A PARISIAN SCANDAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6613, 27 January 1883, Page 2 (Supplement)

A PARISIAN SCANDAL.

the prince de polignac and his SON.

"Paris that is the Paris of the Boulevard, is | highly interested in a criminal matter which the courts are at present investigating. This interest arises from the faet .social scandal of the most peculiar kind at the bottom of the criminal act of a young man who, calling himself the Count DePolignac, set on fire the apartments of the Prince De Polignac the other day. The young man had Ven in the habit of frequently calling on the Prince, his fattier, though the marriage with the mother had never received the sanction of the law. The story is not witnout itsi dramatic features The mother was a Mile. JJBretesche, daughter of a French of good family, who, many years ago, went to New Orleans in search of a fortune and who was^married there. Having found the fortune he returned to France, accompanied by his •wife and two children, a son and a daughter. The former wa3 put to school in Pans, and through his intimacy with the Prince De Polignac, who was one of his fellow-pupils, an acquaintance was formed between the two families. The fortune of M. De Bretesche having been lost in speculation, he died, leaving the young girl without a protector. Mile. Bretesche and the young Prince De Polignac fell in love with each other, and she allowed herself to be persuaded by him tC dispense with any other than a religious marriage, which the French code does not accept as binding. A priest named !• oucart was found who consented to periorm the ceremony, and two sons were born of the halfway union. On the breaking out of the civil war in the United States the Prince De Polignac, who had at one time held a commission in the French army, determined to offer his services to the Confederacy. Accompanied by his wife and the two children he proceeded to America, and soon rose to the rank of General in the rebel army, ami -when the war closed was in military command of the State o£ Texas. So at least the lady has told the Parisian reporters -who have interviewed her; and she adds that after the war was over the United States Government offered a reward or lOOOdols. for her husband's head, asserting that she one day saw a placard to that effect in the streets of New York. The Prince sent her back to France with her surviving son, the other having died during the war, and promised to follow her within a short time. She heard nothing of him for two years, during which time she lived on an allowance which her husband s mother made to her. The Prince finally reappeared in France, but refused to receive her as his wife, and, as the religious ceremony had no legal force to prevent his doing so, he married a German lady who had a fortune of four million francs. The abandoned wife having had her religious marriage annulled by the Court of Rome, also married again. Her second husband was the Count Christian de Branna, who was at the time Roumanian Embassador at Paris. He died about tin ee years ago, leaving his wife without any other resources but a pension of 330 francs a month. The son, who in the meantime had grown up, saw fit to make a living with his pen, and during the life of the late Emile de Uirardm, he was able to make a little money as writer on the daily press. After the death of his protector, finding that his articles w-ere no longer accepted, he appealed to his father, the story of his birth having been disclosed to him by his mother, for assistance. The Prince refused to recognize the claims of his sou, and his exasperation led him to seek to avenge himself in the manner which has led to his arrest for arson. When arrested he hail in his pocket a paper which was worded _as follows: "It i3l, .Tules Camille de Polignac, -who has voluntarily set fire to the house of my father ; in doing this I performed an act of justice." Along with this paper was an address to "the young men of France," in -which he " protested against the iniquity of the laws, which are the origin of all his misfortunes." And he adds, 41 1 am refused the name of Polignac, which, however, is my name. All that is natural is legitimate. I owe my existence in a natural way to the Prince de Polignac, and I am therefore legitimate. We are all born equal, consequently we are all born legitimate, and the law alone has created the distinction of legitimate and illegitimate children, which is therefore an injustice." He made no ellort to deny his act when arrested, and on being questioned stated that, finding himself in a very precarious situation, he had made frequent appeals for assistance to his father, and meeting with persistent refusals, he determined to avenge himself by setting the house on fire. Young De Polignac is probably, as the police seem inclined to believe, not entirely in his right mind, and even should he be proncunced sane there is but little probability that a French jury will be found willing under the circumstances to convict him of the crime with which he is charged.