Six weeks after his arrest, the Marquis de Portago and his accomplices find themselves at the helm of the Bayonne Criminal Court. Forgotten the case of the deadly bacilli likely to cause death in a few hours, the judges are content to dissect a banal case of false passports and clandestine weapons. Once again, the Marquis Biarrot swears to his great gods that he is innocent of the charges brought against him. These three men, he knows them but he never asked them for any service whatsoever! He was certainly able, one day, to give Escoriaza a sealed package that a Spanish friend from Irun would have entrusted to him. But he was completely unaware of its content! And once again, his three friends persist in overwhelming the ex-baccarat player who is more accustomed to the gaming rooms of the casino on the beach. Who to believe? After a quick deliberation, the judges declared the four defendants guilty of using false passports and possessing weapons.
Sentencing time
The sentences pronounced are symbolic: two months in prison for the lamp workers, three months in prison for the Marquis of Portago. A few weeks later, the former notable biarrot recovers freedom. Now declared non grata, he was asked to leave France immediately. On a Saturday in April 1938, it was 7:30 a.m. when a police car came to pick him up on his release from prison to drive him straight to the Hendaye international bridge. It is there that his sister, the Countess of Ségur, and some friends are waiting for him to bring him back to the country, a decimated Spain which sees his mentor General Franco take charge for many decades. Thus ends the sulphurous Roman detective who agitated the worldly elite of the time. It was in Madrid that he died three years later. This distant descendant of a conquistador leaves two orphans, including a little girl named Soledad, known by the title of Marquise de Moratalla. This is another story.
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