Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 01.pdf/443

400 No sooner was he dead than it was loudly proclaimed in the house that he had been poisoned by his wife. In the death-chamber a strange scene then took place. Beside the still warm body Madame Lafarge, the mother, after having, with the concurrence of her daughter, driven the weeping wife out of the room, sent for a locksmith and had him force a secretary which contained the papers of Marie Lafarge, and these papers she took possession of.

The sinister rumors were not slow in reaching the ears of justice. On the 15th of January, twenty-four hours after the death of M. Lafarge, the procureur du roi repaired to Glandier, and preparations were made for an autopsy. On the 16th the autopsy was performed, and the organs were sent to four experts for examination. They were placed in jars, which were not sealed, and none of the precautions usual in such cases were observed. On the 19th the experts made their report, stating that the death of M. Lafarge was caused by arsenic.

What was Marie Lafarge doing while justice was seeking in her husband's remains for traces of a crime? Ill, overwhelmed by grief, she protested her innocence. She demanded of a servant, Clementine Servat, the arsenic which she had confided to her to use for the destruction of the rats. This girl confessed that being frightened at having such a substance in her possession, she had deposited it in an old hat in M. Lafarge's chamber. The package was found later, and was discovered to contain only an inoffensive substance, bicarbonate of soda.

During the week which followed her husband's death, Madame Lafarge, although knowing that she was gravely suspected, had no thought of trying to escape an imminent accusation. M. Charles Lalande, an advocate at Brives, urged her to fly, but she refused.

Marie Lafarge was arrested; and while the officers of justice were searching the house at Glandier, the long-missing diamonds of Madame de Léautaud were discovered in one of the rooms. The prisoner was interrogated. Her friends and defenders awaited anxiously her response. Her reply was as follows:—

"These diamonds were sent to me by a friend whose name I do not know, who lives at Toulouse, I believe, but I do not know. I do not know how they came to me."

Being pressed by the juge d'instruction, she added,—

"But the person from whom I received the diamonds will not remain silent long, but will come and justify me."

On reading this incredible response her friends and defenders were astounded. They hastened to the prison, and found Marie happy and triumphant, as she said, at having by this foolish lie avoided the truth which she could not and would not tell.

This truth she was forced to confess, however, when her defenders, MM. Bac and Lachaud, explained to her the disastrous prejudices this affair of the diamonds would give rise to, upon the eve of the criminal trial. She had made this strange response, she said, because she expected, from day to day, that Madame de Léautaud would make a confession, which would, it is true, cost her her reputation, but which became necessary in view of the terrible consequences which would follow her silence.

According to Madame Lafarge, during her sojourn at Busagny Madame de Léautaud, oppressed with fear that certain former compromising relations with one M. Felix Clavé might be made known, resolved to buy the silence of that man by procuring a sum of money by the sale of some old family diamonds, and had begged Marie Cappelle to act as an intermediary in this secret transaction. Her plan was arranged in such a manner as to make it appear that these diamonds had been stolen. Marie Cappelle took them away with her, but not without having insisted, more than once, on returning them. Not being able to effect a sale of them before her marriage, Madame Lafarge took them with her to Glandier.

Upon this confession of the facts M. Bac