Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1852-06-19

| WoIIu anu prOStIate WIN DIS 6TleI. II lew
months afterwards, M. Domergue died in
hopeless insanity.
Esther, brought up under the mo,herly
care of Madame Souir, budded into wom-
anhood as lovely young creature as could
possibly be seen. When in her eighteenth
year she became the wife OF the doctor,
who was now beginning to be known in the
world, and she made her appearance in the
saloons Of Paris, and was for many years
the most admired woman of the time. She
became the mother of five children-four
sons and one daughter she brought
up and educated 10 be an honor TO herself
and ornaments 10 the society in which they
lived. DIR. Sou,le became in time one of
the physicians OF the court of Louis XVI,
and when the political troubles began TO
breTk out, he unfortunately wrote a pam
phlet IN avor of the court, and thus became
a marked man. In the fail of 1892, at
three O'Clock one morning, the police Tor
chilly entered DR.. SouIie's house, dragged
him and his two eldest sons from their beds,
and in spite of the prayers and entrealies
OF the poor wife and mother, carried them
of. ii was nearly week before Madame
Souie could hear any news Of her loved
ones, and then,-they bad already been
dead four days--the guillotne had done
its work for them. Madame Soule clasp
ed her three remaining children in her
arms, two boys Of seventeen and eighteen,
and girl OF fifteen years of age. But as
she strained them TO her in the agony of
/ her grief fresh trouble was preparing for
her. Her sons Swore within themselves 10
revenge the murder of their father and bro
theirs. 1t would take loo long TO narrate
all the circumstances which followed; but
these two young men placed themselves at
the head OF a conspiracy against the govern
mrnt, and one year precisely from the day
on which she had learned the death of her
husband and two eldest sons, Madame Sou
lie received short note, as follows:
CoNcIERGERIE, Thursday noon.
Mother, dear Mother-We have con-
spired against the government-we have
been betrayed and are 10 die Tomorrow
Bear it bravely, mother, we die for our ia
iher and our brothers.
HENRIET VIcToR.
What words can describe the despair of
that poor mother! AT first she prayed God
TO take her lie or her reason. But ray
OF hope dawned upon her. She might,
/ perhaps, save her boys; the tribunal which
had condemned them could not be deaf to
a mothers prayer-a mothers despair
/ But alas Madame Soule little knew the
men upon whose compassion she counted.
In vain she supplicated, in vain she pray
| ed they ended by refusing 10 listen to her
/ any longer. She did all that could possibly
! be done 10 save her boys from death she
even, after the example OF Madame Cha
lais, tried to bribe the eXecutloners. But
they accepted her money and then betray-
ed her. Finding all her efforts useless, she
tried TO resign herself, and determined as
she could not obtain her sons lives, at least
to get permission TO aid them to die. This
was with great difficulty granted her, but
at last she received it, and couple of
hours before the execution was. to take
place, she presented herself before her un-
happy boys. Then all The grandeur of her
soul, the devotion, the resignation which
was SO remarkable in her after life, showed
itself No useless tears, no reproaches, no
lamenling. One short burst of agony,
which the sight Of the manacled limbs of
her children forced from her in spite of
herself, and she was done with this world
Every moment was precious. God, and
the eternity into which these two boys
were so soon TO enter, formed the sole sub
ject Of the conversation between the mo-
ther and her children, until the jailor came
to announce that the moment had arrived
TO say their last prayers. Madame Soulie
stood by while the chains were knocked
off; she knet and prayed with the priest,
who had been sent to accompany them to
the scaffold; and then she took an arm of
each Of her beloved boys and left the prison
with them.
The public place was crowded with peo-
pie. They could not help plying those
two handsome youths about to be executed;
but tears ran down the hardest cheeks at
the sight of that noble mother still in mourn
ing for her husband and two eldest chill
dren, and now accompanying her two re-
naming sons TO death. She crnded the
scaaold with them, embraced them tender
ly, offered up a short prayer with them,
and then allowed herself to be led away by
friend. But she was not out Of hearing
when the shouts of the multitude announ-
ced to her that all was over.
Well, in 95 she was herself condemned
to death on the charge of concealing her
brother-in-law, a political prisoner who
had escaped from prison. A second time
she mounted the scafold, and was prepar-
ing to die, when an order came for her re-
lease. She then retired 10 little farm she
owned near Blois, and soon after married
her daughter to a man every way worthy
of her. But misfortune was to be her lot
through life. Her only child that fate had
left her TO love and cherish, died in child
birth, eleven months after her marriage.
1t was then that Madame Soulie turned
her eyes towards the cloister. After con.
siderable delay she was received into the
Ursline Convent of Neveres, and in 1928,
made Lady Abbess, which place she held
until her death. Her last moments were
sooihed by the presence Of those upon
whom she had conferred her benefits aud
charities, and she died as calmly as an in.
: isnt falling to sleep, her lips sealed to the
cruciix, and her eyes turned to that hea