The Sun. — 1847-08-27 (London, England)

DEATH OF THE DUKE DE  PRASLIN. M: de Praslin died on Tuesday afternoon, about five o'clock, in the prison of the Luxembourg. The cause of his death has been ascertained. It was with arsenic in a large dose that he poisoned himself, at the moment when he found the charges against him had become sufficiently grave to render his arrest and prosecution necessary. The severe vomitings which he experienced on Wednesday evening, and in the course of Thursday, appear alone to have retarded the effects of the poison, which, after being checked on Friday and Saturday, on Sunday resumed its former force. It is stated that since his arrival at the prison all attempts to obtain from him in his weak state any confession or explanation of the murder was fruitless. The Patrie states that he sometimes replied to the questions which were put to him in a vague and evasive way, and at other times said, " I know nothing." It is added that he has not had an hour's sleep since the order was first given for bis being considered in custody garde a vue. The Gazette des Tribunaux, after announcing the death of the Duke, says : " We said yesterday that the precise moment at which the Duke put into execution his project of suicide was not known; but front the 19th August, as we reported, a grave change in the state of his health created alarm sufficiently serious to cause M. Louis, his medical attendant, to be sent for, and, as the symptoms continued the same, and with greater violence, up to the moment of his death, it must be concluded that the poisoning took place on the 19th, and perhaps even on the first day of the preliminary examination—that is to say, at the moment at which the Duke felt, from the questioning of the magistrates, all the gravity of his situation. The physician who attended the Duke attributed his state only to the moral emotions by which he was agitated. But soon after the result of the investigation in the house gave a new direction to the appreciations of the physicians. The Duke, who had been made to quit his bedroom, was conveyed to a room on a higher story, and in a drawer of his table the broken handle of a poniard and a piece of the blade of a poniard, on which were some spots of blood, were discovered. Three little phials were also seized. In the course of this investigation one of the agents placed under the direction of the Chief of the Secret Police, and who had aided the domestics to convey the Duke, who was too weak to walk to the other room, deposited in the hands of the Juge d'lnstruction a little bottle containing a white substance, and a cambric pocket handkerchief stained with blood. They had been found in one of the pockets of the dressing-gown. It appears that at that moment the sufferings of M. de Praslin were such that it was impossible for the magistrates to question him on this new discovery. The contents of the three phials found in the table, as well as that seized in the pocket of the dressing-gown, were analysed by M. Chevalier, professor at the Ecole de Pharmacie. The result of this examination was that two of the three phials discovered in the table were found to contain laudanum, the third nitric acid, and that which was delivered by the magistrate to the agent oontained a very small quantity of white arsenic mixed It with laudanum, which had left it a yellow tint I was evidently the contents of this phial thatthe Duke had swallowed, for the examination of the different i morbid symptoms, and the aealy sabsorption of that dvomitings,ouble showed that there bad been an ton of the oment of that discovery, double poison. all the exertions of d to combat the effects of the Louis were employed From Doctorsthem Andral, Rouget, and swallowed, had not iytheprogdrueactedqumanotritatyl state of the Duke seemed poison, which, by reason consequences. nlm immediately under the influence of the employed, and it was possible transfer him on the 21st to the prison of the Luxto on his arrival, he was made to change energeticat first ttereaitmaTiPeneetve Luxembourg, where, his clothes. Although, during the passage, the vo. ml *tings took place several times, there was reason to believe that his state was far from being desperate, and it was possible for the committee of examination to static:A him to an interrogatory. The improvement in the state of the Duke appeared likely to continue on Monday ; but in the afternoon the symptoms of the poisoning re-appeared with fresh'intensity, and all the resources of science remained powerless. In the night the danger made new progress, horrible sufferings tortured the Duke, and all the characteristics of death presented themselves. Yesterday morning the Cure of St. Jacques de Haut Pas was called to the Duke, and conversed with him. Soon after the sufferings returned with greater violence, and the last agony commenced. It is said that an examination of the corpse will take place to-morrow in the presence of a magistrate specially delegated. The committee of examination yesterday continued its operations, and this day new witnesses will by heard. On Monday an examination was madethe hotel by_ M. Broussais, the Juge d'lnstruction, LY several at nz (Laure Desportes), and at the houses Praslin, at the residence of Mdlle. de persons who might have received her papers. An examination. virtue of was also effected by M. Legomdeeon