The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1851-12-09


If the informer had hoped to gain his liberty by
pointing out Usef a victim for the executioner,
he had not taken the necessary precautions for
joying it. As he was passing to his quarter,
along the corridor of the inner court, sinewy arm
was thrust from side door, strong hand seized
him by the neck and drew him with violence into
the chamber. Half an hour afterwards, the Bey's
sister received basket of roses. Under the
bouquets were an eye, tongue and hand. A
note which accompanied them ran thus:
This is, certainly, pithy epstolary style for a
young gentleman of sixteen, but some of his let
tiers, written at more mature age, are still more
remarkable models of brevity. II was fortunate
fer Usef that the French had just taken Algiers,
for the Bey would not probably have pardoned
him, even in acknowledgement of his wit. A day
or two later he was common soldier in the
French army. His familiar knowledge of the
Turkish and Arabic languages and the manners of
the Arabs his military attainments and qualities,
soon raised him above the ranks He passed rap
idly to the grade Of captain, and attained that Of
colonel by one OF the most surprising feats on rec
ord nothing less than the capture of the fortress of
Bone by himself This he did by having himself
hosted into the fortress in vegetable basket un-
der layer of cabbages, carrots and turnips. AS
the basket was dragged in at the window,
the contents leaped out, armed to the teeth, firing
pistols and sashng about him with marvellous
energy. In five minutes Usef had possession Of
one tower, had made fast the doors and given the
signal for the troops to march to the attack. He
pulled I'D some in the basket which had served to
introduce him these pulled up others the firing
from the tower moved down the ranks of the
Arabs within the Notifications, and, after some
hard fighting, the tri-colored flag foated in tri.
umph over Bone.
Whenever a conquered district has been partc.
ularly difficult to pacify, General Usef has been
Intu IN Of / 4 Tho Haeh Ofh ahyA
feel its edge. Terror is his only mode of govern
ing, for he confounds mercy with poltroonery; he
says the Arabs irreconcilable, and the only
thing left is to make them tremble like chained
wolves under the lash. Once, as Governor of
part of Algeria, he had published a proclamation
that any native found guilty of communicating
with -el-Kader, should be shot. He was at
dinner, day, with about thirty Of the native
chiefs, when some letters were handed him. He
read them without changing countenance, stuffed
them into his pocket, and went on eating and talk
ing with his guests. Before the dessert was
brought on, however, he rose, stepped into the
ante chamber gave order and returned instantly
A few moments after, a servant entered and whs-
pered to two Of the guests that person wished
to speak with them. They went out. Two min
| utes more. and discharge Of musketry under the
windows made the dinner party leap from their
seats. "Be seated beg you,' said their bland
host, it's nothing at all. They are only shooting
- and -, for sending messengers to
| Abd-el- -Kader."
AT the time Of his visit to France, he was only
captain, and his whiskered ferocity, sunburn face,
abrupt manners and savage gallantry, set on as
| they were by his Spanish uniform, made him a
great favorite in society. He married as great a
contrast to himself as possible-a gentle. hearted,
delicate pretty little lady, with soft blue eyes and
golden hair, whose truly feminine graces had made
her belle in the Paris saloons. The lion is still
| enamored of the nymph, for one of the standing
subjects of jest in the African army is that the
General, no matter where he may be, never fails to
write once day to his lady, and send the letter by
| a military courier.
When the news of the thirteen hundred Arabs
l men, women and children-smothered to death in
4 a cave by building large fire at its mouth, first
reached Paris, every body cried. "Ah, there is
| Usef. one knows him by his work" But every
| body was wrong. That feat, which spread thrill
| of joy through the African army and thrill oi
horror through every body else, was the work of a
Colonel, whose name it is not worth while to write
here, as he has distinguished himself by nothing
but inhumanity.
Lamoriciere and Cavagnac alone, among the
African generals, have exhibited, in their military
career, any disposition to lenency; and Of the two
Cavaignac has exhibited the most. Neither OF them
have ever hesitated, SO far as know, to treat the
| subdued Arabs with the least degree of rgor La
| moriciere has even the credit Of having invented
| some new and terrible method of punishment
neither of them has hesi,ated to lay waste the
country, to burn towns or, in the heat of victory
to let loose the passions of the infurated soldiery
But they have refused to order, in cold blood tn,
destruction of villages with their entire population
On one occasion, Cavaignac held, for several DAYS
large troop of Arabs blockaded on the sea.coast
waiting for them to surrender; and resisted nobly
The advice of his officers to cut them TO pieces will
the sabre. For this exhibition of weakness he wa
laughed at by Changarnier and censured by Blu
l geaud and for this and one OF two others of tn
same kind, the Arabs gave him the nick name o
1.-The Bending ROse.tree"
When Lamoriciere left the Polytechnic school
| he was thrown by circumstances under the influ
ence Of the St. Simonians. He became deeply i'm
bued with their notions, joined them, and, after h
Rettouret, one of the most enthusiastic propagator
| of the doctrine. il- +.
As to Cavagnac, the active part his father too
in The revolutionary excesses of 1893, as a commis
sary of the Convention, must have clouded all hi
| youth and been ever present with him in his man
Philippe such dread of shedding blood he pal
doned Blanqui, Barbes, and other political convict
| under sentence of death, and in February, 1916
,, preferred resigning his throne to giving Geners
Bugeaud the orders he asked for e1tinguishing tn
revolution with blood, or enveOping it with tn
to taking human life, growing out OF family remir
| iscences, was strengthened in General Cavaigna
by the course of his elder brother Godefroy, wh
for several years, in the first part of the rejg
/ OF Louis fnlUppe tne dDle cHeI Vi fepuDiCd
party. His brothers able essays in the Natieni
turned his attention to questions of progress and
form, and he became noted, among his military a.
socates for his opposition TO royalty.
When Godefroy died, the republicans turne
their eyes toward Eugene as their future genera
He deserved their confidence by his integrity, dil
nifty, courage and ambition, but not by his attail
ments in political science, for, though a goo
speaker on the general principles of in,ernation'
policy and reform of fragrant abuses, he was w
fully ignorant Of all questions regarding the interes
of labor and the development of national industr
! The little he knew of politics, by making him mo-
humane, only served to retard his military advance
ment In spite of several brilliant actions, he new
could rise beyond the grade OF colonel, until the r.
volution of ls4S came to place him at once in II
front rank of the army. Half politician and hs
soldier, he ever vacillated between humanity al
, severity. The Arabs were right when they name
! | him the bending rose tree This waverng dispos
| ton has shown itself in every great crisis of
fate In the June insurrection he lost entirely h
presence of mind, sat buried in stupor, his fa'
covered with his hands, while his officers waite
his orders; then starting up, he gave the fatal ord
to withdraw the troops from the Eastern part OF Il
| city, adding that if a single company should
, | beaten he would blow out his own brains.
, Having recovered from his agitation, he mountt
. | his horse and gave proof of the most heroic col
r r Al g.. N