GRISI'S HUSBAND TRIED FOR FORGERY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7964, 7 September 1887, Page 4

GRISI'S HUSBAND TRIED FOR FORGERY.

The name of Giulia Grisi, the great cantatrice of the palmy days of Italian opera in London and Paris, came in incidentally in a trial for forgery, which has just taken place before the assizes of the Ardennes. , The principal accused was in fact her former husband, Gerard de Melcy, to whom she was married in 1836, and who, in spite of his seventy-five years, is still a veteran of noble bearing. The married life of Pc Melcy and Grisi was not a happy one', and terminated in 1846, by a judicial separation, after a duel between tbe husband and ■ Lord Casilereagb, which caused a great sensation in English society at the time. By the deed of separation Grißi.was to allow her .husband lOjOOO.francs a year, but the money was never paid. ,De Melcy, after his wife'i death in 1869, inherited considerable property from his father, including large iron works in the Ardennes, but, either from mismanagement or extravagance, he lost his entire fortune, and for the last sixteen years had been dependent on his brother, Armonde de Melcy, with whom he resided at the chateau of Gbehery, near Vouziers. His brother died in 1883, and shortly afterwards De Melcy, finding that the widow wss not disposed to continue the hospitality he had so long enjoyed, produced a deed nnder which Armande de Melcy acknowledged himself a debtor to him in the sum of 250,000fr, which he claimed from the eßtate. The document was proved to-be a fabrication, drawn up by an accountant named Carrd, with whom he had had dealings. The two men were now tried for forgery. GarrS was sentenced to two years' imprisonment ; De Melcy, in consideration of his great age, to ono year only — GalignanVs Messenger.