In my spare time I enjoy looking through old newspaper reels and finding interesting and unusual stories. I look mostly for things that link into folklore or the paranormal but given that it is Bonfire night this week I thought I would share this tale of a Frenchman who succeeded in his own mini gunpowder plot. Given the options available for leaving this world in 1776, I guess this gentleman at least choose a method with the minimal chance of failure.....
This extract is from the Western Flying Post - Monday July 29th 1776, which was a Newspaper which covered Somerset and Dorset and still does today; although now named the Western Gazette. This article can be seen on the bottom right of the front page from this week in July.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Paris, July 12, We learn from Tournon in Vivarais, that an officer of the legion of Lorrain destroyed himself in a very sudden manner. He sat down in a field on a barrel containing 36 pounds of gunpowder, set fire to it, and was blown up with so dreadful an explosion, that he was torn in a thousand pieces, part of his limbs were found in neighbouring places. A letter written by himself found in his apartment, announces that he had formed that project twelve years before and had put it in execution at the time fixed. This is a piece of madness, the cause of which it is the more difficult to guess at, as the officer was in good circumstances.
