POSTSCRIPT.
SATURDAY NIGHT.
Once more the hand of the assassin has been pointed at the King of the French, and the aim was near being fatal; though no one was actually hurt. The following account is taken from the Journal des Debate of yes- terday, and reaches London by means of the telegraph- " At half-past five o'clock on Thursday afternoon, at the moment when the King was returning from a drive, and was passing through the park of Fontein- bleau, a man, mounted upon a wall, fired at his Majesty. Providence has once more watched over the days of the Eng. "The Queen, the Princess Adelaide, the Dutchess of Nemours, and the Prince and Princess of Salerno, were in the King's carriage. No one was hurt. "Three balls cut the fringe which ornaments the char-i-bane. The wadding, which fell between the King and the Queen, was picked up by the Queen. " The assassin was immediately arrested. His name is Leconte. [In one version of the despatch this name is spelled " Leconte."] He is an old wood- keeper (ancien garde generale) of the forest of Fontainbleau." So says the translation as it comes through the electric telegraph; but " T. L. S.," who writes, from the City, a duplicate letter to the Standard and Globe, conjectures that the real spelling of the name should be dif- ferent, and that the assassin " will turn out to be a man of greater con- sequence in society than simply an old wood-keeper, or ancien garde generals "— " At the abdication of Napoleon at Fontainblean, among other witnesses, there was present Lecounti, the Commandant or Chief of the Garde Generale; a man most zealously devoted to the Emperor, and who received from his hands one of the remaining eagles, with its appended tricolor. " On the restoration of the Bourbons, Lecounti was dismissed from his office; which, in some respects, assimilated to that of a Commissioner of Woods and Forests in this country. After, however, the expulsion of the elder branch of the Bourbons by the Revolution of July, he was restored, with hundreds of other old officers of the empire. But, it is believed, in consequence of his extreme Republican principles, he only retained his post about eighteen months. "Under these circumstances, and in the absence of any evidence to the con- trary, we may be pardoned for supposing that the Lecounte so favoured by Napo- leon, has allowed a feeling of vindictiveness to urge him on to the attempted assassination of Louis Philippe."
Previous page
