A most dreadful crime

A most dreadful crime was recently committed in the commune of Biron, in France.

On the 30th of  June, in the afternoon, three young girls, two of whom were sisters, one aged 10 and the other 16, walked into the forest of Biron to gather strawberries. Suddenly an individual presented himself, who, without uttering a word, commanded them by signs to fall upon their knees and pray to God, which they did in their fright; he then drew a cutlass from under his coat, and plunged it into the breast of the youngest of the sisters.

The third girl then ran off, but she was pursued by the assassin, who gave her three stabs with the cutlass, and thinking her dead, returned to the two sisters.

The younger was then struggling in the agonies of death in the arms of her sister; the monster then stabbed the latter, and disappeared. The young girl above-mentioned, who was so desperately wounded, succeeded in getting home, and raised the hue and cry.

The police flew to the spot where the two dead bodies lay, and from thence to the residence of a deaf and dumb man named Monteil, a most villainous character; they did not find him, but his father said, with a sorrowful air, that he had not seen his son since ten o'clock in the morning. Their suspicions are almost confirmed by the circumstance of the wretch not having been seen at home since.