ESCAPE FROM ASYLUM

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6599, 14 May 1925, Page 7

ESCAPE FROM ASYLUM

KIDNAPPING A COUNTESS “Deprived of liberty, separated from my child, and interned in a private asylum on the outskirts of Paris on the pretence of being of unsound mind”—such is the complaint of Countess Helene de Chateaubriand, a member of a very notable French family. She is the widow of the late Count Frederic de Chateaubriand, lineal descendant of the great French literateur and author of “Memories d’Outre Tomge.” The countess, who is a brunette, stout and petite, with beautiful blue eyes and a touch of the Bourbon profile, is of Anglo-Portuguese parentage. She received a Daily Chronicle correspondent at her house in the Avenue Kleber. He was ushered into a Chinese furnished boudoir, where the predominating colour notes were red and gold. He found the Countess seated there on a divan."

“My husband,” the countess said, “died two years ago. I have a child who is two and a half years old, and who has remained in the care of one of my faithful servants during the suffering inflicted upon me. I have a large fortune inherited from my father and my husband, the Count de Chateaubriand, the head of the family and my late husband’s elder brother, who is a colonel in the French army, has returned from Morocco to look after my interests, and my liberty, I know, will be safe in his hands.”

The countess’ story, as heard from her own lips, sounds almost incredible, and it is difficult to believe that all this could have been possible in a busy part of Paris and under the very eyes of the law. Here is her narrative:—

On November 21st last she left her home in the Avenue Kleber on a shopping excursion and a visit to friends. She was in a motor car, and as the vehicle slowed up in the city in a traffic jamb, a man jumped on to the running board, announced himself as a Government official, and directed the car to be driven to the police headquarters. The chauffeur refused, but on reaching home the countess was called upon by another individual who declared that he was acting for the Procureur of the Republic. She was hurried into an automobile and conducted to a home at La Malmaison.

The doctor of this institution, the countess says, refused to admit her as a mental patient, saying that she was of perfectly sound mind. The official, it then transpired, was not a Government legal functionary at all. He had simply assumed the role to facilitate the task of interning the countess. The latter was then forced into the waiting car afresh. Then, she says, she was seized by attendants and flung into an iron-barred room. Subsequently, the countess declared, her friends discovered her whereabouts and helped her to escape. They arranged for her examination by a board of four doctors, who have unanimously pronounced her sane and her forcible detention illegal. There are some discrepancies in the countess’ own story, which may be due to excitement resulting from her experiences. But the whole affair is being closely investigated by the police with a view to discovering whether it is a case for criminal proceedings.