TWENTY YEARS IN ILLEGAL

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 10503, 26 November 1901, Page 3

TWENTY YEARS IN ILLEGAL

CONFINEMENT.

A Remarkable Case (

The police -at Florence recently received an anonymous letter stating that Signor Corsi, a wealthy barrister of the city, had kept his sister in confine* ment for 20 years while he enjoyed her estates. Signor Corsi was arrested on October ' 4. The sister was discovered in a pitiable condition. People in Paris have been following with close interest the case of Blanche Monnier de Marconnay, once a beauty, but transformed into a living skeleton by the alleged cruelty of her relatives. The trial of her 'brother. Marcel Monnier, aged 53, began on Monday (reports an. exchange of October 12th) before the -Correctional Tribunal of Poitiers. The story begins with an anonymous communication circulated at Poitiers. It was stated that in one of the streets • of that town, in a house inhabited by Madame Monnier de Marconnay, a widow of means, there was an ill-fated , woman who had been hidden away for j 20 years. The judicial authorities visit- j ed the place indicated, and found in a top room a woman of about 50, whose fearful surroundings filled them with i horror. They saw before them a crouch- ' ing and abject human figure, reduced to a skeleton. The figure mumbled and chattered as the law officials approached, and then implored for mercy. "Ihe wretched being was Blanche Monnier. In her intervals of lucidity she h-id scrawled on the reeking walls around her, "Shall I ever regain my freedom, or am I to be for ever consigned to this living tomb?" The woman was removed to the hospital, and her mother and brother, "Marcel Monnier, formerly a sub-Prefect, were arrested. It is stated that Balnche Monnier was one of the belles of Poitiers. She wa« not only beautiful, but had money, and she fell in love with a young barrister, who had-* brains but not money, and whose prospects were not considered to be bright. Blanche vainly bespught her mother to consent to, the marriage with the lawyers Soon afterwards the. young advocate died, Mdlle. Monnier- disappeared from society haunts, and the story was circulated that she had lost her reason through love, and people . gradually gave up thinking about her. In the course of years the secret was discovered mainly, it is said, through a soldier who was courting one of THadame Monnier's maids. Last June the mother died in the prison infirmary at Poitiers, and her relatives were jeered and hooted at as they were following her ftttieral. The brother of Blanche accordingly appeared alone before Poittors Correctional Tribunal on Monday, charged with having been guilty of cruelty, or of being an accomplice in acts of cruelty towards his sister. His wife was present, accompanied by the Comte de Clißson, a' relative of tho Monnier family. Blanche Monnior had not been taken to- the court, as she is still an invalid, .nursed by nuns. Aniong* the articles produced were the blinds of the room in which the woman had been iinpruoned. and the chain and padlock attached to them. The wretched wooden bed, mattrete, and other objects from the living tomb were also visible. It «•« "uwanced that about 100 witnesses would fe MJU4. i