The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-24 00:00:00

Sailors and Marines of the Channel Fleet.

While the magnates have been giving and receiving
princely hospitalities and enjoying an interchange of so-
ciality and good feeling with the gallant officers of the
Channel fleet, it forms an exceedingly gratifying feature of
these hospitalities that the seamen and marines who man
that noble fleet have not been overlooked. In accordance
with previous arrangements which had been entered into by
i
a number of the leading men connected with the commer-
cial enterprise of Liverpool, an invitation was given to as
many of the men as could be spared off duty to enjoy an
entertainment in St. George's Hall. This event took place
on Monday, when upwards of 1,000 men, including petty
officers and sailors, marines and marine artillery, belonging
to the different vessels, together with about 200 gentlemen
belonging to the Royal Mersey yacht Club, sat down to a
substantial dinner, consisting of hot roast beef and mut-
ton, with a few other dishes, and vegetables ad libitum.
These substantial viands were washed down by a reason-
ableeellowance of grog and Allsopp's ale. The noble hall
occupied by a
was completely filled,
.the galleries being
largo assemblage of ladies and gentlemen. The feast was
presided over by Mr. S. R. Graves, Commodore of the
Royal Mersey yacht. Club, and the executive department
of the feast was admirably performed by the extensive staff
of stewards belonging to the Cunard Company's establish-
ment. After the cloth had been removed the chairman pro-
posed " The Queen," among
remarking that all the great
and glorious titles by which she was known there was no
one of which she was so proud as that of being the friend
of the sailor and the soldier. This announcement was re-
ceived with great cheering. The choir then sang the Na-
tional Anthem, the chorus being joined in with an earnest-
ness and heartiness of enthusiasm such as has but seldom
been heard, and whichit is difficult to conceive being equalled
by any vocalists but by a similar number of British sailors.
The next portion of the programme was a song by one
of the marines belonging to the 'hip Liverpool, which
was sung in good style and heartily applauded. A
song was then called for from ono of the" blue jackets" of
the Liverpool, when one of them gave in true 46 Jack-tar"
style the song of " The Red,
White, and
chorus of this popular naval ditty was given byßlue." The
the whole
of the Channel Heat men with so strong a degree of har-
mony as produced a most exciting effect. St. George's other-
wisa, magnificent ball is somewhat unfavourably noted for
its echoes—but all the echoes of the place were shaken out
of their senses, or, at all events, driven cut of the hall, by
the sonorous and measured shouts of the thousand sten-
torian voices which joined in asserting and reasserting the
glories and the triumphs of the " red, white end blue."
Tire choir thin sang in rood style a four-part song, which
evidently 11,:d au exceedingly pleasing effect on the " sons
of ocean," vv ho at its conclusion hurrabed and shouted their
approval in a most, enthusiastic, manner. The next musical
performance was a sang with a rattling and highly-appre-
jai ed chorus by the men of the Edgar, the flagship. TLe
chairman then in a few appropriate welds proposed as a
toast, " The Health of the Non-Commissioned Officers,
Petty Officers, Seamen, and Marines of the Channel Fleet,"
paying them a high compliment for the excellent conduct
which they had displayed since their arrival and during
their stay in Liverpool, The toast was drunk with great
enthusiasm, which was loudly joined in by the ladies and
gentlemen who occupied the galleries. After the applause
had in some measure subsided the toast was acknowledged

in modest and becoming terms by one of the'Seipril.,
fleet. At the conclusion of his brief adclret**4--
f
applauded by his messinates and the °the NV_.:, ~
fleet present. Songs •• were then sung by 414 ,i, ZliNtx
crews belonging to the Emerald and ilfrai.,_"netis 110114_,..:}1
These, like the other musical performanNt3 ',ititi*lfeßP,
men and marines, were loudly applauded 1441 OK
and the proceedings were appropriately brouitit tof.L.
close by the performance of " Rule Britannia" on the
great organ by Mr. Best. As a whole. the banquet
went off in the most satisfactory and successful manner.
Every one seemed delighted with the entertainment.
The hall and the fine company afforded objects
of special admiration and delight to "Poor Jack." The
idea of giving this treat was in all respects a happy one,
The men landed at half-past 12 o'clock, each wearing a sprig
of oak in his jacket. They marched to the Exchange,whero
they received a most enthusiastic greeting, and they were
also loudly cheered as they went along the streets, which.
were crowded with people, although the day was wet and
stormy. A thousand of the men belonging to the fleet have
been invited to the Theatre Royal and the Royal Amphi-
theatre in the evening by Mr. Copeland, the lessee.

The Career of a French Convict.

WORTHY OF A PLACE IN VICTOR RuGO'S " MISEEABLE.S.''
On Tuesday, the 28th of April last, the French
frigate L'Amazone arrived in the harbour of Toulon.
with 150 returned convicts from Cayenne. Dis-
charged at the Prefecture of Police, each of the ILO
received a small sum of money and a passport,
setting forth his destination. Condemned criminals
in France, even after they had served out their full
term of punishment, aro not free. They had to
settle within a certain district, either chosen by
themselves, or fixed by the police ; and whenever
they go beyond the limits of this district they aro
iiable instantly to be taken up again and sent to
prison, or to be returned to Cayenne. Among the
150 convicts set on shore at Toulon on the 28th of
April, there was a man named Maurice, a bastard.
Brought up in misery and vice he had been many
times already condemned for theft and robberies,
although only 29 years of age. His last ten years'
sojourn in the deadly swamps of Cayenne made him
eager, no doubt, to breathe again the air of liberty,
and, in company with two of his convict brethren,
he hurried away from Toulon as fast as his legs
would carry him. At the little town of Pont- Saint-
Esprit the trio separated, proceeding in different
directions. Maurice, whatever his intentions, was
not inclined to enter the new enlarged prison
selected for him by the police, the town of
Blois, but kept beating about the country in gipsy
fashion, in part a beggar and in part a thief. After
lengthened wanderings, he arrived in the depart-
ment of Indre•et-Loire, forming part of the ancient
province of Touraine. On May 29, Maurice reached
a village called Melande, where he was not so
fortunate as to obtain a lodging, but had to creep
into a barn, to rest in a heap of straw. Watching
the departure of the inmates of the neighbouring
farm the next morning, he then broke into the house,
regaled himself with the best the cellar contained,
dressed in the clothes found hanging on the wall,
and emptied the contents of a small till into his
pocket. Being a new man now in outward appear-
ance, he walked to another village, Antriche, a
couple of miles distant, where he had himself
shaved, took a glass of wine at an inn, and bought
a short pipe and a box of matches at the shop of a
tobacconist. All the people he visited noticed a
peculiar-looking necktie, with red, blue, and green
stripes, which he wore, and of the possession of
which he was evidently proud. Leaving the little
village of Antriche, the man Maurice was lost to
view—until the evening, when the gendarmes of
the parish found him, covered with blood, in a forest
not far distant, and at once took him into custody,
under the accusation of murder. At noon on the
same day, the 30th of May, a labourer, working in
the fields not far from Antriche, heard loud cries
coming from a cottage inhabited by a very aged
and infirm gentleman ne.med Barillaut. The cries
did not last long, and the labourer, after listening
for a while and hearing nothing more, continued
his work. An hour after, a girl entered the outer
yard of the old gentleman's cottage, with a pailful
of milk, and, knocking in the accustomed manner,
tried to obtain entrance. Nobody answering, the
girl got alarmed, and ran into the field,from whence
she returned to the house with the man who had
heard the cries. After a short consultation, the
door was broken open, when a frightful spectacle
presented itself. The old man wns lying in the yard,
in a pool of blood, completely disfigured, and with
numerous wounds all over his body. Round his neck
was a striped cravat, with which he seemed to have
been strangled; one of his ears was cut off, and the
remaining portion of his face looked as if it had
been crushed in the vice-like grip of a powerful
hand, so strong as to break the whole of the teeth
from their sockets. On close inspection, it was
found that all the boxes and cupboards in the house
were broken open, and all the valuables, among
them a considerable sum of money, partly consist..
ing in old and curious pieces, had been carried off.
It was evident that a brutal murder, as well as
robbery, had been committed. Two men at once
jumped into a cart, to detect, if possible, the assassin.
A suspicions-looking individual had been seen on
the road shortly before, and they drove after him as
fast as they could. But just when on the point of
reaching him the man jumped a ditch, and threw
himself into a neighbouring wood, into which they
were afraid to follow him. But the gendarmes
of the village, having been informed of the murder,
searched the wood in all directions, and, before long,
found the returned convict, Maurice, lying on the
grass, his clothes besprinkled with blood. He was
carried off to Tours, and put on his trial for the
murder of the old man, Barillaut. He is a rather
handsome man, with deep black eyes; he awakened
some sympathy at first sight, the more so as he
Ythough calmly, denied being guilty of
warder of which he was accused. He avowed,
theshowever,t strongly,
n gi,
having committed various robberies sub-
sequently to his liberation at Toulon ; and, after
very much pressure on the part of the presiding
judge, confessed also to the theft in the farm-house
of Melande, on the morning of the 29th of May.
" Among the goods stolen was a striped necktie, in
red, blue, and green ?"
questioned the judge.
" No," replied the accused. e But you have been
seen by numbers of people at Antriche with
the tie round your neck ?" " The people
were mistaken," quietly replied Maurice.
" But whence
came the blood on your
clothes, when the
gendarmes arrested you ?"
"It was owing
to the bleeding of my nose,"
answered the prisoner. At this point of the in-
terrogatorya medal and a copper coin, which had
b
on the returned convict when arrested,
een
found
were handed up to the president. Both were
proved to have belonged to the murdered man,
Barillaut, and were extremely rare pieces—the
copper coin being known as a " double Tournois,"
bearing the date 1034, and the effigy of Louis
XIII. ; and the medal, the figure of a cavalier, with
the motto " Tuetur et ornat." At the sight of these
coins, the prisoner got pale, and, being again
questioned, faltered in his speech. Suddenly, he
started from his seat, and demanded permission to
speak. "It was me who killed him," he exclaimed
in a hoarse voice. "Tell us all the circumstances,"
enjoined the president. "I cannot, and I dare not!',
exclaimed the convict. Being pressed hard to make
a detailed confession he said that when he entered
the house of the old man, he found him at his dinner,
and was invited to sit down to table with him.
Wine was twice fetched from the cellar; and ex-
claimed Maurice, "on his return the second time I
committed the . • . misfortune (malheur)."
The sight of blood, he partly avow ed in further con-
fession, awakened a wild desire fur carnage with
him. 1-levieg strangled the old men with the
stolen necktie, he cut off his ear, mutilated his face,
and backed the body with a stiletto knife all over.
Not content with this, he dragged the corpse into
the yard, and with a paving atone broke the skull
and some of the limb% "1.3 tar this true ?" asked
tl'e judge. "It is just peesible," calmly replied
the convict, assuming his former air of irepaesa •
bility. The jury thereupon Wirth fee a few
minutes, and, returning into court, brought in an
The prisoner heard the
absolute verdict of Vial'.
verdict of death pronounced upon him by the judge
without moving
a muscle of his face. Passing be-
tween the row of gendarmes back to his cell, he
exclaimed, with a smile) " Well, the game is playa
out."