The Sun. — 1862-07-31 (London, England)

FRENCH ROMANCE.  1 The Court of Assizes ofSrine ttied on Saturclay a youeg man named Hai ven•, a deshrter from :ti acoh named last, neavr dtiti, eeo ttotireloo, t the Belgian army, or, a charge of murdering, on the Aubervilliets, a 10th th's,:bl. youngw ith .tom he cohabited. It appeared from the evidence that he had been a sergesut in the BelL4ian service, and bad embezzled funds belonging to his company amountieg to about 300 f. Finding himself unable to conceal this defalcation, he determined to desert, and having been entrusted by an officer with four banknotes of 100 f. each to get change, be absconded with thum, and the woman Vancolhen, with whom he had become acquainted in a house of ill-tame, accompanied him in his flight. Accordieg to the prisoner's statement, which was supported to a certain extent by a letter written by the woman Vantche othtewno fugitivestoa person had of ahergr eed toproceed to Paris, acquaintance at Brussetlss: and there, after spending all their money, to comrnManu.cide together. 1 his project they determined . ctaerhr,y and oweeffnetc to oo an I evening!ohe o:ly place I,h en oe at the th e 1 0 fortt h o o ft t o Aubervilliers for that theperpooset;laws prisonerheardthe ball from which h there dischargedaeriteied at pistol ar w the left eye and lodged in h iowould the brain. The prisoner, then, recording to his i o ecc mat, walked on a little farther, and attemptedvr three times to shoot himself, but the pistol not go off. He then returned to the woman, and at the same moment some gendarmes from Aubervilliers, who had been informed that a woman was lying insensible in the road, came up, and to them he pretended that he and the woman had been attacked by two robbers, who had taken 300 f. from them, and fired a pistol at his companion. The woman was sent to the hospital Lariboisiere, where she died a fortnight afterwards. On going to the spot the next morning the gendarmes found a double-barrelled pistol, oee 'carrel of which had burst and the other was still loaded, and a close examination of the ground led them to the belief that the story of the robbery was false, as only the footsteps of two persons could be found near the spot. The prisoner was consequently then interrogated, and be then confessed that he and his mistress had agreed to die together, and that he had discharged the pistol at her, and afterwards tried to kill himself, but in vain, as the pistol missed fire three times. The woman when she first recovered her senses at the hospital, told the same story about the robbers, but three days later she gave a very different account, saying that the prisoner fired at her twice and then attempted to strangle her. She said nothing of any agreement to commit suicide together, but that such a project had been entertained was proved by her own letter written a day or two Uefore the crime. The counsel for the defence argued that suicide was not a crime in the eye of the law, and that it wasadoubiful point whether a man who assisted another in committing suicide was guilty of murder. Merlin held that he was not, and a judgment was given in that sense in October, 1834 ; hut afterwards, in 1839, M. Dupin, then Procureur Gullet-al, brought this question betore the Curt of (;as-ation, wnich decided that the above judgment was wrong in law, and siace then Merlin's theory had been generally abandoned, though many eminent juris consults still uphel I it. As to the second contession of the woman Vancothen, the defendant's counsel maintained that it was dictated by a spirit of vengeance. After hearing the reply of the Advocate-General the jury retired, and in less than half an hour returned into court with a verdict of guilty of murder, but without premeditation, and they also admitted extenuating circumstances. The court accordingly condemned the prisoner to 10 years' hard labour.