LAFARGE MARIE-FORTUNÉE: (1816-1852) Also known as Marie Capelle. French woman convicted of murdering her husband by ...

LAFARGE MARIE-FORTUNÉE: (1816-1852) Also known as Marie Capelle. French woman convicted of murdering her husband by arsenic poisoning. First person convicted on forensic toxicological evidence. Rare A.L.S. by Lafarge, four pages, 8vo, n.p., 7th June 1847, written while in prison, to a woman, a close relationship, in French. The letter bears to the upper left corner a blind embossed seal. Lafarge refers to a woman and to several members of her family, and to the difficult situation they are experiencing after the huge storms, and for several other different reasons, stating in part `..il faut du temps avant que leurs biens se retrouvent dans l´état ou ils étaient avant ces désastreuses innondations et reprennent leur valeur, que de maux a la fois dans une meme famille…´ (''.. it takes time before their goods are back to the state where they were before these disastrous floods and regain their value, what ailments at the same time in the same family'') Further saying, `Si je commandais aux circonstances, madame, aux évenements, je passerais dix ans près de vous, pour choir dix autres dans un cloitre par nécessité, et puis je mourrais après, mais de tout cela qu´en serait-il? Ce que Dieu voudra, n´est-ce pas?O mon Dieu, si j´étais meilleure, je me contenterais…. Mais je ne vaux pas le Diable, et je suis aussi tentée de me décourager que de me corriger, priez pour moi… moi je ne sais ce que je suis…´ (''If I could control the circumstances, madam, the events, I would spend ten years near you, to fall ten others in a cloister by necessity, and then I would die afterwards, but what will happen about all this? What God wills, right? Oh my God, if I was better, I would be satisfied…. But I am not worth the Devil, and I am as tempted to discourage myself as to correct myself, pray for me… I do not know what I am..'') To a post-scriptum line at the base of the letter Lafarge asks if the correspondence they have is secure. G to VG