THE HUMBERT SWINDLE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXII, Issue 65, 14 September 1906, Page 5

THE HUMBERT SWINDLE.

PRINCIPALS TO BE RELEASED. frosss AssocimoN.l (Received September 14, 7.40 a.m.) PARIS, 13th September. Madame Humbert, the promoter Of what has been described as "the boldest swindle of the century," and Frederic Humbert, who were sentenced in 1903 to five years' solitary confinement, are to be released to-morrow. A SUCCESSFUL AND FANTASTIC FRAUD. The \Humbert swindle was -a most remarkable triumph of faith. To declare yourself worth twenty-four millions of dollars, and to keep on declaring it until hard-headed bankers and merchants are willing to lend you millions in cash and enubio you to livu in luxury for eighteen years," without the slightest occasion to draw on your imaginary capital, would be scorned by novelists as the mnteri.il of a plot. Yet this is exactly what Therese d'Aurignac, wife of Frederic Humbert, actually accomplished. "Only tho rich can borrow," was the heroine's motto, but she improved on it. "If you seem to be rich, you can 'borrow." This she believed, and this she proved to bo true. In Paris a few years- ago the affaire Dreyfus was forgotten, while Parisians thought, \dreamt, and talked only of the affaire Humbert — the tale of the imaginary Crawford, and of hia imaginary millions inherited N by Thereso Humbert. In 1874 or 1875 Mile. Therese d'Aurignac, a young lady of eighteen or thereabouts, was travelling on the Cemturn Railway She heard groans iiom a carriage next her own, climbed along tho footboard, and found an old man lying in the next compartment groaning with- pain. She undid his collar, helped as bo-st she oould, and v by tho time the tiain reached Paris, the old 1 gentleman was well enough to leave the sta-tiun. Before he parted from Mile. d'Aurignac, howover, s he made v careful note of her name and addrt-ss, and told her that hio own name wa3 Robert Henry Crawford. In 1876 Mile. d'Aurignac married Frederic Humbert, the son of a former Chancellor of -Franoe,' and ex-Vice-Presi-. dent of the Senate. ■■ •In 1877 she inherited the sum of '£4,000,000 left her by a will (which she has frequently produced) dated at Nice, 6th September, 1877.- A few day.s after she received a copy of the will which left her Robert Henry's fortuno ot £4,000,000, Mme. Humbert received *he visit of two young men, brothers, who declared that they Wero tho nephews of the deceased millionaire, and that he had by a will dated 6th September, 1877, and which they 'produced, left his four ' millions sterling" in the following manner: — One-third of tho four millions to Robert, one-third to Henry Crawford, and the remaining third to Mile. Marie d'Auiignac (Mme. Humbert's sister, who was still a child at school). The three legatees wero out of their inheritance to pay Mme. Humbert a monthly sum of £i2OO, or £14,000 per annum. The brothers Crawford explained to Mm©. Humbert that they were both of them rich men, "worth over twenty million pounds apiece," and they did not want tho paltry £4,000,000. All that they wished was that the money should* remain in the Crawford family, and to this end they suggested that Mme. Humbert should have the custody of the four millions, which — except for her monthly stipend of .£I2OO — were to remain untouched until such time us Marie d'Aurignac married one of the two brothers, Robert or Henry, at her choice. This, in as few words as possible, was the story told by Mme. Humbert to her numerous dujes, upon the faith of which she had wwhin tho previous five-nnd-twonty years borrowed sums of money amounting to more than £3,000,000 sterling. The point of her story was that the sate in her house in Paris which contained the "£4,00,000," waa never to bo opened, excepting for tho purpose of cutting off the coupons of the bonds from which she drew her monthly £1200. Her borrowings were so stupendous that they are almost incredible. She ruined several banks, two of her victims committed suicide, a Lillo banker, M. Schotsmans, who had lent her £250,000, and who whb on his way to Pari» to lodge a complaint against her, wns wmrdoiod mysteriously in tho train, and tragedy upon tragedy lollowed close upon the wings of this farce of a legacjr of millions. Mme. Humbert's house in the Avenue de la Grande Armee was a magnificent one, splendidly furnished. Her pictures and her jewels were of immense value, and she lived among the best .known men in France, receiving among others the late M. Felix Fauro and all the notables of the Nationalist Party. As Mile. Marie d'Aurignac grew to young womanhood and overstepped it — she is now forty-three years of ago— she firmly refused to marry either Henry Crawford or his brother Robert, nnd Mmo. Humbert was compelled to borrow more and more upon tho security of the millions which she durst not touch, she said, according to l»pr contract with the brothere Crawford. She succeeded since 1877 in borrowing nbout £3,000,000, and in escaping with the bulk of it. By paying partially or in entirety tho most pressing debts, by finding other dupes to act ns security, by tricks innumerable, Mmo. Humbert managed to stave off the inevitable enquiry, and when at last the safe wns opened in the presence of the authorities and was found to contain a rusty bucklo nnd a few discoloured envelopes, Mme. 'Humbert had disappeared. She ond her husband were subsequently arrested, and, after a lengthy trial, weio sentenced to