3-028-229 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The room in which M. Noir was shot, 1870. 'The disastrous and scandalous affair of the killing of M. Victor Noir by Prince Pierre Bonaparte, a cousin of the Emperor Napoleon III. [took place at the Prince's house, in] the saloon or drawing-room...This room...is fitted up as a salle d'armes or fencing-gallery. It contains a rather curious collection of swords, daggers, pistols, rifles, and ancient or foreign weapons...The Prince...has been engaged...in a fierce controversy with the Marseillaise [newspaper]...The insults and calumnies with which [it] had assailed the whole family of the Bonapartes seem to have provoked him to violent expressions of rage and scorn...The statement of M. de Fonvielle is that he and M. Victor Noir were sent by M. Paschal Grousset to demand satisfaction [ie a challenge to a duel] for the insulting articles by the Prince..."suddenly and without any provocation on our part, Prince Bonaparte struck M. Victor Noir on the face with his left hand, and, at the same time drawing a six-barrelled revolver which he had concealed in his pocket, he fired point-blank upon M. Noir"...The poor young man died in a few minutes...M. Emile Ollivier, in his office as Minister of Justice, ordered the arrest of the Prince'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.