Page:Stryker's American Register and Magazine, Volume 6, 1851.djvu/195

Rh fattier, Julian Bocarmé, married a niece of the Austrian General Chastelit, and was an official of the Dutch government of Java, where Hippolyte, his only son, was born. He was nursed by a Malay woman, and grew up among that people, whose savage and perfidious character he seems to have imbibed. Count Julian afterward returned to Belgium, and lived for some time at Tournay. Here, however, he enjoyed no rest; his love of adventure drove him abroad; and, accompanied by his son, he wandered to North America, where he founded a colony, on the banks of the Ohio. Young Hippolyte remained here until he was eighteen years old, when he returned to Europe, and soon after married a lady, named Lydia Fougnies, from Peruwetz. His young wife was well educated, with superior talents, possessing a vivid imagination, and cherishing a passionate admiration of the French romance-writers. She sustained personal relations with some of them, among others with Balzac, who often passed several weeks in the summer at Bury Castle in the Tournay, which the young couple had made their residence. She also wrote some few novels, but they are quite insignificant. Such a character was by no means adapted to influence a man like Count Hippolyte, who had brought with him from abroad the instincts of a half-savage. He had also been disappointed in getting less money with her than he had expected. He abandoned himself to his unbridled passions, kept mistresses, and became the terror of his acquaintances, and the distress of his relations. In the village where he lived, he was hated most intensely on account of his severe and cruel disposition.

The dissipated life of the Count produced a total disorder of his finances. He was deeply in debt, and had squandered a large part of his estate. His only hope was in the inheritance of his brother-in-law, Gustavus Fougnies. This person gave no promise of a long life. His health was bad, and by a fall from a horse he had lost a leg. A deep distrust of his brother-in-law, no one knows why, seems to have been early rooted in his mind. Although he was ardently attached to his sister, and made her the heir of his whole property, he seldom went to Bury, and often said that he was afraid to eat anything there until it had been tasted by his brother-in-law. He was perfectly aware that he was anxious to get hold of his property, and wished nothing so much as his death. It is even said that he once expressed the suspicion that Count Hippolyte had poisoned his father.

Towards the close of last year Fougnies had made up his mind to marry the Countess de Grandmetz. The wedding day was fixed, the bridal gifts were purchased, the marriage contract was to have been signed on the 23d of November, when Fougnies,