THE STORY OF A FAMOUS CONSPIRACY.

Otago Witness, Volume 14, Issue 2648, 14 December 1904, Page 72

THE STORY OF A FAMOUS CONSPIRACY.

— DR BERNARD, CONSPIRATOR.—

j A wizeneo\ little man of about 40 years < of age, with dark, quick-glancing eyes, sal- i low complexion, heavy black moustache, and long, straight, black hair, combed backwards, and reaching nearly to his shoulders, stood in the dock of the Old Bailey on April 12, 1858. The little man, though evidently anxious — his position was certainly not an enviable one — preserved considerable self-possession. "A most delightful and elegant-mannered man," Ediwin James, the celebrated barrister, used to describe him. He was Dr Simon Bernard, and he was charged with being concerned in one of the most horrible attempts at assassination which have left a stain on modern history — Orsini's plot against Napoleon 111. ] Upon the morning of January 14, the Emperor and the Empress Eugenic, accompanied by General Roquet, entered the xoyal carriage in waiting at the Tuileries, and set off for the Opera. — A Wilful Emperor.— The secret police had dxiring the last few days received) information which filled them with special anxiety 'for tie Emperor's safety, and they had besought him to postpone his visit until another night. But the piece at the Opera that night was a favourite of tlie Emperor's, and Eugenic, he remarked, would be disappointed if he did not go. • There had been so many j rumours, too, of plots to kill him that JtfajDpleon had sot wearied of them.. So he.

r-esolved to trust to Fate, the police precautions, and the protection of the royal carriage — specially constructed, with steel plates hidden in its sides and bottom, so as to be shot-proof. All tvent well till the carriage, with its escort, came to the Rue Lepelictier. The sight of the illuminated streets and the "Vives !" of the crowd had raised the Emperor's spirits and driven away all thoughts of dangei, and he was actual!} making a joking remark to General Roquet about the unfounded suspicions of the police, when there came a fearful explosion.

A bomb had been hurled at the vehicle, and had exploded, doing no harm either to it or its occupants, but laying no fewer than 20 of the crowd writhing in agony in the street ! The coachman lashed his horses, and the carriage dashed forward. A small black object came whistling thiough the air, and fell in front of , it. There was another explosion, and one- of the horses fell. —Napoleon's Coolness. — i M. Hebert, a police officer, darted to the door of the carriage, and opened it, when there came yet another of the infernal machines — thrown this time with such accuracy that it burst under the carriage itself. As the bomb explcdod, it hurled with terrific force small, roiigh" pieces of iron in all directions. It was found that j seven persons had) been killed, and over ! 60 wounded, by these diabolical machines; but, strangely enough, those whom the assassins had marked for their victims ' escaped with the merest scratches. } Entering another .carriage, the Emperor and the Empress proceeded to the Opera, where they appeared only "a few moments late," and perfectly composed. Meanwhile, the police hadi been busy making arrests. Just before the arrival of the Emperor's carriage in the Rue Lepelletier, Hebert, the police officer, looking around him in search of suspicious persons, had chanced to spy a face in the crowd which he thought he knew. Racking his memory, he remembered that it was that of a man named Pierri, an Italian, who had been expelled from France six years ago. Pierri protested i that Hebert had made a mistake ; but the ] officer ordered him into custody, and he ] was marched off. On being searched, the police discovered on him, a six-barrelled revolver, a dagger, and a pear-shaped iron bomb ! . A man who was seen to rush forward to the carriage as the first bomb" was thrown was seized by ■a, police-sergeant, and overcome after a desperate struggle. He had a dagger and two revolvers on him. Suspicion also centred around another man, who carried a carpet-bag. The police made him open it, and discovered a small assortment of arms. Besides these men, the detectives arrested a tall, well-dressed man, with white gloves, who had waved his hat as the carriage came by in a manner which suggested that the act was a signal. — Tracked by Bloodstains. — But the chief actor in the dreadful business appeared to have vanished. Many I of the persons in the crowd) 1 declared they j had distinctly seen a tall, dark-haired, clear i cut featured man hurl the last anft most fatal bomb. None of 'the prisoners resembled him. Some of the crowd affirmed that he himself had been wounded by one of the missiles from the infernal machine, for they had seen him reel back with a ' cry of agony. In the confusion, however, they had lost sight of him. The detectives set to work to search for bloodstains on the pavement, and to track them. One of these ghastly trails led! through some side-streets to -the door of a chemist's shop, and the chemist stated that he had only a, short time since dressed the wound of a man who answered to the description of the bomb-thrower. That night the police' visited hundreds of houses. They found their man at last — at 3 o'clock in the morning, in bed in his room: in the Rue Mont Thabor. He was an Italian named Felice Orsini, and he promptly confessed! his part in the attempt. 11. — A Fiendish Partnership. — Orsini had lived in London, his bombs had been manufactured in this country, and it was from London that he and Ins accomplices had set out on their murderous errand. All France quickly rang with the fiercest denunciations of Britain. Some of the French regiments that sent addresses of congratulation to the Emperor on his escape begged him to "let the infamous haunt in which machinations so infernal are plannedi be destroyed for ever." These "brave words,"' published in the j 'French papers, roused immense indignation. The Emperor explained to our Ambassador that their publication was an oversight, and apologised for their effusiveness ; but, at the same time, he complained to the British Government of their affording protection and shelter to men such as his would-be assassins. — An Appeal to Britain. The whole plot had been concocted in London, he declared, andi even now a fel-low-conspirator of Orsini was allowed) to go free, as if he had not been concerned in such a diabolical design. The British' Government, thus appealed to, issued orders, and the police arrested the little wizened man with the sallow face, long black hair, and heavy black moustache whom we have seen in the old Bailey dock. Bernard was chargedi with having conspired to assassinate the Emperor of the French, and with having been concerned in the murder of one Nicholas Battie, one of the victims of the infernal machines. Felice Orsini, the fiery-blooded Italian, living in Graft-on street^ Kentish Town, and Dr Bernard, living in Park street, Bayswater, had for a long time been on terms of the most familiar and secret intercourse, rheir visits to one another were frequent and prolonged. Oi-sini was a man of eductaion, and) he had the commanc) of money £ It was generally believed!

that he was engaged' in secret Itpliaii^ political plots. He was", his neighbours considered, an amiable, harmless kind of man, subject to fits of l-errible melancholy, and his movements were at times rather mysterious. Among his friends was a man known as Allsop. Allsop one day visited Biimingham in search of a person to manufacture some strange bomb-like instruments. In the sketch he had prepared of them they were pear-shaped, with a number of nipples at the broader end. — An International Mystery. — He explained to the manufacturer that he wanted hate" a dozen of these, and that they were required) for some experiments m making gas. These stiange gas machines were at length duly made and delivered. The next step was to fill theni with the '■gas" for which they were intended. All ' at length being ready, Orsini and Pierri left England for the Continent, and, smuggling themselves into France under false names, took with them the infernal machines they had thus obtained. Allsop disappeared, nor could "the keenest experts of the British or French police ever discover 'what becams of that mysterious individual. In Paris the two conspirators met a third, named Gomez ; but another accomplice was, in their opinion, necessary to ensure the success of their plot. In London at that time there was struggling to live a young Italian named Rudio. He was desperately poor. He and his wife — a beautiful Nottingham girl of 18 years of age — were on the brink of starvation. — Threats of French Invasion. — Employment came at last. One day there entered his dismal garret an emissary of Orsini's, to tempt him to take part in their awful design, and Rudio joined in the venture, and went to Paris to place himself at Orsini's- commands. His wife, it was arranged, was to receive 12s a week while he was away. Little didi she dream that he would never return when they parted. Rudio was the man who carried the carpet-bag, and who was arrested in the Rue Lepelletier. The case against Dr Bernard was that he took an active part in the -manufacture of the bombs and in -the arrangement oi the plot. "I deny it!" he declared. "True, i knew Orsini. I understood he was engaged in a plot for the freedom of Italy; but I bAve not hired assassins, and of the blood of the victims of January 14 there was nothing of my heart more than in that of anyone here. My only wish is to crush despotism and tryanny anywhere. To effect that I have conspired, and I will ever conspire ; but never — never will Ibe a murderer !" Mr Edwin James, who defended Bernard, appealed to the jury to show their British spirit by acquitting the prisoner, in spite of all "the threats of French invasion." "Tell the French Emperor that he cannot intimidate a British jury !" he cried. "Tell him that, panoplied in the eternal and immutable principles of justice, no threat of armaments or invasion can intimidate you ! Tell him that though six hundred thousand French bayonets glittered before you, though the roar of Frenchcannon thundered in your ear, you will return a verdict which your own hearts and consciences will approve !" — A Joyful Prisoner. — The jury found that the prosecution had not proved that Dr Bernard was cognisant of the plot against the Emperor, and acquitted the prisoner. As the words "Not guilty !" 'were pronounced, Bernard burst into shrill cries of joy, and wayjxl his handkerchief above his head. In Paris, Orsini and Pierri lost their heads on the guillotine ; Gomez was sent to hard labour, and Rudio to penal servitude for life. The victims of their infernal machines numbered seven instantly killed, and nine who died subsequently ; 27 paralysed and crippled for life, and. 53 wounded more or less seriously. fearful roll!