A very sad tale of a french lover and his mistress who carried out a suicide pact because they were not allowed to marry.
“A remarkable Suicide which happened in Lyon in 1770. – A young man well known in that City, handsome, well-made, of an amiable disposition, and very accomplished, fell in love with a young woman whose parents refused their consent to his proposal of marriage.
The lover in an agonizing fit, broke a blood vessel; the surgeon declared there was no remedy to stop the bleeding. His Mistress found the means of getting an interview with her lover, and presented him with a brace of pistols and two poignards, that in case the former should fail, the latter might certainly dispatch them. They embraced each other tenderly, for the last time. The triggers of both pistols were fastened to rose coloured ribbands. The lover took hold of the ribband of that pistol which was designed to dispatch his Mistress, she held that designed for her lover; at a signal agreed upon, they both fired at the same time, and both instantly fell down dead.”
The Stamford Mercury, 27th July, 1780.