The French papers mention a most horrible project which was attempted to be carried into effect by a miscreant at Lyons.
He had hired a sort of stable having an entrance from the street; in this he had dug a pit about six feet square, and twenty in depth. This was covered by planks moving on a swivel, which at one end were confined only by a slender thread. There was a lateral hollow in one side of the pit filled with straw, which by an apparatus he could set on fire, for the purpose of smothering his victims, with a sort of windlass to draw them up, and in an obscure corner a grave for their interment.
He first tried this infernal machine on a country woman coming to the market with fruit. She being called in, sunk into the trap, and he attempted to set the straw on fire; in his haste he happily failed, and being affrighted by her loud and reiterated cries, he took to flight. The woman was extricated by the neighbours with but little injury.
The villain was arrested, and will undergo the punishment due to his crime.
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