The first of these events was occasioned by the parents of a young lady having refused their consent to her being married to her lover, whose want of fortune was the chief obstacle. The lovers, in despair, came to the fatal resolution of putting a period to their lives, and this forest was fixed upon as the spot for the dreadful deed! Having partaken of a repast which they had brought with them, and sworn to love each other (if it were permitted them) after death, they discharged, at the same moment, their pistols at themselves. The unhappy girl fell dead, but the hand of her lover having missed its aim, he was only wounded. Having no other means left of accomplishing his dreadful purpose, he took the handkerchief from her bosom and suspended himself by it to a tree. In this state they were discovered, and their bodies deposited in the same grave! The other circumstance was of the same romantic and melancholy nature.[18] This forest supplies Paris with great quantities of wood. In 1814, and in 1815, the palisades that were made to surround Paris for its defence against the Allied armies, were cut in this wood, and the large timber has consequently been greatly thinned. [Footnote 18: There never was known in this country so many fatal instances of suicide as at the present period; few days pass over without some persons throwing themselves out of their windows, or into the river Seine; and among the disappointed partizans of the late ruler, it has been usual to hurl themselves from the top of the column in the Place Vendôme, which has been shut up in consequence by an order from Government. Among the instances of deliberate self-destruction, the following is a remarkable fact, inasmuch as it serves to prove the pernicious effects of the writings of Voltaire and Rousseau in the minds of youth, when at an age incapable of discriminating between fanaticism and real piety! The person in question was a youth not turned sixteen, who destroyed himself last summer, while at college, and who left the following paper as his last will. The lady who gave it me copied it from the original. "Testament de Villemain. "Samedi. July 6th, 1816. "Je donne mon corps aux Pédants: je lègue mon âme aux manes de Voltaire et de J.J. Rousseau, qui m'ont appris à mépriser toutes les vaines superstitions de ce monde, et tous les vains préjugés qu'a enfantés la grossièreté des hommes, et surtout les subtiles noirceurs des fourbes de Prêtres. "J'ai toujours reconnu un Etre suprême, et ma religion a toujours été la religion naturelle. "Quant à mes biens terrestres, je donne: (Here he mentions various articles to his favorite school-fellows). "A Mondésir, mon dernier soupir. "J'ai toujours connu, je l'ai dit plus haut, reconnu un Etre suprême, j'ai toujours pensé que la seul religion digne de lui, etait la vertu et la probîté! "J'ose dire que je m'en suis rarement écarté malgré la faiblesse, et la fragilité humaine.