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 Vendome, 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.
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