Monsieur Coudol fell into the trap. Two coachmen, taken as witnesses, bore testimony to the affair.
A demand for divorce was registered by Madame Coudol, of Paris, and during the suit the discovery of Madame Coudol, of Nantes, was made.
The bigamist of the Moulin Rouge has just been tried. But he pleaded with such good faith his ignorance of the difference that exists between separation and divorce that he benefited by a verdict of acquittal.
He won't be caught again!
Le Figaro, Paris, October 21, 1899.
Appendix S
“As for the adventure of Mademoiselle Rosine, of whom I spoke to you and which I got from being intimate with Victoire, it is far from being funny. Imagine that she is the daughter of a very rich jeweler. Naturally, we do not know the name, nor even in which quarter is the shop.
“She is just turned eighteen, and the father is a man of forty-four. I tell you the age, you shall see why by and bye. Well, then, the jeweler's wife dies and do you know how he arranged matters to replace her? Two months after the burial, one fine night, he goes and seeks his daughter Rosine. He quietly sleeps with her. That's a bit thick anyhow, isn't it? Such goings on are not uncommon among poor people, I know more than one at Grenelle who has been through the same thing, but among middle-class folks who have got money enough to treat themselves to all the women they want! And what sticks in my gizzard more than anything is not that the fathers ask for it, but that the daughters consent to it.
“Now Mademoiselle is so sweet, so amiable, that doubtless she did not wish to let her Papa suffer. Never mind, here they are both nicely trapped. They have placed her here as if in a prison. Nobody comes to see her, and you may well think that orders are given to juggle the child away. A fine bastard who will be able to show off in society!”
Fécondité, by Emile Zola, Paris,
Fasquelle, 1899, 12 mo. (P. 181).