The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-13 00:00:00

A CURIOUS NARRATIVE.

The Daily News obtains from a French paper a singu-
larly interesting narrative, of danger to the French exiles
In Jersey in the early years of their outlawry. Though
signed by Charles Hugo, it is not difficult to trace in it
the hand of his illustrious father, whose personal share
in the events narrated would naturally preclude him from
acknowledging the authorship. Piqued by the expres-
sion of a brother exile who had declared that he accepted
the recent amnesty and thus abandoned " the secu-
rity of exile," M. Hugo sketches the condition of
affairs in 1855. The plans of the French Govern-
ment were complete. The Emperor by his agents had
instilled prejudices against the exiles into the minds of
the Jersey populare ; and he had despatched the vessel of
war, the Ariel, which actually lay at anchor in the port
of St. Helier's. On the 13th of October all was ready for
the new coup d'etat, The people were furious. The cap-
tain of the Ariel had held a second interview with the
French Consul, and had left him with the words, "I
await my instructions for to-morrow." Meanwhile the
exiles were not uninformed of the danger which threatened
them. According to M. Hugo, the Times had announced
that "a French war steam vessel had entered the port of
St. Helier's, and, as was supposed, with the intention of em-
barking the refugees," whifc the Illustrated London News
had declared that "If the exiles should fall into the
Lands of the French authorities, the fate of Pianori, whom
they alit ct t-) regard as a martyr, would- not be too severe
for them." One English journal alone, which N. Hugo
calls Le Journal de Rep,olds, was honest in denouncing
the intended violation. of British hospitality and the law
of nations. "On the 13th October, 1855 (continues the
narrative) near eight o'clock in the evening, in a little street
of St. II elier's called Dou-street, a narrow way, lighted
only by a solitary lamp, a house, haying four low windows
on the side of the street, and a simple glazed door opening
on a court-yard, was preparing to sustain a siege. The
windows and the door had been barricaded ; the lights
were extinguished. Profound silence and profound dark-
ness without ; within, if anyone had been able to enter,
this is what ho would have seen. In the dusk of a narrow
winding staircase, stationed two by two. upon the steps,
and armed with iron bars and other implements, six men
—six exiles, in an attitude of expectation, awaited silent,
motionless, resolute, terrible. Not a word, not a cry, not
a gesture. The defence had been thus arranged. The
attacking party would be compelled to break through the
windows and force the door of the court-yard. If the door
should be broken in, the exiles would defend foot to foot
every step of the staircase. The staircase captured and the
house taken, those who were still alive would endeavour to
escape by the windows at the back opening on to the
roofs of the neighbouring houses. . The house thus
menaced with a siege was that of the exile Zeno. In
another spot—Rosevine-street —another house presented
the aspect which we are about to describe. The door bar-
ricaded ; the outer iron gate fastened-with a padlock ; an
enormous dog unchained upon the steps ; no one allowed
to enter without declaring his name and being recognised.
In the lobby, along the wall, loaded guns ; in the interior
twenty-two exiles armed. Almost all had brought their
own weapons. One of them—a 'Medical roan—had
with him his case of instruments. The. women,
who bad followed their husbands, were making lint. This
house thus threatened with pillage, was the dwelling of
the Italian proscript, iianciani." A third house yet
remains to be described in the unmistakable manner of
the author of "L'Hosinze qui Itit." "Seaward, beyond
the limits of the town, upon the solitary, sandy waste of
Azet, a third house, called Marine Terrace, was the
most in danger. And yet the door was unbarred and the
windows lighted. Of the seven exiles there present,
not one was armed. The sole precaution taken by
• the master of the dwelling had been so secrete in a
place of safety, out of the house, ' a portmanteau con-
taining manuscripts. Around that sombre building, the
outline of whose roof was distinctly traceable against
the clear sky, all was deserted—the beach, the roadway,
the country beyond, the wind which blew heavily, stifled
all other sounds. This house, thus open, defenceless, and
threatened with death, was that of. the French exile,
Victor Hugo." According to the narrative, the unfortu-
nate refugees had still more to fear from the fury of the
ignorant populace. The Jersey people regarded them as
outlaws. The public-houses and wine-shops had risen
against them. "Le gin et la police Bonapartiste (says
M. Hugo) demandaient la loi de Lynch." The crowd,
exasperated by the indignation meeting, and armed with
lighted torches, spread through the town uttering
cries of death against the refugees, and finally, in a com-
pact, threatening, and formidable body, marched upon
the three streets already mentioned. But the end, which
undoubtedly proves that respect for the law was not
wholly extinct in the breasts of the Jersey mob can
only be told in M. Hugo's own words :—" The muni-
cipal authorities hesitated. They called to mind the
English law, and they sent their policemen to protect
the three houses in danger. It was time...... One
moment more, and the combat would have commenced.
Suddenly, at the entrance of Don-street, near the door of
the exile Zeno, the whole of this terrible and furious mob
stopped short. It was before a policeman, who had
uttered the words :—" Gentlemen, my superiors have ecn-
fided to me the defence of this door, and I will strike
down the first of you who touches it. To enter here it
will be necessa.y to pass over my body." And the crowd
which had arisen against the proscripts defending the
French law stopped before .a policeman defending the
English law. This policeman was called Henley. History
has preserved his name." On the morrow, as 111.. Hugo
relates, the Ariel weighed anchor. Thanks to the resolute
bearing of Policeman Henley, she had failed in her coup
d'etat, and had missed her prey. 111. Hugo probably
exaggerates the danger of kidnapping by the French
Government, a step which would undoubtedly have led to
a war between the two countries ; but the episode which
he describes is certainly not one on which Englishmen can
look back with satisfaction. For it is at least certain that
a few days later twenty-seven of the refugees were driven
out of Jersey by the authorities—compelled (as M. Hugo
says) "to seek a second exile, some in Spain, some in
America, and some in Brazil."

A:mass meeting of twenty thousand persons
was held on Sunday at Dundalk fn faiour of the release
of the Fenian prisoners. Mr. Philip Callan, M.P., pre-
sided, and made an energetic speech. Resolutions were
passed demanding the unconditional release of the
prisoners. The tone of the meeting was respectful and
conciliatory to the Government.

ANOTHER IRISH OUTRAGE.-'•-There • has been
another murder in Tipperary. A labouring man, named
Michael Magrath, was attacked on Sunday morning, near
Gooldscross, by several men, who beat him frightfully,
and finally smashed his head. They then' threw the body
into a quarry. 'Tue. persons named. Dwyer have been
arrested. There had been a lung standing quarrel
between them and deceased about a right of
way to a manure heap, and one of thew
recently suffered a month's imprisonment for assaulting
Magrath. . •

BYRON IN BED.—Upon one occasion he found
the poet in bed, with his hair en papillote, upon which
Scrope cried, " Ha, ha , Byron, I have at last caught you
acting the part of the Sleeping Beauty." Byron, in a
cage, exclaimed, " No, Scrope, the part of a - fool,
you should have said." " Well, then, anything you
please ; but you have succeeded admirably in deceiving
your friends, for it was my conviction that your hair
curled naturally." " Yes, naturally, every night," re.
turned the poet; " but do not, my clear Serope, let the
cat out of the bag, for I am as vain of my curls as a gir,l
of sixteen."7—Gronclea Reminficenco.