Ferrer a Callous Libertine.

We now come to the repulsive story of Ferrer's amours. It is a tale of moral depravity which we should gladly spare ourselves the trouble of telling, were it not for the fact that Ferrer's imprudent friends have chosen to depict him as a model citizen and a "martyr."

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One of his pupils at this time was a middle-aged but wealthy spinster, named Ernestine Meunier—the cast-off mistress of an Englishman. This woman fell under Ferrer's influence, and a sordid entanglement followed. From the circumstances of this squalid affair, as well as from its sequel, it is clear that the Spanish adventurer had his eye upon his paramour's money. Ferrer was utterly unscrupulous; he disbelieved in God and religion and honour; he cared naught for justice or the judgment to come. But there was one thing in which he fervently believed, and that was—money. Libertinism and the passion for money were two of the most salient features of his character.

The result of this shameful liaison with Mlle. Meunier was that Ferrer callously abandoned his wife and children. A consistent Rationalist, he found it preferable to live with a wealthy mistress rather than a poor but lawful wife. Not content with deserting his three children, Ferrer obtained a divorce from his wife in the French courts of law. This was an easy proceeding, thanks to the Divorce Act which his friend, the Jew Naquet, had successfully piloted through the French Parliament.

That Ferrer's previous conduct towards his unhappy wife had been marked by gross cruelty and callousness is plain from the testimony of Senora Ferrer herself. "My life with this man has been a continuous martyrdom," wrote the forsaken wife to the Paris authorities, adding:

"We have a daughter aged 11 years, whom this 'husband' shipped to Australia when she was only 9 years old, in defiance of my wishes. The loss of this daughter breaks my heart. A month before he took up with the Meunier woman, this 'husband' made over to me a small house in Montreuil-sous-Bois. Afterwards he refused me entrance to the cottage in question. I appealed to the Spanish Consul to gain my rights for me, but he could do nothing. On a later occasion this inhuman husband even tried to kill me. I am now in want and misery, owing to the conduct of this infamous father of my children."

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It is impossible not to feel compassion for the un-happy woman whom Ferrer, in his heartless selfishness, had thus abandoned. Exasperated by his cruelty and unfaithfulness, Madame Ferrer fired five shots at her Anarchist husband, and the latter promptly gave her in charge to the police. Ultimately she went to live with a Russian, and her daughters began to earn a precarious living upon the stage. Sordid dramas of this kind are but too common in Anarchist circles.