Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 1. No 1, June 1850Various
General
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 1. No 1, June 1850
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
Remembering these cases, we can have little doubt that Mademoiselle
Clairon's maid was the author of the noises which threw her mistress and
her friends into such consternation. Her own house was generally the
place where these things happened; and on the most remarkable occasions
where they happened elsewhere, is expressly mentioned that the maid was
present. At St. Cloud it was to the maid, who was her bed-fellow, that
Clairon was congratulating herself on being out of the way of the cry,
when it suddenly was heard in the very room. She had her maid in the
carriage with her on the Boulevards, and it was immediately after the
girl had asked her a question about the death of M. de S---- that the
gun-shot was heard, which seemed to traverse the carriage. Had the maid
a confederate--perhaps her fellow-servant on the box--to whom she might
have given the signal? When Mademoiselle Clairon went a-shopping to the
Rue St. Honoré, she probably had her maid with her, either in or outside
the carriage; and, indeed, in every instance the noises took place when
the maid would most probably have been present, or close at hand. In
regard to the unearthly cry, she might easily have produced it herself
without any great skill in ventriloquism, or the art of imitating
sounds; a supposition which is rendered the more probable, as its
realization was rendered the more easy, by the fact of no words having
been uttered--merely a wild cry. Most of the common itinerant
ventriloquists on our public race-courses can utter speeches for an
imaginary person without any perceptible motion of the lips; the
utterance of a mere sound in this way would be infinitely less
difficult.
The noises resembling the report of fire-arms (very likely to have been
unconsciously, and in perfect good faith, exaggerated by the terror of
the hearers) may have been produced by a confederate fellow-servant, or
a lover. It is to be observed, that the first time this seeming report
was heard, the houses opposite were guarded by the police, and spies
were placed in the street, but Mademoiselle Clairon's own house was
merely "examined." It is evident that these precautions, however
effectual against a plot conducted from without, could have no effect
whatever against tricks played within her house by one or more of her
own servants.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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