GAMBETTA'S PRIVATE LIFE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3662, 10 April 1883, Page 4

GAMBETTA'S PRIVATE LIFE.

Tho Geneva correspondent of the London Tolcgr-'ph writes:—"A Swiss gentleman. who has been on terms of <4*reat intimacy with Gambetta gives in the Gazette do Lausanne some details coneerningthopriva te life of the ex-Dictator. Tlie writer, after stigmatising as absurd and untrue the stories told about the pistol shot which was the occasion, if not the cause, of Gambetta's death, having been discharged by some hostile hand, aud repeating the version of the occurrence which you have already given, speaks of his relations with Mdlle. Leoi lie Leon. ' It-is only right,' he says, •that Gambetta's friends should rebut tbe odious calumnies of which ho has been the object by a simply aud truthful .statement of'facts, and tho facts are these; Mdlle. Leonie Leon is the daughter of an officer of high rank who died several years ago. She is now about thirty-five years old. Her face, though not beautiful, is exceedingly expressive and sympathetic, and she is intelligent and well educated. At the time of the war with Germany she conceived for Gambetta au ardent admiration, aud in 1872 she wrote to him. This led to an interview; and from that time to the end their correspondence and intimacy continued without interruption. But they saw each other very rarely, and nearly always at d'Avray, where he hardly received anyone save Mdlle. Leon. Nevertheless thoy oxehaiigcd letters daily, and those who knew Gambetta best say that these letters contained a complete record of his life, his labors, and his thoughts during the last ten years of his life."" Mdlo Leon was in the habit of giving him an account of foreitru journals and books, wliich she read diligently for this purpose. The question of marriage was several times mentioned between them. But for a lone- time the lady, hearing that Gambetta's influence might be thereby impaired, refused to become his wife. Last autumn, however, it was finally decided that they should be married, and of this several persons were informed. All that has been said of a rupture, of violent .scenes, and so forth, is false. It is equally false that Gambetta was the father of an illegitimate child. The yo.ung man who was supposed to be his sou is seventeen years old, and the nephew of Mdlle Leon, v.-ho had undertaken to provide for his education. It was to visit this youth, whose name is Massabie, that Qambetta aud Mdlle Leon went to Dresden (where young Massabie was at school) iv 1881. This was not the only journey they made together. In 1878 they were in Canton Vaud, iv the Valois. and in the region of the Italiun lakes. She was with Gambetta immediately after tho accident which had so terrible an ending: from that moment she never left him, and until he drew his last breath nursed Lim with unstinted devotion. 'And yet Leonie Leon,'says the author of this communication, ' lias been accused of having caused Gambetta's death ; but iv the midst of her bitter sorrow she has the consolation of receiving every day expressions of respect and gratitude from the truest friends of him whom she and they loved so well."