Glasgow Courier. — 1847-09-07 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

LAST MOMENTS OF THE DUKE DE PRASLIN.  The Monifeur of Thursday contains an official note of the secret sitting of the Chamber of Peers on Monday. The deliberation of that noble assembly turned chiefly upon the question of the poison taken by the Duke, and whether lie could have obtained it in prison or not. The question was set at rest completely by the Duke Decases, Grand Referendaire, who detailed the following circumstances, which were listened to with intense interest : " On Tuesday morning (the Duke died on 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 Praslin complained of his sufferings. The Grand Re. ferendaire observed that such sufferings roust have been occasioned by the poison he had taken, while the doctors had been misled as to its nature, and the proper mode of treatmerit, by two empty bottles found in his secretaire, and which had contained laudanum. The prisoner replied that he had not taken laudanum ; and then,. being premed or. the subject, he acknowledged that he had taken ,arsenic eat of the phial found on Friday in his dressing-gown. The Grand Referendaire having asked how he obtained the [inborn, he dechir ed 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 same time, with emotion against the supposition that ant one could have believed that he hail provided himself with it fin the purpose of poisoning Madame de Prasllie He avowed that lie took the poison at the moment, he perceived, by the measures taken against him, that there were grave suspicions no his account. Suicide, it Waa remarked, in presence of such air aCCUSatioll laleallie confession. Upon this the prisoner ob:erved silence. but lie repelli d with e g mess the idea that lie should have confided to any on, the project of Ids crime; and as he inter rowed these ex idatialions by ct lea of taut, the Grand Referee da ire asked him if his Incur al sufferings 4lid net exci ed thiaie of his booy, arid if they ought not to stugest 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 moment of insensate rage, which he now bitterly deplored. Raising then his eyes and hands to Heaven, the unfortunate man cried, with a strong yet trembling voice, ' Oh, si, je le deplore.' The Grand Referenclaire then took the opportunity to say to him, that at such an awful moment, in order to satisfy at once the jun. tice of God arid man, he ought to make the expression of his 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 an at once for the Chaticellor to receive his confession should he seem so disposed, or to take It himself at the moment. He listened to these words with great emotion, and appeared to labour under an inward struggle : then, after a little hesitation, he replied, 'I am too fatigued and suffer too much at this moment; tell the Chancellor that I beg him not to come till to-morrow morning. His trouble of mind was too visible, and his suffering too great, to allow of this interview being prolonged. The doctors had just declared that it was of urgency to offer the succour of religion to the prisoner. As no clergyman had been named by the family, and in the absence of the cure of St. Sulspice, this pious niission was confided to the cure de Pant Jacques du Haut Pas. The court knows how much strength and calmness the prisoner received from this pions ceremony; then again the Chancellor offered, but In vain, to receive his confession of guilt."