Helene seems to have made Lorient too hot for herself, and had to go
elsewhere. Port Louis is her next scene of action. A kinswoman of her
master in this town, one Duperron, happened to miss a sheet from
the household stock. Mlle Leblanc charged Helene with the theft, and
demanded the return of the stolen article. It is recorded that Helene
refused to give it up, and her answer is curious.
"I am going into retreat," she declared. "God has forgiven me my sins!"
There was perhaps something prophetic in the declaration. By the time
Helene was brought to trial, in 1854, her sins up to this point of
record were covered by the prescription legale, a sort of statute of
limitations in French law covering crime. Between 1833 and 1841 the
wanderings of Helene Jegado through those quiet Brittany towns had been
marked by twenty-three deaths, six illnesses, and numerous thefts.
There is surcease to Helene's death-dealing between the years of
1841 and 1849, but on the inquiries made after her arrest a myriad of
accusers sprang up to tell of thefts during that time. They were petty
thefts, but towards the end of the period they begin to indicate a
change in Helene's habits. She seems to have taken to drink, for her
thefts are mostly of wine and eau de vie.
In March 1848 Helene was in Rennes. On the 6th of November of the
following year, having been dismissed from several houses for theft,
she became sole domestic servant to a married couple called Rabot. Their
son, Albert, who was already ill, died in the end of December. He had
eaten a farina porridge cooked by Helene. In the following February,
having discovered Helene's depredations from the wine-cupboard, M. Rabot
gave her notice. This was on the 3rd of the month. (Helene was to leave
on the 13th.) The next day Mme Rabot and Rabot himself, having taken
soup of Helene's making, became very ill. Rabot's mother-in-law ate a
panade prepared by Helene. She too fell ill. They all recovered after
Helene had departed, but Rabot, like M. Dupuy-de-Lome, was partially
paralysed for months afterwards.
In Helene's next situation, with people called Ozanne, her way of
abstracting liquor again was noticed. She was chided for stealing eau
de vie. Soon after that the Ozannes' little son died suddenly, very
suddenly. The doctor called in thought it was from a croup fever.
On the day following the death of the little Ozanne Helene entered the
service of M. Roussell, proprietor of the Bout-du-Monde hotel in Rennes.
Some six weeks later Roussell's mother suddenly became ill. She had had
occasion to reproach Helene for sullen ill-manners or something of that
sort. She ate some potage which Helene had cooked. The illness that
ensued lasted a long time. Eighteen months later the old lady had hardly
recovered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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