MARSEILLES POISON DRAMA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7923, 30 January 1904, Page 4

MARSEILLES POISON DRAMA.

ACCUSED WIFE DECLARES HER INNOCENCE. The sensation caused by the reported poisoning of M. Massot, a ship's captain of Marseilles, is far from subsiding, telegraphs, on. December 15, the Paris correspondent of a London newspaper. The families concerned are so well known in the town that every circumstance concerning the mysterious affair is anxiously discussed', and any scrap of information which tends to throw fresh light upon the case is eagerly commented upon. After an examination of a large number of witnesses, M. de Po-Se^ the magistrate entrusted! with the ccaste t requested the Public Prosecutor to interrogate Madame Massot, the central figure of the wagedy. That functionary saw her for half an hour to-day, and in the afternoon ber counsel, M. Nathan, conversed with her for over an hour. In an interview, after leaving tbe prisoner, M. Nathan said' : " I have no doubt whatever as to the innocence of Madame Massot, whom I found in a state of perfect tranquillity. She does not deny her relations^ with M. Hubac, her lover, nor does she dispute the terms of the letters which were addressed to her by him. But she affirms with the greatest energy that she never for a moment thought of following the counsels given to ber by M. Hubac. __c had not attached! the slightest importance to these letters, but simply tore them up and) threw them into the jpail where'they were. found by Lucie, her domestic." x As to the" alleged finding of bottles containing traces of the poison which is' alleged to have been administered to M. Massot, her counsel said that Ofe was quite willing to discuss' that question when the doctors bad discovered something to support the allegation. Dr Bories, who attended the late M. Massot, asserts tbat the illness.fronv which his patient suffered' was inflammation of th© bowels, aiud be attributes bis death to a heart seizure resulting from his illness.