Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1880-04-17 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

FRENCH ROMANCE IN REAL  LIFE.  The sensation caused at Paris by the trial of MdllP. Biere for attempting to shoot her lover has barely begufl to subside before another case, equally extraordinary, but far more painful, is on the point of coming before the Paris Asaizes. The origin of the story dates as far back as the summer of 1869. In that year a young man named Alfred Gilbert fell in love with a young girl of the name of Gabrielle Coran. They both belorged to poor families, and both • lived in the neighbourhood of the Palais Royal. After courting in secret for some months, the young man demanded the hand of his sweetheart, but her father, who was an ardent Bonapartist, and occupied a stall in one of the public offices, refused his consent, on the ground of the Republican opinions held by Gilbert. The young couple then r ssolved to run away together, and one night the girl disappeared from home. After a week's search the father found them living together in &suburban retreat. On the promise of forgiveness and consent to their marriage the girl returned home to her parents, but the father declined to keep his word, and began to look out for another son-in-law. Driven to despair, Gabrielle Coran again eloped with her lover, and the two determined to commit suicide. For this purpose they hired a room in a small inn at Plessis Piquet. The youny man bought a revolver, and the young woman a packet of lucifers matches. Gabrielle Coran first of all tried to poison herself with a decoction of the matches. This failing, she told her lover to fire a bullet into her heart. Alfred Gilbert fired, and without waiting to see the effect of the shot, discharged a second bullet into his own head. Neither wound was, lhowever, fatal. Both were taken to the hospital, where they remained two months. The bullet in the girl's body was extracted, but the other bullet still remained in the skull of the young man, where it has ever since been. Gilbert was about to be tried for attempting to shoot his mistress, when the war broke out and put a stop to the sitting of the Assizes. As the Germans marched into Paris and the siege became imminent, the authorities, wanting all the able-bodied men possible to defend the city, consented to let him out of prison, for the moment, on the condition of his enrolling himself in some active corps, and promising not to seek after , 'Gabrielle Coran. He joined the sharp' shooters of the Ternes Quarter, and distinguished himself so much in the Buzenval sortie that he was mentioned on the military order of The day. The war over and peace proclaimed, he returned to the hands of justice to undergo his trial, but once more fate stepped in and postponed it. The Commune arose, and all the public powers having withdrawn to Versailles, the city was left in the hands of the insurrectionists, who opened the prison doors and enrolled the inmates, among them Alfred Gilbert. The young man does not appear to have taken a conspicuous part in the insurrection. However, he was tried by court-martial in 1871, and sentenced to transportation to New Caledonia, where he remained till a few months ago, when he was amnestied. He has just arrived in Paris, and given himself up to the legal authorities Ito go through hip trial for the deed he committed at Pleseis Piquet ten years ago. But the painful part of the story remains to be told. Gabrielle Caron is now the wife of a well-to-do merchant, with several children, highly respected, and of irreproachable character. Forgetting the folly of her tender years, and believing Gilbert dead and buried, she married, and kept the tragic love-drama of 1870 a secret from her husband. The sad consequences of this unexpected resurrection of the young man can be more easily conceived than described, and everybody is looking forward to the trial to see what will be the result of it.  A ROMANCE OF THE PEERAGE, -George Essex Montifex, Lord Drummond, grandson and heir-apparent of the Earl of Perth, has gone back to Scotland. Seven or eight years ago, when he was only 16 years of age, he married his grandmother's maid, a buxom girl several years older than himself, and ran away with her to this country. He landed in New York without means, and hired himself as shipping clerk to a down-town firm. He was wayward, and by his own foolishness got out of his position. He left the city and settled at Brookhaven, a fishing village on the south shore of Long Island. He lived there in a picturesque old farm-house, supporting himself and his wife very comfortably by fishing and shooting. He remAned in Brookhaven several years. He lost utterly all his aristocratic characteristics, and in appearance, manners, and language was like the fishermen who surrounded him. He was tall and athletic, and might be seen any summer evening after fishing hours slouching about his dooryard, wearing a blue flannel shirt, a high pair of rubber boots, and a battered old souwester. His neighbours knew him as George, and the young generation found him a boon companion. About two years ago a ECM and heir was born to him. Last year he quit his fishing, and, bringing his wife and child to this city, hired himself out as a porter to a dry goods house. When the young lord was a shipping clerk in the city he was visited by Lord Walter Campbell, son of the Duke of Argyll, and brother of the Marquis of Lorne, who was a meirber of a New York business house at the time, and who unsuccessfully tried to persuade the runaway to give up his wife and return to his people. It is understood a reconciliation has been effected between the old earl and his grandson.—Quebec Mercury.