Northern Times. — 1859-12-14 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

ANOTHER ;EXTRAORDINARY TRIAL  IN FRANCE.  On Friday merning,, there came on at Tours a trial -which excites immense interest throughout France. The few last months ::have been.. unusually fertile :in causes ,c (Mares both in :France and England:; but I doubt whether anything more extraordinary in the juxtaposition of crime •cf the darkest dye with youth, beauty, social rank, family, and fortune ever occupied the attention of a court Of law than the case of MadaMe Lemoyne !,of Chinon and her daughter, Mlle. Angelina, who this day appeared at the bar of the assize court of the Indre and Loire, on a .eharge .of . infanticide. The undisputed .circumstances of the case are that Mdlle. Angelina, young- lady of 16, of extraordinary. beauty, having 'carried on an intrigue :with _the coachman, became eitthi4ae, and that as soon as the child came into the world it ,was burnt to ashes ky the unhappy -girl's mother. The latter alleges that the infant was >still-born, but the -daughter confessed -to the Judge of Instruction that dit was. born alive, that it had long beforehand been4treed befween herself and her mother that it *as to be degroyed, and that while she was in -the pangs of labour her mother prepared a funeral pile of wood, which had been laid in store -for the dreadful rpußose. _ _ _  Aadame Lemke., whose maiden name .was Meujot, •:-nelono.s to an old family in Touraine. Her father was a judge at Chinon; her grandfather sat in the Con- .volition, and voted for the death of Louis X`' I. Her !anoestors, the De Champignys' have worn the judicial ermine .in Touraine time out of, mind. She ,herself, when in the bloom cf youth, made what was considered :in. the country, a sitkalliance. She fell in lave with, and ,marnied 24. Lemoine, an attorney of Chinon, who had .sed„reely any fortune. The marriage was not a happy Lone, and after a- few years. she obtained .a decree !of ieperation, which left her in custody of her two •children—a son, now a, law student. in Paris, and Mdlle. :Angelina. Her fortune, about £4OO a year, was considerable for the litt4c...to3va of Chinon, where she habited a himdsome horse, and ranked, as one of the !grenAldies of the place. dl le . Angelica Leman° was universally admitted to be the prettiest girl indite town—no small reputation, nvhenave consider the proverbial beauty of the ladies of Touraine. The .eoeihman, the third considerable personage in this .drama, Peas by name, is-describe& by all the witnesses as a man cf extlaorclis.ary ugliness, awkward and ungainly, knorant, and loeing much older than his real age, ,which is only 29. He is unaffected by the slightest.suspicion of any Complicity in the crime. On the contrary, he believed that ;be was going to marry his young mistress until, on his asking her hand from her -mother, he wao turned out of the house.  Runieurs,of the condition of Madlle. Angelina spread in the town. The discharged coachman told all his friends of his amours, and said that he must of necessity be married to the young lady in the end. He imparted to many person:s kis idea of the income, he was likely to enjoy, and the scale of the establishment suited to his new rank in life. Madame Lemoine, .who was highly respected in the neighbourhood, resolutely made up her mind to brave out the rumours current against the honour of her daughter. The girl admitted that she had agreed with her mother that the child was to be burned as AO on as born; but, she says, that she made a condition that it .should not be burned while alive; she believes her mother killed it, though she knows not exactly how, before putting it on the wood. On the other hand, Madame Lemoine 'maintains that there was no previous agreement to destroy the child, but that finding it stillborn she suddenly resolved to put it out of the way, in order to save her daughter's honour. Such, in all its main circumstances, is the outline of this remarkable case. A despatch of this morning says that the court, which was one of the most spacious in France, was crowded with spectators from Blois, Saumer, Angers, &c., and, that a large proportion of ladies were among the audience. Angelina in her examination retracted the confession she made before the Judgeof Instruction, and said that she only agreed with her mother that the child was to be destroyed in case of its being born dead. One of the witnesses, a M. Lieubray, who had drawn the attention of the authorities to the suspicious circumstances of the ease, attempted suicide. On Sunday, the trial terminated. The jury acquitted Angelina Lemoine, but found her mother guilty, with extenuating eircttrastances. The sentence was twenty yeam' hard labour.