The Cadiz sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 184?-1851, 1846-02-25
EUROPEAN FICTION.
MARIE, THE mURDEREss
[solected and adapted from the French.
AN INCIDENT IN REAL LIFE.


DURING that disastrous period of Napoleon
career, known as the ':IIundred Days,'' portion
of the Province of Morbhan in Brittany rose IL
arms, and battle took place near Auray be-
tween the insurgents and certain skirmishnq
parties, who were usually designated as the
lIBlues." The aiflir was so minute a spark D
civil war, that il deserved no mention in history
yet it cost the lives Of some hundreds of men
whose blood was poured out like wafer in the
trenches of the deep and sunken roads which
traverse that peculiar country 1t was in those
trenches that most Of the bodies we're found
and the magistrate whose duty it was TO clel
the field of battle after the fight, exclaimed
with a sort of barbarous naVette, "that 1t looket
like the end of a harvest trolic, where the mel
were sleeping off their Drunkenness"
On the second day after the battle, just at the
grey of the morning, young peasant girl, will
der sickle on her arm, took her way 10 her usua
daily labor in the fields AS she proceeded
slowly along the road she looked curousIy
around upon the trees pierced with bullets, the
hedges torn and broken, aud the ground beaten
and trampled as by many feet. For great
distance the road was literally srewn with but
tons, bits Of braided worsied, the remains of ep-
aulettes, cartouch boxes, fragments of Breton
caps pierced by balls or hayones, FLASHES of
hafcongeaIed blood, and all the horrible indi-
cations Of fierce and recent conflict But the
bodies Of the slain had already disappeared =
During the night the peasants had given them
Christian burial, and the women had traverscd
the battle-ground with sacks upon their shoul.
ders, alternately despciling dead enemy and
offering up prayers for lost friend. Much rich
booty had been obtained, and, 10 Judge by the
pre-occupied manner of the peasant girl. as she
now sciutinized the th;ctcts on both sides of the
road, she was not without expectation of CLEAN.
inq some remnasfts Of the plunder.
But her hopes seemed TO grow fainter as she
proceeded; and as she reached wide marsh,
overgrown with thick brushwood, she quickened
her pace, when she was startled by a sudden
movement among rushes that bordercd the mo-
rass. Almost at the same instant the ciasling Of
iron struck upon her car, tho point of n bayonet
appeared glittering in the foliage, and blood
stained figure feeby and painfully dragged itself
forth from its lurking place in the marsh The
girl suddenly stopped; ;she uttered not the slight
est sound. but she held with a firmer grasp the
handle of her sickle. The imporing gestures
of the wounded man, together with few words
which he uttered in the language Of the country,
seemed TO excite her interest, and she approach
ed few steps towards him. He had by this
time succeeded by the aid Of his gun, in rising
to his knee, and the gil discovered by the blue
jacket and the device on his buttons, that he be-
longed TO one of those companies of marines who
had fought SO valiantly at The battle Of Anray.
As she paused with an air Of ndecsion, the
wounded man eptreated her to approach, and in
order TO assure her that he had NO power, even if
he possessed the will 10 moest her, showed her
that his leg was broken by a musket ball. En-
boldened by this, the girl advanced nearer, and
demanded what he desired Of her
"Wherc are my comrades, the blues9" was
his first question.
@They are gone"
"Gone! since when2" itf EVA
"They went yesterday"
AImpossiblel why surely we were victorious y
The girl made no reply, but stood silent and
unmoveablc as If she had not comprehended his
question, She had already deceived him, for.
his comrades were stiIlat Auray, and now TO all
his renewed quesiionsshe replied in such man