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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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lie was very ill—again with all the symptoms of poisoning by arsenic . After these illnesses , I / Angelier tells Miss Perry , a confidante , that Madeline had given him coffee and chocolate , and that it was ' very strange' he should be ill after getting it from her . This , however , appeared to be but a passing susp icion in his mind , for he still loved her passionately . There is no trace of a further interview . She is about to go off to the ' Bridge of Allan with her family for a fortnight ; but , before she goes , she openly purchases on the 6 th of March an ounce of
arsenic at the family druggist ' s . ( It is remarkable that on this , as on the two other occasions , she does not pay for it , but it is entered to her father ' s account ; and though in her declaration she states that she wished to con-¦ ceal from her family that she used arsenic , yet she deliberately buys it in such a way that it must finally come to their knowledge . The motive for this ostentatious openness in purchasing it on the family account , though the cost was only sixpence , is not explained , and can only be guessed . ) She goes to the Bridge of Allan , has frequent walks with her betrothed husband , but continues to correspond with L'Angelier in letters not having the
heat and abandon of her former letters , but crowded with epithets of endearment . It is noteworthy that at this time she urges Ii'Angelier to go to the Isle of "Wight for the benefit of his health , and he expresses suspicion at being entreated to go ' five hundred miles away from her . ' She cannot get him out of the way by these fair means . She returns to town . On the 18 th of March she purchases an ounce of arsenic , and on the same day writes to her lover , appointing to meet him on the next day , Thursday . This letter is lost , but we know that it did not reach her lover till Friday morning , so that , as he savs in a letter to the confidante ,
' both were disappointed . ' Another letter was written either on Friday evening or Saturday morning . It made an appointment for ' to-morrow , '—' same hour , same arrangement . ' It reached L'Angelier ' s lodgings on Saturday afternoon , and followed him to the Bridge of Allan , where he received it on Sunday morning . She says that the appointment was for Saturday evening . But he returns to his Glasgow lodgings on Sunday evening , says to his landlady , * The letter you sent brought me home' ( the letter from Miss Smith , inviting him to come and ' clasp her to his heart , ' — ' same hour and same arrangement' ) , asks for the latch-key , and goes out .
We now come—this Sunday evening—to the point of the story . We have Miss Smith in Blythswood-square . This girl , determined to marry Minnoch , but terribly afraid of L'Angelier , has written to the latter , saying : — ' Oh , come , sweet love , my own dear love of a sweetheart . Gome , beloved , And clasp me to your heart ; come , and -we shall be happy , "
He did not come on the Saturday ; but Sunday was a usual night for their meetings , and she expected him , as she intimates in her declaration that she did not hear his signal on Sunday evening . ('' There was no tapping at nay window ' ou Saturday night or on the Sunday evening . " ) On that evening L'Aitgi ; - ujaitleaves his lodginga in health and spirits , having returned to town to meet the lady of having returned to town to meet the lady of
hia love : ' his bosom ' s lord sits lightly on its throne ; ' the quai'rel between them lias been made up . She * has sent him two letters in succession—letters full of loving warmth —appointing an interview . Some time before that she had positively denied all engagement with Minkoch , and referred gladly to her intended marriage with I / Angelier . At this very coming interview they were to arrange their union . Ho was very fond of tho
girl ; he always seemed anxious to marry her . He was , no doubt , as light of heart and step that evening going towards her residence ( for he was seen not far from it and walking towards it ) as any happy bridegroom going to meet his bride : While she—she was thinking , no doubt , how she could manage to marry Mtnnoch and at the same time to silence L'AitgelIer .
Here is the blank which no evidence has filled up . From half-past nine on Sunday evening to two o ' clock on Monday morning L'Angelieb ' s movements are not traced . All the known facts tend to indicate that he visited Madeline Smith , as she arranged and as he intended ; and against these facts we have simply her denial . He returned home at two o ' clock very ill ;• he allowed a doctor to be sent for ; he said " I never felt like this before ; " he got worse ; he sent for Miss Perhy , the confidante : before she came he was dead .
The supposition that L'Angelier committed suicide is disproved by the facts _ of the case . Poverty and disappointment in love had driven him to ' talk' about suicide some years before , but he was now in a comparatively comfortable situation , and was valued by his employers . The little fellow was also ' in luck ; ' a very pretty girl , of superior station , loved him to devotion , and had granted him the highest favour a woman can bestow . Take him as a frivolous libertine , or a male
flirt , hewas at the height of his ambition ; suppose him anxious to marry—the girl , he was equally glad , for he was coming at her invitation to talk about their marriage . The quarrel between them was over ; she had ceased to ask back her letters—she panted once more to ' embrace her beloved . ' The supposition of suicide is also disproved by his remarks during the fatal illness . He comes home , he allows a doctor to be sent for ; he is anxious for the doctor ; he says , " I never felt like this before—I do not think it is bile . "
He sends for Miss Perry , the confidante , then says , " I think I should be better if I got a little sleep" ( an impossible speech for a man who had knowingly taken an enormous dose of arsenic ) , and , sinking into sleep , dies in a few minutes . The other person accused of giving the arsenic is Madeline Smith . On Monday
afternoon the friend of L'Angelier comes to the house . Miss Smith meets her in the hall , and asks , " Is there anything wrong ? " Miss Perry replied that she wished to see Miss Smith ' s mother , whom she did not know . Madeline asked to be told the object of Miss Perry ' s visit , but that lady declined . And so the conversation ended . Miss Smith had
written two letters to L'Anqeiieii appointing a meeting j the second said anxiously , " Oh 1 beloved , are you ill ? " Two days elapse ; she sees his special friend and confidante—her confidante also—come to the house , and , what she never did before , ask to see her mamma . ( Indeed there is no record that Miss Perry ever visited the house ) . She asks at once , " Is there anything wrong ? " She is curious to know the object of Miss Pishry ' b visit , but she never says , " How is I / Angeiier ? " " Is ho ill ? " or , " Have you seen him P" although
she had been for weeks without seeing the ' beloved of her heart , ' and although , as she soys , he had failed to answer two letters and to keep two appointments . She heard of L'Angelieu ' s death on Monday ; on Thursday she secretly and by night ( she was not missed tilt morning ) left her father's house unheard by her sister who slept with her , unheard by every one in the house ; she was found on board one of the river steamers , and her betrothed husband asked her why she had left ; ' she made mo reply . ' She afterwards
intimated to him that was some ge man with whom she had had a correspond and she volunteered a statement that I g elier was said to have been poisonei that she had used arsenic as a cosmetic , never expressed a regret at L'Angei death ; never showed any grief at the of her lover . There is no doubt that si joiced at his death ; it released her fror who in all legal likelihood was her h * us ( for Scotch law is peculiar ) , and her den our to Minnoch shows that even after 1 g elier ' s death , and with exposure impen she still hoped to retain him as her f husband .
Emile L'Angelier was killed by ars If he had bought arsenic , if he had di rately administered to himself twice I coffee and chocolate which made him ill he had been poisoned by arsenic , if the opportunity of taking coffee and choc again presented itself , and if he had a motive for killing Emile L'Angeliei should convict him of self-murder . All things are , however , unproved or controvt But if another person had bought arsenic
administered twice before coffee and cl late after which I / Angelier was ill poisoned by arsenic , had a great moth killing Emile L'Angelier , was hot in sion , but cool , courageous , and unprinci and had in all likelihood the opportuni giving the arsenic , that other person cannot be convicted of murder , becaus < ' opportunity' ( that is , the appointed i view ) was not actually proved . Thewor italics show the want of positive eviden complete the case for the prosecution .
To the legal and virtual verdict of Edinburgh jury we unreservedly ad They could not have come to any othe cision .
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THE COURT BULLY IN PAHLIAME : " Whether Lord John Russeil ' s a sion to the Government party encou the Premier in insolence , or whethe : has imbibed a morbid desire to insult House of Commons , it is impossibl say , but from all sides we hear compl that Lord Palmebston maintains only character , that of a Bully—a Bully ba up by some one stronger than hin Having exhausted his faculties as a je he has furnished himself with a new api
tus—a scowl , a fling of the head , a shout , an . overbearing swagger , before which , h < made up his mind , the Commons of En ^ shall crouch like animals . A great nui of them , Heaven knows , are ready enouf crouch ; but there are others whose coi nance he may be sorry to lose , who are bi ning to feel something more than dis when they see a Premier in the attitude bravo , thinking lie can quell the Hous gladiatorial hustling . Did the din of fl Chester deprive Lord Palmerston of senses ? or 1 ms he discovered tliat Va
ment , unsusceptible of cajolery , must no ^ put down by a loud voice ana nn audac demeanour ? It was not many evenings that he entered the House , and , after lie ing to half a speech , started \ ip like A throwing down a challenge , ana literallj out after the fashion of those -who split skulls of bulls in Grecian days , wnil flung about him a series of reckless ye tentionnl insults . He had no know I whatever of the subject under conaiderat his observations betrayed the grossest i tieal ignorance ; and yet he had the effron to inveigh against several honourable tlemen for ' haggling and boggling' ove item in the estimates of the utmost im tnnce . "We hope he had his swing . If I to continue Prime Minister , it is as
Untitled Article
it about THE IiBADER . [ No . 381 , Jra ? U , 185 DDU __ _ — .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 11, 1857, page 660, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2200/page/12/
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