The medical men who conducted the post-mortem examination gave it as their deliberate opinion that the deceased man had been poisoned by arsenic, of which metal they professed to have found considerable quantities. The friends of the accused then submitted the matter to Orfila, the famous toxicologist, who, on giving his opinion of the methods and manner in which the analysis had been carried out, said that owing to the antiquated and doubtful methods of detection employed by the medical men, it was probable they fancied they had found arsenic where there was none. Thereupon the prosecution asked Orfila to undertake a fresh analysis himself, which he consented to do, and, on making a careful examination of the remains, stated he discovered just a minute trace of arsenic.
This apparently sealed the doom of the accused woman, and served to strengthen the bias of the jury. But now another actor appeared in the drama in the person of Raspail, another famous French chemist, who had watched the case from the beginning with interest. On hearing the result of Orfila's examination, he had taken the trouble to trace the zinc wire with which Orfila had experimented, to the shop where the great toxicologist had procured the article, and he found on analysis that the zinc itself contained more arsenic than Orfila had detected by his examination. Orfila had used Marsh's test, which is infallible so long as the reagents used are free from arsenic themselves.
Raspail, having placed the result of his discovery of arsenic in Orfila's reagent, at the service of the defence, was on his way to Tulle, where the Assizes were being held, when an unfortunate accident delayed his progress, and the unhappy Marie Cappelle Lafarge, after a trial which lasted sixteen days, was found guilty meanwhile, and condemned to imprisonment for life with hard labour, and exposure in the pillory. Raspail, however, would not let the matter rest, and at once set to work to save the condemned woman. He at length got Orfila to fairly admit his error and join him in a professional report to the authorities to that effect.
After being imprisoned for twelve years, in the end the sentence on this unhappy woman was reduced to five years in the Montpellier house of detention, after which the Government sent her to the Convent of St. Rémy, from whence she was liberated in 1852, but only to end her wretched life a few months afterwards.
There appeared in the Edinburgh Review for 1842 a careful examination of this interesting case from a legal point of view, in which the writer states the strongest evidence indicated Denis and not Madame Lafarge as the perpetrator of the crime. It was proved this man lived by forgery, and assisted Lafarge in some very shady transactions to cover the latter's insolvency. He was further known to harbour a deadly hatred for Madame Lafarge. He was with his master in Paris when he was seized with the sudden illness, and it transpired that out of the 25,000 francs the ironmaster had succeeded in borrowing from his wife's relatives, only 3,900 could be found when he returned to Glandier. On his own statement he was in the possession of a quantity of arsenic, and he was the first to direct suspicion against his master's wife. Yet all these facts appear to have been overlooked in the efforts of the prosecution to fasten the guilt on the unfortunate woman. That Lafarge died from the effects of arsenical poisoning there seems little doubt, but by whom it was administered has never been conclusively proved, and the tragedy still remains among the unsolved poisoning mysteries.
CHAPTER VIII
THE CASE OF MADELINE SMITH
The case of Madeline Smith, who was charged with causing the death of L'Angelier by the administration of arsenic at Glasgow, in 1857, excited universal interest. Owing to the social position of the lady, the trial was a cause célèbre of the time, and the circumstances of the case were of an extraordinary character. Miss Smith, who was a young and accomplished woman at that time, and who resided in a fashionable quarter of Glasgow, got entangled with a French clerk named Pierre Emile L'Angelier. L'Angelier died very suddenly in an unaccountable manner, and suspicion falling on Madeline Smith, who was frequently in his company, she was arrested and charged with the crime. The Crown case was, that she poisoned her lover that she might be betrothed to a personage of high social standing. That L'Angelier died on March 23 from the effects of arsenic was amply proved, but while suspicious acts were alleged against the accused woman, no direct evidence was adduced to show that she administered the drug. The worst point against her was the fact of her having possession of the poison; and, irrespective of two previous purchases of coloured arsenic for which she had given false reasons, it was proved that the accused had purchased one ounce, as she said, "to kill rats," on March 18, only five days before the death of L'Angelier. The arsenic sold was coloured with indigo, according to the Act of Parliament. When charged with the crime, and required to account for the poison, she replied she had used the whole of it to apply to her face, arms, and neck, diluted with water, and that a school companion had told her that arsenic was good for the complexion. From the post-mortem examination and subsequent analysis eighty-eight grains of arsenic were found in the stomach and its contents. Dr. Christison, the greatest toxicological expert of the time, was called, and stated he knew of no case in which so much as eighty-eight grains of arsenic had been found in the stomach after death.