CAREER OF A FRENCH CONVICT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 104, 14 March 1864, Page 4

CAREER OF A FRENCH CONVICT.

Ox Tesuday, tho 2Sth of April last, tho French frigate L' Amazone arrived in the harbour of Toulon with one hundred and fifty returned convicts from Cayenne. Discharged at the Prefecture of Policc, each of the hundred aud fifty received a small sum of money and a passport, setting forth his destination. Condemned criminals in France, even after they have served out their full term of punishment, arc not free. They have to settle within u certain district, either chosen by themselves, or fixed by the police; and whenever they go beyond the limits of this district they are liable instantly to be taken up again and sent to prison, or to be returned to Cayenne. Among tho one hundred and fifty convicts set on shore at'Xoulou oil the -■'itli of April, there wus a man named Maurice, a basiard. Brought up in misery and vice, ho had been many times already condemned for theft and

robberies, although only t'.vc'.ily-iiiiie years ofu.ge. His lust lei) years' sojourn in the deadly swamps of Cayenne made him eager, no doubt, to breathe again the air of liberty, and, in company with two of his convict brethren, he hurried away from Toulon SB fast as his less would carry him. At the little town of Pont -Saint-Esprit the trio sepcrated, and proceeded in different directions. Maurice, whatever his intentions, was not inclined to enter the new enlarged prison, selected for him by the police, at the town of ISlois, but kept beating about the country iu gipsv fashion iu part a beggar and in part a thief. After lengthened wanderings, he arrived in the department of Imlreet-Loire, forming part of the ancient province of'Tourame. On May 2'.J, Maurice reached a village called Melaiule, where he was not so fortunate as to obtain a lodging, but had to creep into a barn, to rest in a heap of straw. Watching the departure of the inmates of the neighbouring farm the next morning he then broke into the house, regaled himself with the best the cellar contained, dressed iu the clothes found hanging on the v/all, and emptied the contents of a small till into his pocket. IJeiug a new man now in outward appearance, he walked to another village, Anlriche, a couple of miles distant, where he hud himself shaved, took a glass of wine at an inn, mid bought a short pipe and a- box of matches at the shop of a tobacconist. All the people he visited noticed a peculicr looking neck tie, with red, blue, and green stripes, which lie wore, and of the possession of which, he was evidently proud, Leaving the little village oil Antriehc, the man Maurice was lost (o view—until the evening when the gendarmes of the parish found him, covered with blood, in a forest not far distant, and at once look him into custody, under the accusation of murder. At noon on the same day, the oOih of May, a labourer, working in the fields not far firm Antriehc, hoard loud cries coming from a cottage inhabited by a very aged and infirm gentleman nana-.l Ijarill.vnt. The cries did not last long, and the labourer, alter listening for a while, aud hearing nothing more, continued his work. An hour after a girl entered the outer yard of the old gentleman's cottage, with a pailful of milk, and, knocking in the accu«tommed manner, triod to obtain entrance. No-bodv answering, the girl got alarmed, and ran into the field from whence she returned to the house with the man who had heard the erics. After a short consultation, the door was broken open, when a frightful spectacle presented itself. The old man was lying iu the buck yard in a pool of blood, completely disfigured, and with numerous wounds all over his bodv. Hound his neck was a striped craval, with which he seemed to have been strangled ; one of his ears was cut oil', and the remaining portion of his face looked as if it had been crushed in a vice-like grip oi' a powerful hand, so strong as to break the whole of the teeth from their sockets. On close inspection, it was found that all the boxes and cupboards in the house were broken open, and all the valuables, among thein a considerable sum of money, partly consisting of old and curious pieces, had beeu carried oti'.° It win. evident that a brutal murder, as well as robberv, had been committed. Two men at once •jumped "into a cart to detect, if possible, the assassin.' A suspicious looking individual had beeu seen oil the road sliortlv bcfoiv ; they drove after him as fast as thev could. | But just when on the point of reaching him "the man jumped a ditch, and threw himself ink) a neighbouring wood, into which they were afraid to follow him. Hut the gendarmes of the village, having been iiifromed of the murder, searched the wood in all direction?, and, before long, found the returned convict. Maurice,' lying on the grass, his clothes besprinkled with blood, lie was carried oil' to Tours, aud put on his trial for the murder of the old man iiarillaut. lie is a rather handsome man, with deep black eves: he awakened some s\ mpathy at first sight, the more so as he strongI l.v, though calmly, denied being guilty of the murder :of which I;,, v.as acruesd. tie avowed, however, having eo'..:u::ited various robberies sub •e,)ueut!v to his liberation at Toulon : ami after -.cry much Inv. - sure, of theft iu the farm-honse of Mclandc, on the morning of the liUth of May. "Among the - oodstoien was a striped neck-tie,'in red, blue, aud grivn •" .piestioned the judge. " No," replied tho accused. " J.ut you have been seen by numbers of people at Antriehc with the lie round vour neck!" 11 The people were mistaken," quietly replied Maurice. " Cut whence came the blood on your clothes, when the gendarmes arrested you?" " It was owing to the bleeding of my nose," answered the prisoner. At this point of the interrogatory a incdul and a copper com, which had been found on the returned com id when arrested, were handed up lu the president. Colli were proved to have belonged to the murdered nimi, 1 •arillaut, and were extremely rare pieces—the copper coin being known as a" double Touwois " hearing the date J (Jo t, and tho elligv of Louis AUI; ano tile medal, the figure of a cavalier with the motto Ttnltr tt os-nnt. At the si'»ht of these coins, the prisoner got pale, and being' questioned, faltered in his speech. .Suddenly, he started from his seat, and demanded permission to speak. "It was mo m»\i him. lie oxohumed in a hoarse voict\ " I ell us all the circumstances," replied the president. " I cannot and 1 dare not!" exclaimed the convict. IScmg pressed hard to make a detailed confession lie said that when he entered the house of tho old man. lie found lum at his dinner, and was invited to sit down to table with him. Wine was twice fetched from (he cellar; and, exclaimed Maurice, " on his return the second time I committed the "' ! « misfortun (malhenr)." 'The sight of blood, he pnrtlv avowed in future confession, awakened a wild desire"for carnage within him. Having strangled the old man with the stolen neck-tie, he cut off his ear, mutilated his face, and hacked the body with a stillctto knife all over. jNot content with this, he dragged the corpse into the yard, and with a paving stone broke the skull and some of tho limbs. •• Is all this true r" asked the judge. "It is just possible," calmv replied the convict, assuming his former air of impassibility Tile jury thereupon retired for a few minutes, and, returning into court, brought in an absolute verdict of gudly. The prisoner heard tho verdict of death pronounced upon him by the judge without moving n muscle of his face. Passing between tlie row of gendarmes back to bis cell, ho exclaimed, with a smile, \\ ell, the game is played out."

Asn:o.\o.MK'.u. l'liscovKitv.—"Wulcarn fam Cohmo» a nou ' (the eighteenth of tho series) and a new comet (tho MXtri for the year) have lieeu disiMVvreil by M. Julius Sehmi'dt, director of the observatory at Athens, on tho ISth of Xovsuik-r. !'" Potions tlie comet do not form any analog' u..Ji t hose ot the comet recently discovered by 11. lempei. \\ e have just, been informed that the" supposed new planet is a re-diseovery. Lua-nixEss oh thi: l'.xci.isu C'haeacteh.—The i'.ngush character, as ] conceive it, is by 110 means a very lofty one ; they seem to have a, great d.'nl of earth and grimy dust clinging about ihem, as vras probably the eaae. with tlie stalwart and quarrelsome people who sprouted up out of the soil after Codniua •iaJ sown thy dragon's teeth. -And jet, though the individual Hiiglitdinuiu is Hometmu's preternatuntlly diaiigreeuble, u.n obfevcr gliwding kloof Km ii cC!'"' t!f '" 5! - u '5 3 is tJs« luiatSi