's walking-stick, and a loaded pistol, which he usually carried for his own defence. There was also a large spot of blood on the road. On tracking the marks of blood along the road, he arrived at the mill-dam, where he found the body of the garde horribly mutilated by what appeared to be a bill-hook. Suspicion was instantly fastened on the prisoner. The police searched his house, and found a blouse which he had worn the night before ; it had been washed in some places only, and was hanging out to dry. On his being asked to produce his bill-hook, he showed one that he was not in the habit of using ; the one he actually used was afterwards discovered in a bee-hive. Footmarks were discovered at the supposed place of the murder. They presented an exact counterpart to the nails in the shoes of the accused. The evening of the murder, just after the " Angelus " had ceased, the garde was seen to pass, and soon after the accused. A witness deposed that about the same time h 3 heard four piercing shrieks, at some considerable distance. It appeared that before his arrest, the prisoner, conversing with a gendarme, said, " They cannot condemn without proofs." " They will find proofs," said the gendarme. The prisoner, after a moment of reflection, said, as if it were a thought full of consolation, " They do not now condemn to death." This deposition caused a general shudder in the Court. M. Laporte, Avocat•General, showed that though there was no direct evidence of the prisoner's guilt, there must Le a moral certainty of it. M. Lamargnere, with singular ability, endeay.oured. to show that the evidence was consistent with the prisoner's innocence. Labuig was condemned to 20 years' hard labour and exposure. He is 60 years of age.