Word: besnard
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Stranger in the House. One of the few citizens of Loudun who seemed beyond suspicion of any intrigue was slim, soft-spoken Marie Besnard, a matron of 53, who owned six houses in the town, the local White Horse inn, and a number of thriving stud farms. Marie had acquired property the easy way through the deaths of a succession of relatives and her purse strings were always loosened when M. le Curé came to call with a worthy charity in mind. Marie, said the people of Loudun, was "the only woman in town who could go to communion...
Even Loudun's glib gossips found their tongues slow to wag when, soon after the war, the unassailable Marie Besnard was apparently attracted by a handsome German hired hand and. ex-prisoner of war 30 years her junior. Marie's husband, Leon Besnard, began spending more & more time in the town's bistros and complaining bitterly that he was no longer master in his own home...
Evidence in the Graveyard. Last May, while widowed Marie leaned and sobbed on the arm of a nun at the graveside, and all of Loudun watched, Léon Besnard's body was disinterred, turned over to a laboratory in Marseille. Within a few days Loudun heard the shocking news. Léon had died of a massive dose of arsenic. In the Palais de Justice in Poitiers, a grim little juge d'instruction asked Marie Besnard how the poison got into her husband. She had no idea; but at least one neighbor seemed to remember that Marie...
...official in the Ministry of Finance he had published a favorable report on one Oustric stock, an Italian artificial silk company known as Snia Viscosa, at the direct order of M. Peret, then Finance Minister. Later testimony showed that the then French Ambassador to Rome, Rene Besnard, had received large sums from Oustric after recommending this same company for listing on the Bourse. Andre Tardieu still remained unsullied personally last week. Cynics wagered that any more damaging testimony would bring the entire affaire Oustric to an abrupt close...
...War?Rene Besnard...