The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1852-03-16


DEATH When he reached the doo. sasea a',.'. Io'.
were JUST bringing out two coffins TO be placed
on hearse which stood in the stree, T,ha
doctor and his protege ascended The s,s;r. y,
tered the paror and proceeded To an.,,har
room, without seeing anybody or hearing anv
noise. deathiy silence pervaded the whole
house. But Esther i'm the greatest alarn,
| pushed open door and led the way TO the
room where she and her twelve sisters had
slept together. The door was open, but four
beds alone occupied the room and two of
them were empty. On the others lay two If
the fair haired twins, and by their side stood
Mad. Domergue looking at them as if stupi.
| fled. Esther, with an underlined dread of
something frightful, rushed up to her mother
and threw her arms around her. But as soon
as Madame Domergue saw her, she threw her
from her, then seized her again and would
have torn her TO pieces if the doctor had not
snatched her from her grasp. As il was, the
poor child face was all scratched and bloody,
and she tainted almost Immediately.
"Why do you bring her here?, cried Madame
Domergue. She is the cause of all my mis-
fortune. There lie the only two have left.
Take the little demon away orI will kill her
in spite fyou'
Almost frozen with horror the doctor an
swered not word, but bore the insensihle and
bleeding child from the room, out of the house,
and placed her in a carriage which he saw
passing and stopped. He ordered the coach
man to drive TO an obscure little street where
lived, in the laost humble manner, the doctors
venerable mot er. She received the unhappy
child, gave her all necessary relief, and in
stalled her in small room near her own.
1t was as Madame Domergue had said in
three weeks ten of her idolized daughters had
fallen victims to the terrific disease, and the
day after the Doctors second visit the other
two died, and were buried like their sisters
few days more, and the mother herself, fol-
lowed, and when the doctor, hearing of it, re-
turned, he found that house, once so noisy w tn
young voices, and so full Of the joy and pride
OF large family, silent as the tomb, occupied
only by prematurely old man, left alone in
the world and PROSTATE with his grief A few
months afterwards, MIR. Domergue died in
hopeless insanity.
Esther, brought up under the motherly care
OF Niadame SOulie, budded into womanhood as
lovely young creature as could possibly be
seen. When in her eig hteenih 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 years the most admired woman of the time
She became the mother of FIVE chldren-four
sons and one augher-whom she brous hit up
and educated 10 be an honor to herself and or
nament TO the society in which they lived
DIR. SOuiie became in time one of the physi-
Clans of The court Of Louis XVI, and when
the political troubles began to break out, he,
| unfortunately, wrote pamphlet in favor ofthe
court, and thus became marked man. In the
fall of 1892, at 3 o'clock one morning the peo-
pie forcibly entered DIR. Soulie's house,
dragged him and his two eldest sons from
their beds, and in spite of The prayers and
entreaties OF the poor wife and mother, carried
them off. 1t was nearly a week before Madame
Soulie conld hear any news her loved ones,
and then-they had already been dead four
days--the guillotine had done its work fog
them. Madame Soulie clasped her three
| remaining children in her arms, two BOYS of
seventeen and eighteen, and a girl of fifteen
years ofage. But as she strained them to her
in the agony of her grief, fresh trouble was
| preparing for her. Her sons vowed within
themselves TO revenge the murder oftheir father
| and brothers. 1t would take too long to mar
rate all the circumstances which foiowed but
these two young mrn placed themselves at
the head ola conspiracy against the govern
ment, and one year precisely from the day on
| which she had learned the death of her husband
and two eldest boys, Madame Soulie received a
short note, as follows;
CoNcIEGERrE, Thursday, noon.
Mother, dear mother-We have conspired against
| the government-we have been betrayed and are
| to die to morrow. Bear it bravely, mother we
| die for our father and our brothers
HENRI EFT Victor.
What words can describe the despair of that poor
mother ! AT first, she prayed God to take her life
| or her reason. But a ray of hope dawned upon
her. She might, perhaps, save her boys; the tribu-
nal which had condemned them could not be deaf
| to mothers prayer-a mothers despair. But alas
| Madame Soulie little knew the men upon whose
compassion she counted In vain she suppcated,
| Id vain she prayed they ended by refusing to lis
| ten to her any logger. She did al! that could pos
sibly be done to her boys from DEATH she even
after the example Of Madame Chalais tried to blibe
| the execntioners. But they accepted her money
End then betrayed her. Finding all her efforts use
less, she tried to resign herself and determined as
she could not obtain her sons ives at least to get
permission to aid them to die This was with great
ticuty granted her, but at last she received it,
and couple OF hours before the execution was to
take place, she presented herself before her unh
| Ply boys. Then all the grandeur Of her soul, the
DEVOTION the resignation, which was remarkable
in her after life showed itself. No useless tears
no reproaches, no lameuting One short burst of
agony which the sight of the manacled limbs of
her child en- forced from her in spite OF herself nd
she was done with this world Every moment was
precious. God, and the eternity into which these
two boys were soon to enter, formed the sole sub
Jec' of The converse ton between the mother and
her children, until the ailor came to announce that
the moment had arrived to say their last prayers.
Madame Soulis stood by while the chains were
knocked of; she knet and prayed with the priest,
who had been sent to accompany the prisoners TO
the scahoid and then she took arm of each of
her beloved boys and left the prison with them -
nc PdoiiC pidCt was CTUWueu WIN people. IDey
could not help plying those two handsome youths
about to be executed, but tears down the h ard
est cheeks at the sight of that noble mother still
IN mourning for her husband and two eldest chill
dren, and now accompanying her two remaining
sons to death. She ascended the scaffod with Them
embraced them tenderly, offered up a short prayer
with them and then allowed herself 10 be led off by
Trend. Butth was not out OF bearing when the
shouts OF the multitude announced to her that all
was over.
Wel in 95 she was herself condemned to death
on the charge Of concealng her brother-in-law,
political prisoner who had escaped from prison. A
second time she mounted the scstfold and was pre-
pairing to die, when an order come for her release.
She then retired to a little. farm she owned near
Blois, and soon after married her daughter to a
man every way worthy of her. But mi fortune
10 be her lot through life. Her only child all
that fate had left her to love and cherish, died in
child birth, eleven months after her marriage.
II was then that Madame soulie turned her eyes
towards the eloster. After considerable delay she
was received into the Ursuiine Convent of Nevers,