No Regrets

Mlle. Germaine Berthon, who shot M. Marius Plateau, an editor of L'Action Franc,aise, Royalist journal, last January, was put on trial for her life.

The circumstances of the assassination were that she tried to see M. Leon Daudet, the Chief Editor of the paper. He would or could not see her and deputed M. Plateau, one of the leading Royalists, who was possessed of the business and organizing brains of both the paper and the Party, to interview her, which he did. After a brief conversation with her, M. Plateau rose and opened the door to let her out. As she passed him Mlle. Berthon shot him dead.

At the end of the trial the public prosecutor, in addressing the jury, said he saw no place for extenuating circumstances, but added: "The mother of the dead asks you, gentlemen of the jury, through me, to grant such circumstances to the murderess of her son. So grant them, but give a firm, clear and just verdict."

The jury was reported to have returned a verdict of not guilty.

Mile. Berthon is described by the Radicals as a sweet and pretty 20-year-old girl. In the Act of Accusation she was called "a violent, lazy, untidy girl, with dissolute morals and dishonest." To the Court she said: "I regret nothing. My life shall pay for my act." She was reported, however, to have said that she regretted not having killed M. Daudet.