Alexandria Gazette

An Awful Discovery.

The sensation of last week in Paris was the arrest of Madame Monnier, a rich, miserly land-owner of the neighborhood of Poitiers, and her son, a former sub-prefect of the Department of Vienne and a leader of Poitiers society, on the charge of incarcerating Mlle. Blanche Monnier, a daughter of Madame Monnier, for twenty-five years in a room of Madame Monnier's house. The police were anonymously notified of the woman's detention, entered the house, and found Mlle. Monnier shut up in a room in darkness, lying on a mattress, stark naked, and so emaciated that she appeared to be a living skeleton. The room was covered with filth, bones, refuse, food, worms, rats and all kinds of vermin. The unfortunate woman, who had partially lost her reason, was taken to a hospital. It was thought she would die, but she is now improving.

Twenty-five years ago she was a beautiful brunette, and fell in love with a lawyer without means. Her mother disapproved of their love, and confined her in the room, which she has only recently left. The son, after his arrest, pleaded that he acted as he did on account of piety, and that the mother was responsible. The lawyer died in 1885.

There was another dramatic element in the case on Saturday. Madame Monnier died in prison of heart disease. The gravity of her crime was brought home to her at the judge's examination Thursday. She became ill, and died suddenly in the prison infirmary that morning.