The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-08 00:00:00

The Marquis Wielopoloski and the Prince
Napoleon,

TO THE EDITOR OF LA PRESSE.
Sir,—l have the honour to communicate to yon
a copy of a letter addressed by me to his Imperial
Highness Prince Napoleon.
I hope, Sir, that you will not refuse to insert it in
your estimable journal.
Please to accept, Sir, the expresNion of my dis-
tinguished sentiment.

SIGISMOND COINT WIELOPOLSKI.
Warsaw, April 3, 1863.

"TO ins IMPERIAL HIGHNESS PRINCE NAPOLEON,
PALAIS ROYAL, PARIS.
"Monseigneur,—In your speech, delivered in
the Senate of France on the 17th instant, you ex-
pressed yourself in the most outrageous manner
towards my father.
" I come forward as a son to demand from your
Imperial Highness, for that gross offence, the satis-
faction that a man of honour never refuses.
"Nevertheless, Monseigneur, from your well-
known antecedents, I have no great hope of your
accepting the challenge.
" There is a courage that does not rise above the
kennel, and there are individuals who, like low-
bred fellows, when they commit an outrage, take a
cowardly shelter in the inviolability of a privileged
condition, on being called to account for their
conduct.
" Your Imperial Highness would wish to take
refuge behind those who hail with you from the
Palais Royal, and with the chiefs of the assassins in
their haunts at Warsaw.
"If, in my country, the good cause inaugurated
by our King Alexander 11., and to which my father
has for the last two years devoted his efforts, does
not finish by triumphing over the difficulties raised
by perverse or ill-advised persons, it will be princi-
palty to the soz-disant friends of our cause, such as
as you, Monseigneur, and your revolutionary com-
panions, that the failure will be owing.
" I shall wait until the 2d of April* next for
your reply and the designation of your second.
If you will not grant the satisfaction I demand, you
will suffi-r me, Monseigneur, to give publicity to
this letter.
"Receive, Monseigneur, the assurance of all the
sentiments which, on my part, are due to your Im-
perial Highness.
(Signed) " SIGISMoND COUNT IVIELOPOLSKI.
" Palace of Bruhl, Warsaw, March 24, 1863."

• We would suggest that the Count Wielopolski ought to
have mentioned the day previously I

How a Female Freemason Saved her
Brother's Life in the American War.

A soldier in the Federal army, now in Arkansas,
writes to the editor of the Chicago 7ribune a most
extraordinary story. He says that some of the Con-
federate guerillas having burnt a house in which a
poor woman and her family were, one of them, a raw
youth about sixteen, with a strong Irish accent,
having been taken, the lad protested that he was
unwittingly drawn into the act by others, who told
him that they were going coney-hunting, and he
took no part in the outrage. Nevertheless, the
Federal officer commanded him to be shot.
Accordingly, about eight o'clock he was brought
out to be conducted to the place of execution. Upon
seeing the soldiers drawn up to receive him, he com-
menced wringing his hands, crying, and calling to
the captain, saying, " Oh, captain, I am not guilty.
Do not let them kill me. Don't, captain---you can
save me. I will give you my watch. My sister
will give you money. Oh, God ! oh, holy Mother !
oh, captain, speak to them quick—they are taking
me away !" -with a soldier upon each side of him,
ho was now led by the arms towards the place of
execution, still calling upon the captain to save him.
When he discovered the coffin and grave that had
been prepared for him, he gave a wild frantic scream,
and then seemed to realise for the first time that in
a few minutes he would be no more among the
living ; for in a moment after he became calm, when,
turning to the officer of the guard, he requested him
to ask the captain if he would give him time to
write to his mother in Ireland.
At that moment there arose upon the stillness of
the scene, the wild piercing shriek of a female, as
she burst through the ranks of the soldiers, and
swept out upon the hollow square in the direction
of the prisoner. It was an Irish girl, apparently
about 18 years old, without bonnet or shoes, her
dress bespotted with mud, and her long, dark hair
streaming in the wind as she rushed forward with
a wild, heartrending scream, saying, " lie is my •
brother !" In a moment she had crossed the square,
and, clasping her brother in her arms, she continued,
with an agonising scream, " Oh, soldiers, oh, holy
Mother ! gentlemen, for the love of Jesus do not
kill him. He is innocent! He is my brother!"
The girl was ordered to be removed. When two
soldiers advanced and unloosened her grasp upon
her brother, her screams, her appeals to all for
mercy were terrible.

They had dragged her but a short distance from
him, when looking back and seeing a black hand-
kerchief already tied over his eyes with one wild,
fr,tni ic k cream she flung the soldiers from her, and,
bounding back to her brother, she tore the covering
from his eyes, and again enfolded him in her arms.
As the soldiers were again removing her, the coat-
sleeves c,f one of them was torn during her
struggles, and her eyes fell upon a breast pin that
be had fastened upon his shirt-sleeve, perhaps for
concealment and safety.

In an instant all her physical powers were re-
laxed. In a calm, subdued, and confident voiee, she
observed, as she pointed to the pin, " Soldiers, let
us make one effort for my brother." The soldiers,
started at the strangeness of her manner, un-
looeed their grasp upon her, and in a moment
-she bounded away to her brother, shielding his body
again with her person at the very moment that the
guns were descending to receive the word " fire."
Turning her back to her brother, and facing the file
of soldiers, she stood forth a stately woman. There
was no scream, no tear, no agonising expression,
but, calm and erect, she swept the field with her
eye, and then advancing three steps, she gave the
grand hailing s'gnal of the Master Mason, None
but Masons amongst those soldiers observed it, and
there were many of them in that command who now
stood mute with astonishment at the strange and
mysterious spectacle before them. There was a cap-
tain who came forward, and in a loud voice said,
" That owing to the distress and interference of the
young woman, the execution would be postponed
until nine o'clock the next day." The guard was
then ordered to be doubled, and a strict watch kept
over the prisoner during the night.
Notwithstanding this precaution, it was disco-
vered in the morning that both the boy and his sis-
ter had made their escape. In what way they ac-
complished it has been a mystery with the company
from that time to this. During the early part of
the evening there was a meeting of the Masonic)
mernbersof the company at the captain's head-quar-
ters, when the girl was examined, and found to have
passed all the degrees in masonry, to that of a master
mason.

Where or how she acquired these degrees she de-
clined to say. She and her brother had been in the
United States about 10 weeks, having come from
Ireland for the purpose of purchasing a farm, in-
tending, when they had done so, to send for their
mother and a younger brother. The boy did not
know that his sister was a Mason, and only knew
that his father, when living, was master of a lodge
in their native town in Ireland.

- -
WATERLOO Rooms—Mn. W. S. WOODZN's " CA-
BINET CF CURIOSITIES."—Mr. W. S. Woodint
whose "Carpet Bag" and "Olio of Oddities," presented
before Edinburgh audiences in former years, secured for
him the reputation of being one of the best mim• tic per-
formers who have visited Edinburgh fer a long time, re-
appeared in the Waterloo Rooms last night to disclose his
" Cabinet of Curiosities." The entertainment was similar
to those of Mr. Woodin's which have previously prove d so
successful with Edinburgh audiences. The performer ap-
peared in about thirty different characters—male and female
—and the wonderful rapidity of his change of costume, corn-
bi, ed wi.h his clever personification of the different charac-
ters which be represented, deservedly called forth the
warmest applause.—Scotsman.
There is an on dit that the Prince Napoleon 1$
going to Egypt,