第45章 ARSENIC A LA BRETONNE(2)

In May of 1835 Helene was in service with the Dame Toussaint, of Locmine.Four more people died.They were the Dame's confidential maid, Anne Eveno, M.Toussaint pere, a daughter of the house, Julie, and, later, Mme Toussaint herself.They had eaten vegetable soup prepared by Helene Jegado.Something tardily the son of the house, liking neither Helene's face nor the deathly rumours that were rife about her, dismissedher.

To one as burdened with sorrow as Helene Jegado appeared to be thelife conventual was bound to hold appeal.She betook herself to the pleasant little town of Auray, which sits on a sea arm behind the nose of Quiberon, and sought shelter in the convent of the Eternal Father there.She was admitted as a pensionnaire.Her sojourn in the convent did not last long, for queer disorders marked her stay.Linen in the convent cupboards and the garments of the pupils were maliciously slashed.Helene was suspect and was packed off.

Once again Helene became apprentice to a sempstress, this time an old maid called Anne Lecouvrec, proprietress of the Bonnes-oeuvres in Auray.The ancient lady, seventy-seven years of age, tried Helene's soup.She died two days later.To a niece of the deceased Helene made moan:

Ah! I carry sorrow.My masters die wherever I go!''

The realization, however, did not prevent Helene from seeking further employment.She next got a job with a lady named Lefur in Ploermel, and stayed for a month.During that time Helene's longing for the life religious found frequent expression, and she ultimately departed to pay a visit, so she said, to the good sisters of the Auray community.Some time before her departure, however, she persuaded Anne Lefur to accept a drink of her preparing, and Anne, hitherto a healthy woman, became very ill indeed.In this case Helene did not show her usual solicitude.She rather heartlessly abandoned the invalid--which would appear to have been a good thing for the invalid, for, lacking Helene's ministrations, she got better.

Helene meantime had found a place in Auray with a lady named Hetel.The job lasted only a few days.Mme Hetel's son-in-law, M.Le Dore, having heard why Helene was at need to leave the convent of the Eternal Father, showed her the door of the house.That was hasty, but not hasty enough.His mother-in-law, having already eaten meats cooked by Helene, was in the throes of the usual violent sickness, and died the day after Helene's departure.

Failing to secure another place in Auray, Helene went to Pontivy, and got a position as cook in the household of the Sieur Jouanno.She hadbeen there some few months when the son of the house, a boy of fourteen, died after a sickness of five days that was marked by vomiting and convulsions.In this case an autopsy was immediately held.It revealed an inflamed condition of the stomach and some corrosion of the intestines.But the boy had been known to be a vinegar-drinker, and the pathological conditions discovered by the doctor were attributed by him to the habit.

Helene's next place was with a M.Kerallic in Hennebont.M.Kerallic was recovering from a fever.After drinking a tisane prepared by Helene he had a relapse, followed by repeated and fierce vomiting that destroyed him in five days.This was in 1836.After that the trail of death which had followed Helene's itineracy about the lower section of the Brittany peninsula was broken for three years.

In 1839 we hear of her again, in the house of the Dame Veron, where another death occurred, again with violent sickness.

Two years elapse.In 1841 Helene was in Lorient, domestic servant to a middle-aged couple named Dupuyde-Lome, with whom lived their daughter and her husband, a M.Breger.First the little daughter of the young couple died, then all the members of the family were seized by illness, its onset being on the day following the death of the child.No more of the family died, but M.Dupuy and his daughter suffered from bodily numbness for years afterwards, with partial paralysis and recurrent pains in the extremities.

Helene seems to have made Lorient too hot for herself, and had to go elsewhere.Port Louis is her next scene of action.A kinswoman of her master in this town, one Duperron, happened to miss a sheet from the household stock.Mlle Leblanc charged Helene with the theft, and demanded the return of the stolen article.It is recorded that Helene refused to give it up, and her answer is curious.

I am going into retreat,'' she declared.God has forgiven me my sins!''

There was perhaps something prophetic in the declaration.By the time Helene was brought to trial, in 1854, her sins up to this point of record were covered by the prescription legale, a sort of statute of limitations in French law covering crime.Between 1833 and 1841 thewanderings of Helene Jegado through those quiet Brittany towns had been marked by twenty-three deaths, six illnesses, and numerous thefts.

There is surcease to Helene's death-dealing between the years of 1841 and 1849, but on the inquiries made after her arrest a myriad of accusers sprang up to tell of thefts during that time.They were petty thefts, but towards the end of the period they begin to indicate a change in Helene's habits.She seems to have taken to drink, for her thefts are mostly of wine and eau de vie.