VEILED LADIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2387, 30 November 1899, Page 61

VEILED LADIES.

SOME ROMANCES IN REAL LIFE,

The latest Parisian mystery would fur-nis-i a plot for Gaboriau Or Dv Boisgobey, were either of these two ingenious romancers still alive. A little* girl of 12, named Marie Santenoy, is standing with her schoolfellows at the corner of a street, when a tall, shabbily-dressed woman accosts her. The features of the stranger are indistinguishable 'behind the thick veil which she wears. She introduces herself as little Marie's cousin, Madame Couderc, of the Boulevard Haussmann, and distributes" chocolate bonbons amongst the little girls. To Marie she gives, in addition, a white lozenge, saying :' " Eat this, my child ; it will give you strength."

Marie Santenoy goes home; and in the course of a few hours dies in terrible agony. Her cousin, Madame Couderc, a ' young, fashionable, and wealthy lady, is at once arrested ; but, after examination, released, having proved a conclusive alibi. Who," then, was the veiled lady? Will the Paris Detective department, which boasts the acutest crime-investigators of the world, be able to discover.

England's criminal records furnish a parallel case, though, in this' instance, the pdisoner was discovered ana punished. The assistant at the shop of Mr Maynard, a Brighton confectioner, sold a quantity of chocolate creams to a lady, heavily veiled, but not otherwise noticeable in appearance or manner. The sequel came in three months, wiien - Christina Edmunds, a wellknown resident of Brighton, was charged with murder. She had distributed the sweets to several people, principally through the post, and illness and death having ensued among the recipients, it was found that they had been poisoned. The motive of the act was somewhat obscure, and at the trial counsel made a strenuous effort to prove his client insane. However, she was found guilty, and sentenced to death, though the sentence was subsequently commuted to penaL servitude for life.

Ten years ago the Grand National attracted the usual amount of attention and created the usual excitement. Among the spectators on the grand stand, one lady appeared to be deeply interested as the gay silk jackets -flashed past. She was, by her figure, young and graceful, and some pretty golden hair was visible ; but her face was tantalisingly hidden by a thick veil. Even this did not conceal, however, the gleam of white teeth and the sparkle of a pair of bright eyes. The .sportsmen who admired this tout ensemble, guessed at the identity of the fair unknown, and envied the man she accompanied, could not have imagined that, ere man}' months were over, she would be standing, in a felon's dock, charged with murder. She was Florence Maybrick, now serving a life-sen-tence for poisoning her husband with arsenic, and her escort was the "J. B. " whose letters to her, when, read in court, helped so materially to cpnvict her. The announcement that Sir Robert Peel was bent on the repeal of the Corn Laws fell on the country like a thunderbolt when made in The Times. The standard denied the story, under ihe heading, "Atrocious Fabrication by The Times." and the Herald followed suit. A contradiction was forthconvnor in public by Lord Whdrnecliffe. Lord President of the Council, and several Ministers gave ijrivate assurances that there was no truth in the ruritour. Subsequent events justified the editor, the great J. T. Delane, but the mystery was the source of his information.* Subordinates at The Times Office could tell queer stories of a lady, heavily veiled, descending from a carnage to the door, and being shown directly to Delane. It has always been supposed that this veiled lady- was Mrs Norton, who had wheedled the secret out of Sidney Herbert; but Die mystery, like ■so many others, will never be cleared up. The only touch of comedy which has, so far, lightened the sordid Dreyfus drama has been the introduction of the ridiculous " veiled lady," invented by Dv Paty de Glum, and subsequently "given away" by Esterhazy.