related to the noble families of D'Aremberg, De Ligne, and De
Montmorency, was a young man of dissipated character, extravagant to a
degree, and unprincipled as he was extravagant. In connexion with two
other young men as reckless as himself, named Mille, a Piedmontese
captain, and one Destampes, or Lestang, a Fleming, he formed a design
to rob a very rich broker, who was known, unfortunately for himself,
to carry great sums about his person. The Count pretended a desire to
purchase of him a number of shares in the Company of the Indies, and
for that purpose appointed to meet him in a cabaret, or low
public-house, in the neighbourhood of the Place Vendome. The
unsuspecting broker was punctual to his appointment; so were the Count
d'Horn and his two associates, whom he introduced as his particular
friends. After a few moments' conversation, the Count d'Horn suddenly
sprang upon his victim, and stabbed him three times in the breast with
a poniard. The man fell heavily to the ground, and, while the Count
was employed in rifling his portfolio of bonds in the Mississippi and
Indian schemes to the amount of one hundred thousand crowns, Mille,
the Piedmontese, stabbed the unfortunate broker again and again, to
make sure of his death. But the broker did not fall without a
struggle, and his cries brought the people of the cabaret to his
assistance. Lestang, the other assassin, who had been set to keep
watch at a staircase, sprang from a window and escaped; but Mille and
the Count d'Horn were seized in the very act.

This crime, committed in open day, and in so public a place as a
cabaret, filled Paris with consternation. The trial of the assassins
commenced on the following day, and the evidence being so clear, they
were both found guilty and condemned to be broken alive on the wheel.
The noble relatives of the Count d'Horn absolutely blocked up the
ante-chambers of the Regent, praying for mercy on the misguided youth,