A PITIFUL LOVE STORY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 36, 10 February 1906, Page 13

A PITIFUL LOVE STORY.

OFFICER SUSPECTS HIS GEXEBAL. HOW HE WATCHED HIS WIFE. The French papers contain details of a military tragedy at Lyons. A captain committed suicide under painful circumstances. He had been removed from Algeria and had obtained a staff appointment. He and his wife were at parties given by a general, on whom he fired In a fit of jealousy, and who Is described as a smart officer, keeping up a certain amount of style, with a trim brougham and a box at the theatre. The general entertained a good deal, and paid little attention to the lady, but no one, including her husband, dreamt of attaching any special significance to them, as this was his gallant way with the members of the fairsex whom he chanced to meet, and it could not be described as anything particularly out of the common rule. One day the general got a command at Compiegne. This happened several months ago. but his removal did not lead him to forget Lyons altogether, and now and then he paid it a brief visit. Everyone there was pleased to see him again, but on the last occasion the captain was not so enthusiastic. For some reason or another he had become suspicious about these journeys, and he took to lurking about the hotel at which the general waa staying. ARRANGING A DUEL. According to stories which have reached Paris, he saw Ids wife enter the hotel, and hid himself behind a tree awaiting her exit. As time went on and the lady did not reappear he entered the bouse In his turn, and questioned the servants, but having received no explanation he loft and wandered about, returning at last to see his wife taking her departure. He walked up to her at once, with words of bitter reproach on his lips. "Don't let us have a scene here. Let us go home," bis wife cried, and he acceded to her request. It is, of course, difficult to ascertain exactly what passed, but, according to several versions, the lady reluctantly admitted that she had forgotten her duty to him, told' him that he might kill her If be chose,, but that he would never know the name of his rival In her affections; and then, when he insisted, dropped it out. The unfortunate man Is said to have even got her to sign a confession. At any rate, he lost no time in writing to a brother of- ( ficer asking him to be his second in an affair of honour, and then he rushed off ta the bouse of another captain, who was giving a party, at which the general was to be present. He sent a message to the general, who went into the hall to speakto him, and a violent altercation ensued.SCENE IN THE HOTEL. The general persistently denied that anything was wrong, but his assurances did not calm the young officer, who became; so exasperated that he pulled out his revolver and aimed it at his superior. Someshots followed, but, as the general had seized him by the arm, the bullets did not take effect. The older man, however, slipped on the polished flour, and fell at / tbe feet of his assailant. "I cannot kill ' a man who Is at my mercy and cannot defend himself," the captain exclaimed, and then burst into tears. Meanwhile the officer who was giving tho party and his guests had rushed to the spot and wrested the revolver from the grasp of the captain, who flew off to the military governor of Lyons and related the whole story. Teh governor was .very kind, Slid did his best tv comfort him, adding some good advice, and appealing to his children .and his very promising career, and afterwards he sent for several of the captain's brother officers and asked them to keep a. sharp eye on him. Of course, however, the military governor was bound to report the matter to the Minister of War. So all that night there was a brisk exchange of telegrams between Lyons and Paris. POT AN END TO IT ALL. M. Bertaux was still in office, and he! summoned the captain to Paris, treated him very kindly, and gave him to understand that he would presently be'removed to Algeria, where the lady's relatives reside, It being thought that such an arrangement would be best for all the ties. The affair seemed to be quietening down, when the captain heard somehow that the general had assured M. Etienne, wbo was now at the War Office, that so far as be was concerned there was absolutely no ground for suspicion. This preyed ou his mind/ and he grew extremely, depressed. During the fortnight that followed his friends tried to cheer him, hot In vain. On Friday morning he re-* mained In bed, and his wife could not get' bim to take. the little early meal, but hef: consented to rise for -the dejeuner. Soda after be asked for writing materials/ scrawled a note to his brother-in-law, and when bis soldier servant, who had taken it to the post returned, he found him lying lifeless on the floor. His wife was kneeling over and embracing his dead body, and the two children, who were also weeping, bad to be held back by their nurses. All his wife's supplications! had been in vain, and he had shot himself In her presence, land in that of the terrified little ones.