COURT LADY CAPTIVATED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12931, 29 July 1905, Page 2 (Supplement)

COURT LADY CAPTIVATED.

LEFT LAMENTING IN PARIS BY -SHAM MARQUIS. , The latest sensation in the French capital reads like Adclphi melodrama. If the case alleged against them is correct seldom has such a trio of swindlers been mgt with as that composed of the two men and a woman whose trial was begun at the assizes at Paris. They are charged with, being concerned in the forgery of an 1.0. U. for £32,000. The names by which accused are known, the titles having been selfconferred, are the Comtesse de Chatillon, the Marquis d© Massa-Malaspina, and Count Pelletier Birot de Ruelle. Massa, such is the Marquis' real name, is the son of a hatter in one of the towns in the Riviera, and though only 24 has had an astounding career. In Vienna he attracted the wife of a high Court official, and she became so enamoured of him that she fled with him. to France. She was sorry in time, 'but not before she was about £30,000 the poorer for the experience. Within a month of the separation Massa was married to a, rich widow at Marseilles, who on the wedding morning ; made over as a. wedding gift £22,000 to him absolutely. The,honeymoon was spent in Corsica, and the bride died so suddenly and' under such suspicious circumstances that the police were called in, but nothing resulted. Eighteen months later Massa appeared in Paris and ere long led! to the altar the only daughter of a well-to-do widow, the bride having a dowry of £8000. This wife also died unexpectedly a few months later, and although an information for poisoning was laid against the husband the charge was not sustained. It was shortly after this episode that Massa made the acquaintance of the Comtesse de Chatillon,. his fellow-prisoner, and asked for her daughter!.* hand in marriage, only to discover that she was no more a countess than lie was a marquis. This discovery resulted in the match being broken off. Massa and the countess then combined with the third accused, de Ruelle, to carry out schemes presumably of an illegal character. De Ruelle is an ex-member of the Paris liar. At 20 he came into a fortune of £15,000, which he squandered. When Massa first met the countess she was living under the protection, of an elderly gentleman named Mouthicrs, who allowed her £150 per month. He died a few months ago, and immediately after his death the three accused produced ai bill for £32,000, duly signed and accepted, and purporting to show that M. Mouthiers owed this amount to the countess. The prosecution intends to prove that this document was forged 'by De Ruelle, and also that he, in complicity with the other two, forged a will in the name of Mdnie. Chaillet, who was Massa's second mother-in-law, by which Massa was left all Iter wealth, amounting to about £70,000. Mdmc. Chaillet is still alive.