About the Robbery of Mademoiselle Mars in Paris

A robbery of jewels, under singular circumstances, occurred in Paris towards the close of 1827, at the house of the famous actress, Mademoiselle Mars. It was well known by every one that this lady possessed a costly collection of precious stones, and it was a grand sight to see her adorned with diamonds on the stage, in which she was frequently advertised to appear. On the 19th of October, in the year mentioned, Mademoiselle Mars--who resided in an hotel forming an angle of the Rue de la Tour des Dames and the Rue Larochefoucault--went to dine at M. Armand's, of the Theatre Francais, who played with her in almost all her pieces. The house was left in charge of a female friend, and the porter and his wife, together with Constance, the lady's maid. M. Valville, the stepfather of Mademoiselle Mars, was also dining out that evening; but returning about half past nine found the maid at the porter's lodge, who showed unusual eagerness to assist the old gentleman in taking his hat and cane. The principal entrance to the hotel being shut, she left him standing there while she went round and made her way in through a back door, to open the front one from within. As she admitted M. Valville, she exclaimed that "thieves had taken everything, the drawers were empty, and there must be thieves in the house," adding, "Thank Heaven, nothing can be done to me; there is no proof."

Information of the robbery was instantly sent to Mademoiselle Mars, who, on her return home, found the officers of justice already there, taking the depositions of the inmates. No clue could be obtained; but the strange behaviour of Constance, the maid, when under examination, and her prevarications, led her to be arrested. This woman, who had entered the service of Mademoiselle Mars under a forged character, had, it appeared, married an engraver, Francois Eugene Mulon, and suspicions being roused that he was the perpetrator of the robbery, in conjunction with his wife, he was arrested at Geneva, and confessed his guilt. He declared that, in the frequent visits he had made to his wife, he had had opportunities of seeing the diamonds, and knew where they were kept. By the aid of tools and false keys made by himself, he opened the secretaire and took the diamonds and two bank-notes of a thousand francs each. He came and went off with his booty unperceived by any one, and after travelling to various places, he arrived at Geneva on the 23rd of October. He had taken all the stones from the settings, and melted them into two ingots of the weight of forty-eight ounces. As he represented himself as a dealer in jewels, the smelter to whom he had applied assisted him unwittingly; not so, however, a goldsmith, to whom he offered the gold, who having seen the notice of the robbery, informed the police. Being asked for his passport, he was immediately arrested, and, after some denials, confessed to the crime. The diamonds were found done up in a small parcel, in his boot. The stones out of the settings were valued at eighty-eight thousand francs; and with the ingots, at ninety-six thousand francs.

On the trial of the husband and wife, which excited immense interest throughout France, it resulted that Mulon could not possibly have entered the house on the night of the robbery, but that his wife had passed the jewels out to him through the window of her own room.