AMAZING STORY OF ABDUCTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13583, 12 September 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

AMAZING STORY OF ABDUCTION.

GENERAL'S DAUGHTER CARRIED ' OFF BY RELATIVES TO ASYLUM. \;:t One of the strangest stones of abduction , : told for many a day is that relating to m the carrying off of Mile. Bassot, the 30-year-old daughter of-General Bassot, the distinguished French geographer- The v : lady was abducted, not by r a romantic ■' ; * lover, but by members of her own family, who objected to her joining a sort of laysisterhood sngaged in the care of children. 1 According to the correspondent of the •',■ Telegraph the young lady, who managed ■ 1 to escape and return to Paris, has had '.J.' some remarkable adventures, and there in every possibility of a lively lawsuit in V' connection with the case very shortly. \ Mile. Bassot, it appears, desired to join a group of philanthropic ladies who de- /;; vote themselves to the care of poor chil- | dren at an establishment called "La •;.■$ Maison Sociale," near Reuil. She accordingly left her home a year ago 10 live ' ; at this institution, and in so doing m&de some of her relatives very angry, ; g Failing to pic vail on her by import ; pities to leave her kindly work the relatives resolved to use force, and some. months since lured her to Nica by a telegram that her mother was very ill. When she reached Nice she was, she alleges, ) suddenly seized and carried to a house, where she was kept for three months, on the plea that she was insane. A servant, however, managed to convey a message for her to the Procureur-General, and he I: obtained her release. ' H Mile. Bassot thereupon returned to the J, "Maison Sociale," resolved to continue # her philanthropic work, H and to have no : ..A more to do with her relatives. , Nothing fresh happened until on a recent Sunday, when as she was walking with two ladies, V she was suddenly seized by two men, who ' X lifted her into a motor-car, and drove off ||j at great speed. : u4 According to her account, given to M. ■/ Boucard, the Paris examining magistrate, whenever the automobile in which she was being taken away passed through a m town or village she called out to the in- :';, habitants, but her cries were stilled by. ;- I those who were • with her. Twice the motor-car broke down, and while it was ''■'.'■; [•% being repaired she was held tight to pre- .}■■?. vent her escaping. At one place, how- ! ever, she was able to jump out of the I car, and to ask a farmer to telegraph to J her lawyer, Maitre Clunet, in Paris. FARMER TO THE RESCUE.

She, was dragged back to the automobile by force, and driven away again as , ' far asLaroche, where the party took the ~r; train for Geneva. The stationmaster hadjSg been told beforehand that an insane lady was. being taken to Geneva, and he was _i shown medical certificates. The supplica- & tions of Mile. Bassot, therefore, were not ||§ heeded at the station. On reaching Ge-; neva she was taken to the Cantonal Asy- - \ lum, and was shut up in a cell with iron , bars. .-

The director, of the ' asylum, however, reading all about the case in the newspapers, and learning that the authorities had been asked to intervene, refused to take upon himself the responsibility of keeping her against her will, allowed her to leave the establishment, and she took the first train back to Paris. .

Her story that she spoke to a farmer ■ . was confirmed, when Wait re Clunet received a. letter from the man she described, and who is a landowner at Cezy, in the Department of the Yonne, as fol- * lows:—

"To Maitre Clunet, Paris.—l have left off my work to communicate this to you ;: | by the first post- Being at work gather-, • ing in the harvest with my men in the midst of a plain, a young woman who had jumped out of an automobile came run-,, '", ning to me across the field, followed by three persons. She told us that she was , being abducted against her will, and pass- i ed off as hysterical, and I promised her to write to you. They started first for Paris, but afterwards, returned.by.the, roiitfl for Lyons or Geneva. . This-peison, "wkl», an- } peared so good, excited my sympathy, ,';; and as I take an interest in her welfare .. I hope you will let me have news about her. The slip of soiled paper I gave her, .T and on which she wrote a few hasty , Words, was from'an old letter which I car- .] ried about with me in my pocket." The slip of paper, in fact, was enclosed - . with the letter; and, though Mile. Bas- .''■• sot had r not had time to sign her name '. her lawyer immediately recognissd her handwriting.