Revival: The Lyons Mail (1945)

Being an Account of the Crime of April 27 1796 and of the Trials Which Followed.

Charles Oman

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781138551527
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351338165
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

The old mystery of the 'Lyons Mail' is of all crime-problems the most complicated and interesting. It is not even yet forgotten, as those will remember who saw the elder and the younger Irving, play the double part of Lesurques and Dubosq-a sort of misreading of the problem of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. But the real story is tangled up with all manner of historical persons. The lost money was going to General Bonaparte, then on his first victorious campaign in the Italian Alps: three of the 'Directors' La Revelliere - Lepeaux, Gohier and Merlin dispute in the affair. Madame Tallien - 'Notre Dame de Thermidor' makes a flitting appearance: still more improbably the two famous epicures of the age - Cambaceres and Brillat-Savarin take the chair. Even Talleyrand shows for a moment.

Index

Aldenhoff, jeweller, witness for Lesurques, 87

Alfrey, Charles, witness against Lesurques, 33, 78

adheres to his declarations, 166

Alfrey, Marie, wife of Charles, her depositions, 78, 169

withdraws her first evidence, 177–8

Assignats, their depreciated value, 13–14

Audebert, Étienne, postilion, murdered, 18–19

Babeuf ‘Gracchus’, his conspiracy, 4–5

Barras, Louis, the Director, 1–2

Barrière, Claudine, mistress of Dubosq—her rescues by him, 142, 154–5

captured, 158

tried and sentenced, 175, 183–5

Beau, Jean, judge at Melun, investigates the Lyons Mail murders, 21–4, 31–6

interrogates prisoners, 63–4, 139

Bernard, David, ‘general dealer’, arrested, 50

his ‘alibis’, 73, 82

tried and condemned, 100

executed, 125

Beroldi, Luigi, alias Roussy, whom see

Blackstone, Sir W., quoted by Siméon, 98

Bonaparte, Napoleon, General, 4, 5

Emperor, 197

petitions to him, 198

Boudreux, highwayman, 34

Bourgoin, Jeanne, witness at trials, 78, 137

Breban, Madeleine, mistress of Couriol, arrested, 27

gives evidence against Couriol, 53, 84

her allegations, 112

marries an executioner, 53, 173

gives witness against Dubosq, 173–4

Brillat-Savarin, Anthelme, at trial of Dubosq, 162

Bruer, Philibert, arrested, 30

tried for the murders, 72, 82

acquitted, 101

Cabarrus, Thérèse, Madame Tallien, 96

Caille, advocate, assists Jeanne Lesurques, 195

Cambacérès, Jean Jacques, president of the Council, 114, 119, 121

Carron, postilion, discovers the murders, 17, 18

Chabault, Laurent, identifies the murderers, 23, 32, 44

refuses to recognize Dubosq, 168

Champeau, Citoyenne, mended the silver spur, 34

denounced Bernard, 82

refused to identify Dubosq, 169

Champeau, Jean, innkeeper at Lieursaint, identifies the murderers, 33

story of the spur, 34

at the Paris trial, 91, 143

at the trial of Dubosq, 166

refuses to identify Dubosq, 169

Charpentier, advocate for Guénot, 66

Chassier, warder at Melun, 171–2

Chatelain, Citoyenne, evidence of, 33

at Dubosq’s trial, 168

Chéron, evidence of, at Dubosq’s trial, 171

Chollet, Francois, presiding judge at the trial of Dubosq, 162

his altercations with the accused, 171–5

his charge to the jury, 182

presides also at the trial of Roussy, 190

Clement, police official, saves Guénot by his evidence, 95

Couriers, their functions in the French postal system, 6, 8

Couriol, Étienne, arrest of, 27

his examination by Daubanton, 55–6

his trial and condemnation, 81–100

various confessi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• I France in 1796, ‘An IV’
• II The ‘Lyons Mail’ and its contents. Floréal 8 An IV
• III Discovery of the Crime. Floréal 9. Activities of the Melun Police
• IV Activities of the Paris Police. Floréal 10–19. Arrest of Couriol
• V Further Discoveries by the Melun Police. Floréal 10–20
• VI Arrest of Lesurques and Guénot. Floréal 22
• VII Evidence collected by Judge Daubanton. Floréal 22 to Prairial 3
• VIII An interlude at Melun. Prairial–Messidor An IV
• IX The Trial at Paris. Thermidor 15. 1st Session
• X First Trial At Paris. Thermidor 16. 2nd Session. The Goldsmith’s Day-Book
• XI First Trial At Paris. Thermidor 17. 3rd Session
• XII First Trial At Paris. Thermidor 18. 4th Session. The Verdict
• XIII Appeals. Thermidor-Brumaire. Augustoctober. Debate in the Council
• XIV The First Executions. Brumaire 9
• XV The Affaire Laborde-Durochat. Ventôse An V
• XVI Delays and Escapes. Prairial An V to Ventôse An VI. Ingenuity of Jean Guillaume Dubosq
• XVII Dubosq, and the Doctor. The Last Escape. Thermidor An VI
• XVIII Final Capture and Trial of Dubosq. Thermidor An VIII to Pluviose An IX
• XIX An Inconclusive Epilogue. The ‘Affaire Roussy’ An XII
• XX The Aftermath. Seventy Years of Controversy, 1797–1868
• XXI An Unsolved Problem
• Index