The verdict at the inquest was "natural suicide." In his Memoirs
of Manager, M. Moncharmin, one of the joint managers who succeeded MM.
Debienne and Poligny, describes the incident as follows:
"A grievous accident spoiled the little party which MM.
Debienne and Poligny gave to celebrate their retirement. I was
in the manager's office, when Mercier, the acting-manager, suddenly
came darting in. He seemed half mad and told me that the body
of a scene-shifter had been found hanging in the third cellar under
the stage, between a farm-house and a scene from the Roi de Lahore.
I shouted:
"`Come and cut him down!'
"By the time I had rushed down the staircase and the Jacob's ladder,
the man was no longer hanging from his rope!"
So this is an event which M. Moncharmin thinks natural. A man
hangs at the end of a rope; they go to cut him down; the rope
has disappeared. Oh, M. Moncharmin found a very simple explanation!
Listen to him:
"It was just after the ballet; and leaders and dancing-girls lost
no time in taking their precautions against the evil eye."
There you are! Picture the corps de ballet scuttling down the
Jacob's ladder and dividing the suicide's rope among themselves
in less time than it takes to write! When, on the other hand,
I think of the exact spot where the body was discovered--
the third cellar underneath the stage!--imagine that SOMEBODY
must have been interested in seeing that the rope disappeared
after it had effected its purpose; and time will show if I am wrong.
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