STORY OF A REMARKABLE FRAUD.

Evening Star, Issue 10339, 12 June 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

STORY OF A REMARKABLE FRAUD.

The following adventure, that reads like one of Stevenson's new Arabian Nights, is of the sort French society papeia would call " Trie Paruienne." A few months ago the Comtesse Anne Marie De Chaleon, a lady of about fifty, hired a handsomely-furnished flit in the Champs Klyieea. The rent was £SO a month, which, considering the site, was cheap. The countess, as the landlord learnt from her, had just come up to town from Nice, but btfore leaving for her estates in Normanby, where she usually lived all the year round, she wished to spend a few months in Paris, to be near her two boys, who were at a pablic school. A secretary was part of the countess's establishment, a gentleman of about forty years of age. M. Michel Braint's chief duties were to look after the many charitable societies of which the Comtesse De ChaleMi was a lady patroness. The rest of the household consisted of two cooks, a maid, a coachman, and a butler. The livery attracted the notice of the tradesmen of the Champs Elyeeea quarter, who were judges of fine style. " The countess was no miser. As the tradesmen knew, she entertained company at dinner every day, and spent altogether on a very large soale. About a couple of months ago, missing no doubt the bracing open-air life of Normanby, the countess complained of ennui. She took her boys away from school to keep her company, as she said to the head-master ; but in order that their education might not be neglected she asked the head-master to send her a tutor. The tutor came, a university man. He accompanied his charges eveiy morning in the Boia when they took their morning ride, the countess sometimes following in her brougham. The evening* was generally spent at a theatre. The countess, like a true French mother, spoilt her children. The latter wishing to see the Carnival process >n the fond mother hired a window of oae of the state rooms of the Grand Hotel, £4O being asked for it. The boys threw coppers and small diver coins into the procession to enjoy the sight of the scrambles. Thirteen pounds were thus thrown out of the window. A few weekß ago the Comtesse De Chaleon suddenly left, accompanied by her secretary and two visitors. The latter were detectives. There must have been, as the sountess remarked, some deplorable mistake. Matters were explained to them at the Prefecture of Police. The arrest was dne to a letter of Baron Arthur Oppenheim, of Paris. The latter, looking over his accounts, found that a ram of £14,000 had been embezzled by his secretary, who was no other person than Braint The baron's secretary was also secretary to Madame De Chaleon, and what he took with his right hand from the baron be gave with his left to the countess. It was this that enabled her to live in snch grand style. Baron Oppenheim generously forgave. The financier, when he discovered the new embezzlement of £14,000, was magnanimous enough merely to dismiss the dishonest secretary, the latter having once more promised to make restitution; bat when Baron Oppenheim learnt that Braint, who was married and the father of three children, had deserted them to live with the countess, he informed the police. Michel Br*int was formerly a clerk in the Inland Revenue. His defence is that he gave the money to his lady friend only as a loan. She had shown him letters from ber notary showing that she was about to come into a large fortune, which she would share with Braint. The countess is very proud of this coup. She is an old acquaintance of the Jnge d'lnstructon. Her real name is Berthe Jaequillard, and several sentences for embezzlement are on her record. The two children of Berthe Jaequillard, who were starving in the midst of their luxurious surrounding?, have bien sent to the workhouse, as welt as the servants, who have been swindled out of their wages. The tradesmen of the Champs JSlysees have, sent their bills to the Juge destruction, • bub will there ever be another Braint to pay then?