The Express. — 1847-09-04 (London, England)

LAST MOMENTS OF THE DUKE DE PRASLIN. The Monileur of Thursday contains an official note of the secret sitting of es Chamber of Patill on Monday. The deliberation of that noble assembly turned chiefly upon the question of the poison taken by the duke, and whether he could have obtained it in prison or not. The question was let at rest completely by '.,e Duke Decases, grand referendaire, who detailed the following circumstances, which were listened to with intense interest "On Tuesday morning (the duke died en Tuesday evening), at the entreaty of the family, and to discharge what they considered a duty, the grand referendaire visited the. prisoner. The Duke de Praha complained of his sufferings. The grand referendaire observed that such sufferings must hairs bees occasioned by the poison he had taken, while the doctors had been misled as to its nature, and the proper mode of treatment by two empty bottles found in his secretaire, sad which had contained laudanum. The prisoner replied that he had not taken laudanum; and then, being pressed on the subject, he acknowledged that he had taken arsenic out of the phial found on Friday in his drawing-gown. The grand referendaire having asked how he obtained the poison, he declared that nobody had given it to him, and that he had taken it with him from Praslin the evening preceding the crime, exclaiming at the sane time, with great emotion, against the supposition that any one could have believed that he had provided himself with it for the purpose of poisoning Madame de Praslin. He avowed that he took the poison at the moment he perceived, by the measures taken against him, that there were grave suspicions on his account. Suicide, it was remarked,in presence of such en accusation, became a confesiion. Upend& the prisoner observed silence, but he repelled with segmeat the idea that he should have confided to any one the pro's* of his crime ; and as he interrupted these explanations by also of pain, the grand referendaere asked him if his mental aufferiage did not exceed tome of his body, and if they ought not to suggest to him the necessity of solacing such sufferings by the expression of that repentance that must lie at the bottom of his heart, adding that his family indulged the belief that he could have only committed such a barbarous crime in a mom, nt of insensate rage, which he now bitterly deplored. Raisiag then his eyes and hands to Heaven, the unfortunate man cried, with a strong yet trembling voice, (oh, si je le deplore.' The grand refereniaire then took the opportunity tosay to him, that at such an awful moment, in order to satisfy at once the Justice of God and man, he ought to make the expression of kis repentance as public as was his crime, and that a complete confession would at least, as far as possible, explain the delirium that had carried him away. The grand referendaire offered to go at once for the chancellor to rec- are his confession should he seem so disposed, or to take it himself at the moment. He listened to these words with great emotion, Sad appeared to labour under an in wield struggle ; then, after a little hesitation, he replied, lam too fatigued and suffer too math at this moment; tell the chance lor that I beg him Dot to come till to-morrow morning.' His trouble of Mind was too visible, and his sufferings too great, to allow n( this interview being prolonged. The doctors had jest declared that it was of urgency t? offer the succour el religion to the prisoner. As no clergyman had been aimed by the family, and in the absence of the cure of St. Salvia, this pious mission was confided to the cure de Saint Jaques du Haut Pea. The collet knows how much strength tmd calmness the prisoner received from this pious ceremony; then again the Chancellor offered, but in vain, to receive ecatession of guilt."