The Sun. — 1861-09-06 (London, England)

EXTRAORDINARY TRIAL IN FRANCE.  On the 27th of May last, at six o'clock in the morning, a poor old woman, named Champfort, who was milking her cows in her stable, was struck down. suddenly by two blows from behind. She fell, shrieking for aid, but managed to turn round and recognise her murderer. It was a young man, ag!d 20, Leopold Parisot, who had come to her the Twevious day to ask for work, and had been at once a Omitted to her table. The murderer was soon arreste d ; but suspicions ware excited that Parisot had acco saplices in his crime, and on August 24 five persons were brought up at the Court of Assizes de l'Aube. These were, first, Leopold Parisot ; second, Marie Rosalie Dornon, wife of a' butcher named Virey; Marie Jeanne Champfort, wife of a farmer named Garnier, and the two husbands. It came out on i'avestigation that the woman Gamier was an object of terror to all the inhabitants of her district from her irregular life and revengeful character. It was found also that she had been prosecuted for procuring abortion and robbery. The evidence went to show that the woman Garnier and her husband had offered Leopold Parisot a sum of money to murder the poor old woman, their mother. In his previous examination Parisot at first denied the crime, but ultimately confessed his guilt. According to the charge the woman Gamier had contemplated the crime for some time, and had proposed it to several people, amongst others to a servant named Henault, with whom she maintained an adulterous connection •, on his refusal, she applied to the two Vireys, and they got Parisot to consent to do the murder for a consideration. Parisot himself had been formerly convicted of robbery. After his release from prison he went to the house of the Vireys, and was at last persuaded to commit the crime by the woman Virey, with whom ho was on terms of improper intimacy. Whilst he was hesitating, on the very day of the murder, Virey came to him with a bottle of brandy, made him drunk, and directed him to kill the old woman. On examination Parisot said, " I got into the house by the garden. I had no arms. I took up a large stake. The woman Champfort was in her stable milking. I struck her twice on the back of her head and she fell. Her fall shocked me so I could not do any more, and I ran away." On being cross-questioned as to the complicity of the Vireys, he persisted in the assertion that all he had stated respecting them was true. The Vireys and the Garniers denied the charge. M. Pierre Urbaine Simonneau, priest at Currangy, gave the .following evidence :—" Early in 1860 Madame Champfort came to me to apprise me of her intention to bequeath part of her fortune to the Church. I asked her to reflect, reminding ber that she had a daughter and a grandson. Ste said, ' My daughter shall have nothing from me; she has dishonoured me; she even tried to strangle ande,but for her father would have done so.' The day of the crime a person said to me, 'lt is note day wonderful; she has been sold and paid for some time.' On the 3d June following Madame Champtort told me that she had acquainted her daughter with her determination to disinherit her, and she said, ' She did not kill me then ; but mind, sir, I shall not die a natural death.' " Isidore Henault, in the service of the Garniers, sevienratilma times te assisted deposed as follows :—" For Dome years I have been on terms withinMeaadrrayminegGeaurVehre,raavw dielhs ofave vengeance. She had conceived a violent hatred against her mother, becaase she wished to disinherit her. Several times she spoke to me about killing her, and offered me I,ooof. to do it. One day during the fair at Euxy, she took me with her to her mother's house, and had with her a rope to strangle her with. 'We were to throw her in the well, and , put her sabots by the side to make believe she had I committed suicide. On reaching the house I refused to enter and went off." A woman named Richard was the next witness. She said—" One day the woman Virey brought the woman Garnier to my house. After a little conversation the latter said to me that I passed for a wise woman, and that if I could find some means to cause her mother's death she would pay me well. The nexth day she came again. She told me that her mother wished to disinherit her, and that she would g Y give me I,ooof. if I could get rid of her. Some daa ouys-: afterwards she took me into the counting i She of the Vireys. Her husband waefoPre_7 r 2 00n0f. if I offered to write me out a the i to give ' Be quick, mere Richard, fo_rhse cairn 0 e to me several of the do '' would kill her mother. Whencihluee.rsefguse_:ligshe said, everything to the priest. the jury returned a get me to kill her taeinotdnh,at she had gone hermother.times afterwards to dteoloilbtdreyrna: She also rt mother with a rope, but that she had been preven . p. After an hour Leopold self to strangle he of guilty againstA Parisot, the ted by the barking verdict Garnier, yner, and the woman Virey, acquitting the . , the husbands of the two latter. The President condemned the woman Garnier to the punishnient of death, and ordered that she should be conducted to the place of execution en chemise, with her feet bare, and her head ' covered with a black veil. Parisot and the woman Virey are condemned to hard labour for lifejury . The signed a petition recommending the qoma,n Garnier to mercy.  Mr. H. Ashworth, Mr. Malcolm Ross, Mr. E. Ashworth, Mr. Gregson, and Mr. Napier also joined in the discussion, which turned principally upon the subject of land tenure in India. At the conclusion a vote of thanks, on the motion of Colonel Sykes, was given to Mr. Bazley and Mr. Alderman Neeld for their papers. A paper was then read by Dr. STRANG on the altered condition of the embroidery manufacture of Scotland and Ireland since 1857. Mr. H. ASTIWORTH read a paper on the connexion of the improvements in cotton bleaching with improvements in the condition of the factory popula tion. Professor