The Sun. — 1847-07-07 (London, England)

REMARKABLE CASL OF  DECEPTION. A GPrrnan ccllvetion ,u remarkable trials has just bcen pubiis;i• d.. Foch c extv ert,..hi, 4 ~ IS • P ; • , ' ;  Ii":1l~ .  ~- H . ~! 1  y  ~tlr*  eene, a: a w.el , • ,nee.s•i tt eeeied of teel years, as a wealthy tu.•:chant travelling with hie family for pleaeure. At Heidelberg, especially, and in the neighbourhood of that city, he twice resided for a length of time, on each occasion with his wife and family—an object of general esteem and admiration. His establishment was of the richest kind ; his entertainments were noble and frequent ; his manners, except for a certain tendency to boasting, were thought to be in the highest degree winning and delightful. The pubic regard acquired by a prosperous air and sociable disposition was enhanced by the domestic virtues and admirable conduct of hie_ very h,elsome wife. She seemed to be a pattern of propriety—cheerful and amiable when in c enpitny, but greatly preferring retirement ; in which she dent. tl ltarsett i,h f xempiary care—especially during the frequeet ales( rice of her husbnn 1 on short !nisitiess journeys—et) the educecation of two lovely and see 11 conducted children. After this happy family had lived for some time in Heidelbere, universally popular and adinhed, in 102 some questionable circumstances took place in connexion with the member.; of a family that litol b. come intimate with the Grandiseon4, in which en unaccountable loss of money cane to be talked of, with sorce other strange transactions, but all in a manner that appeared to reflect chiefly on ere of the young torn of that family, who hal fallen, as it seemed, hopelessly in love with the merchant's beautiful w:fe. The matter came to no certain conclusion ; the youth fled, and the Grandissons left Heidelberg in consequence of the disgust which this occurrence had caused. Eight years later they reappeared there, with the same splendid equipage and living in the same admirable manner. This second sojourn lasted for three years, when a mere accident led to the discovery of the facts which render the case surprising. The wealth of Grandisson was the fruit of a regular plunder of the public mails, which, without any accomplice in the act, he had systematically carried on for years with entire impunity. His short absence was employed on expeditions of the kind; during which he must have committed almost countless robberies of large sums of money and other valuables, without detection in a single instance,— returning to the bosom of his family with the plunder which he had coil, cted. The discovery was brought about, during one of these absences, by a letter, intended to extort money, from one who had accidentally found out some of his minor peculations and had traced the offender at last to his abode. It then became apparent that the whole life of this flourishing person had been a series of every kind of theft. While the wealth gained by his larger felonies was expended in keeping up a stately appearance, he could not repress the petty desire of stealing any trifle that fell in his way, in shops, dwelling houses—nay, even in the very place where he lived on the footing of a grand personage. Yet of this not a suspicicrt was raised until the detection of his greater robberies had come to pass. The condition and history of the wife are hardly less curious than this long success of a wholesale system of plunder combined with the incessant practice of the meanest pilfering. She appears to have been at once conscious of her husband's iniquities, studious to conceal them, wavering between fits of abandoned conduct and long intervals o domestic propriety—but, on the whole, sick of the deception which she was made to practice and sincerely desirous to give a virtuous education to her children. Both husband and wife were mere adventurers at the outset. The man began his course of crime, when a valet, by robbing his master ; and soon afterwards entered upon a career of pretences, treacheries, and felonies, on the grandest as well as on the smallest scale,—so dexterously planned, and so long undetected, that the story of them sounds more like a romance than a reality of the nineteenth century. To complete the tale, it may be added that the culprit, when apprehended at .Berlin, escaped punishment by committing suicide, in • meaner showing desperate resolution, before his examination could take place.