Causes Cclebres. a powerful dose of arsenic. On Tuesday, the 24th, at half-past four in the evening, he died, just seven days and a half after the perpetration of the atrocious dee"d. This short period, however, sufficed for bringing to light the truth in all its details. It is probable that the Duke took the poison when he saw his plans for hiding the murder de feated, expecting its effect would be much more rapid than it actually was. . . . Al though the accused could not be brought to an actual confession of his crime, yet the ab sence of all denial, even when the choice was formally given him between yes and no, may be well received as such. ... As regards the Duke, all then is made plain. All is accomplished, — the justice of man has no longer any power over him. But at the commencement of the preliminary inquiries, the ordinary judges did not hesitate to arrest Mademoiselle Deluzy, under suspicion of having been a party to the crime. For six years she had been a governess to the Duke's children, and only left the house and her sit uation on the 18th of July last. I have con tinued this arrest, by issuing against her an order of imprisonment, in virtue of which she is still detained in the Conciergerie." Mademoiselle Deluzy was soon after set at liberty, on the report of the Procureur du Roi that there were no grounds for suppos ing her to have had any participation in the murder. The Duke's remains were buried secretly at night. The people were so en raged against him, and were so incensed at the impunity he obtained fn the eyes of the world by dying, that many refused to be lieve that he really was dead. There were some who maintained that the noble fami lies, interested in stifling the details of the scandal, had procured the government's connivance at the evasion of the accused. Those who had too much sense to credit so absurd a supposition, declaimed none the less loudly against the system of tolerance, consideration, and insufficient restraint al lowed him, which enabled him to escape the merited disgrace of a public execution.
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Strange to say, this gave rise to a kind of general undefined feeling against the then existing monarchical government, which grew and continued a canker on the pub lic mind until there came a mighty revo lution which made the Praslin affair seem a gloomy prelude to a swelling scene of horrors. The letters which the Duchesse de Praslin wrote to the Duke, during the period of dis cord caused by the presence of Mademoi selle Deluzy, were published after her death and obtained quite a literary fame, from the exquisite tenderness, the purity and good ness of mind, and the energy of feeling they display. The correspondence minutely de tails and painfully lays bare the long agony the unfortunate wife must have endured. The following is an extract from a letter (probably the last she ever wrote) addressed by the Duchess to her husband, and found in her desk at Vaux-Praslin, after she had perished by his hand : — "!f by your threats [writes the miserable bro ken hearted creature] you wish me to understand a divorce, you should recollect that the initiative is not with yourself. For years you have treated me without esteem, without regard. You are free, but you bring up your children in alienation from their mother, in contempt of her; you abandon them to a woman who cajoles you, whose manners are corrupt. 1 must confess I think you a little singular in being angry, when for once I endeavor to escape from this detestable kind of life. You seek pretexts against my journey. So long as I had a husband, children, and a home, I was happy, and never thought of quitting them; now that you have robbed me of them, I own that I am thinking of escape from this hell, for surely there are no words that can express the tortures I endure." The poor woman, it seems, had a premo nition of her approaching end. One day, shortly before their departure on the fatal journey to Paris, the Duke requested her to descend into the funeral vault at Vaux, which had been recently repaired; she re fused, saying, " Shall I not soon go into it forever? " Her presentiment of death was
