A STRANGE STORY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 7008, 3 May 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

A STRANGE STORY.

Dwellers in great cities are very often nextdoor neighbours for years to people whom they know little about, and whose antecedents, were they known, would cause them to be universally shunned. For the last 15 years a quiet, respectable old gentleman has resided in the peaceful Parisian suburb of Neuilly, enjoying the respect and esteem of those acquainted with him. A certain mystery enveloped his previous life ; he was reserved when questioned on the subject, and no one, excepting the police or himself, could have related hie' history. Had the police, however, been interrogated,, the story revealed would have startled all who associated with him, or who followed his remains to the cemetery. The kindly old gentleman, now dead and buried, was for a number of years the chief of a band of robbers that infested the borders of the Amazon, in South America. In the course of his adventurous and criminal career he had robbed and murdered a rich banker, betDg arrested for the crime, and condemned to death. Twelve hours ■ before, his execution, however, he effected his escape from prison by cutting a .hole through the wall. He got , to Switzerland, and ultimately, when he thought the affair of the robbery and murder was forgotten, found his way to Paris, hiring the house at Neuilly in which he died.- The police kept an eye on him as a dangerous character; but he was not : otherwise molested, nor, until after his decease, did any of those who passed pleasant hours in his society entertain the remotest idea of what his lawless career had been.