The Sun.
London, England, 1870-11-14 00:00:00

A. (lERMA.N SPY.

Nicholas Schull seems to have had somewhat of the
better qualities of a man in him, and to have been one of
intelligence and fortitude. A Hungarian by birth, a scion
of the noble house of Degelmann, educated in Vienna, a
naturalised American, and long dwelling in Mexico as a
partisan of the late Emperor Maximilian, from whom be
received the decoration of the order of Guadaloupe, he
was a man who had seen much of the world and of
its ways. Rather tall, and looking taller from the fact
that hls figure was upright and spare, Schull seemed
more like a native of the country of his adoption than of
that of his birth—an illusion strengthened by his wearing
his reddish brown beard without the moustache, and at the
first glimpse he might readily be taken for an American.
He was captured on the night of the 10th of August on
the railway from whence he was surveying those new
earthworks which we raise in every direction to
strengthen the already strong fortress of Metz. It
seems that about the 19th of July last he was
presented to General Ducrot at Strasburg, announcing
himself as the sworn enemy of Prussia and as equally
the sworn friend of France. Without much hesi-
sation or inquiry his services seem to have been
accepted, for on the 11th he left Strasburg, and
returned again on the 26th with a certain amount
of information, sufficient, indeed, to influence the General
to give him 800 francs in German cash with which
to enter the Prussian camp and carry out his object.
From that time until his arrest the French military
authorities saw nothing of him. That he did visit the
Prussian camp is certain, for on his arrest there was found
on bim a laisser passer from Soleski, the quartermaster
general of the Prussian army at Mayence, and dated the
6th of August, requiring all military authorities to let
him go where and when he would. With his appointment
from General Ducrot and this from General Soleski, he
had the entire rim of both armies, the which . thing,
as your correspondent, I most humbly long fcr
at this moment, for the weariness of Metz is very hard to
bear. Schull seems to have moved about actively, and
the French say that he conveyed intelligence as to the
disposition and numbers of their forces at Wissemburg
and Reichshofen, and, having finished his business there,
came on to Metz to perform the same function ; but no
real evidence of this was produced at the trial. The most
incriminating thing against him was the medal carried by
all the Prussian spies to be produced as a voucher of
their being enrolled in the Intelligence Department.
This and 1,000 francs in gold were quite enough without
the laisser passer, which, strange to say, was written not in
German, but in French, and the Council of War, after a
few minutes' deliberation, condemned him to death.
Schull heard his sentence without betraying any emotion,
and demanded his pourvoir en revision with calm
tone, as though it were an ordinary request. This
appeal, the right of all condemned to death in France,
was immediately accorded, but was of no avail. His sen-
tence was approved of by the council of revision, and at five
o'clock on Sunday morning, iri a drizzling rain, his prison
door opened for the last time for him. Half a mile's walk
through the town took him to the fosse of the citadel. A
few minutes' waiting there whilst his sentence was read
over to him, a sharp rattle, and, with four holes through
his breast, he falls, and so ends the first convicted of the
numerous spies here in Metz. He ended his life stoically,
simply requesting that he might be buried decently,
which request was accorded him, and a simple stone in the
Chambibre Cemetery marks his grave.—Seventy Days in
Metz by the Correspondent of the Manchester Guardian.