Chronique du crime et de l'innocence, tome 5/8 Recueil des événements les plus tragiques;...

This volume gathers France’s most notorious crimes from the dawn of the monarchy to the early nineteenth century, presenting each episode as a compact, documentary vignette. The editor has drawn from court chronicles, provincial histories and contemporary gazettes, giving listeners a vivid cross‑section of murder, poisonings, massacres and parricides. While the tone is scholarly, the stories are narrated with a steady, almost conversational rhythm that lets the horror emerge from ordinary settings.

Among the cases is the unsettling ordeal of a solitary hermit in Burgundy, a modest painter‑watchmaker whose quiet life is shattered by a midnight raid. Thieves force him to reveal the supposed location of his hidden riches, then bind him and ransack his modest cell, leaving him exposed to the cold. The ensuing trial highlights the perils of rushing to judgment, reminding judges that appearances can deceive and that the innocent may be condemned while the true culprits slip away.