A SENSATIONAL TRIAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 7020, 17 May 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

A SENSATIONAL TRIAL.

The Court d'Assizes of Chamberey is trying the most sensational case of murder by poisoning that has occurred in Savoy for many years. The court room is arranged in that melodramatic manner inseparable from the system upon which French criminal jurisprudence is conducted. The pieces a conriciion—consisting of the stomach and bowels nf the victim and the dishes and remnants of the deceased's last meal—are displayed under glass covers on a large green table in the centre of the room. The dramatis persona: of this cause ctlebre are : Cyrille Michelland, a bright and handsome young ex-sous officer of marines, accused of murdering by means of poison a respectable old gentleman who had married Cynlles pretty young cousin, Delphine; M. Roll, the deceased victim, supposed to have been poisoned by Michelland; Mme. Roll, nee Delphine Cornu-Rosaz, the victim's pretty young widow. The accused, Cyrille Michelland, is only twenty-eight years old, slightly, but muscularlv built, bloude hair and complexion, and "bright hazel eyes. When brought into the dock he bowed politely to his advocate, and looked at the audience as i£ he himself were also a mere spectator. He has a certificate from the Minister of War for having shown remarkable zeal and intelligence when serving in the marines as an assistant in the Hydrographic Office of the Colonies. Cyrille is the eldest of thirteen children. After two days of magisterial brow-beating the following facts were elicited :—Cyrill* Michelland had fallen in love with his cousin Delphine. When he returned from serving in the colonies as a marine, he found Delphine married to M. Roll, an old gentleman of fifty-nine. By the marriage settlement the joint property of the married couple was to revert to Mme: Bollin in case she was to survive her husband. Last September Michelland and Roll made a journey together from V alloires, in the -canton of Saint Michel, to Etienne-de-Ciiiner —a distance of about forty miles. At about eight o'clock in the evening they arrived at one of M. Roll's country houses. They eat some onion soup and drank a bottle of wine, and both slept in the same bed. Next day they got up at five o'clock in the morning to continue their journey. They eat a breakfast "consisting of bouillon and wine. M. Roll left the room and came back again in about ten minutes, pressing his hands to his stomach, and crying out, "I am poisoned !" M. Roll asked Michelland to prepare him a bowl of fresh butter melted in hot water to drink as an antidote to the poison. The melted butter was, after some delay, obtained from a neighbour. But M. Roll, before he could swallow it, was seized with the most terrible convulsions, and he died an hpur later, after having suffered the most excruciating agony. A post-mortem examination proved the presence of strychnine in the deceased man's stomach. From these facts, which constitute merely circumstantial evidence, the Procureur of the Kepublic will probably succeed in convincing the jury that Michelland poisoned the old gentlemaD, his motive being to marry the widow, whom he loved, and to obtain with her a jointure of some £2500. The widow—a pretty brunette— sits in the court-room constantly gazing at Michelland, and seems utterly heart-broken with grief. "