The penny press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1859-1860, 1860-01-17
The sportive Blow and the Corsican's
Crime.

Crime.
"Do you see, sir, that broken mfst and
that blackened fragment Of the hulk Of a
vessel lying there among the rocks?"
nodded in the affirmative, and he
continued.
"rhey remind us here of dreadful
event which happened few weeks ago.
That ship, La Belle Epouse, Of Marseilles,
that was anchored in The very spot where
we are now, yes, precisely where the brig
is-her chain cable taut to that pillar
on shore, her hawsers cast off here, just
as we are moored, was blown into the air
one fine morning"
"By what accident" inquired.
"Oh, by no accident" said my interlo.
cutor "it was coolly done bya Corsican.
You know how revengeful Italians and
Corsicans are, and he told with much
emphasis, and laudable proportion Of
repetition and rigamarole, the following
dreadful anecdote, which was afterward
confirmed to me by many persons.
The master of the Belle Epouse was
the son of respectable merchant of
Marseilles, and handsome, wellinformed
young man, far superior to the run Of
commanders Of trading vessels in the
Mediterranean. During two or three
voyages to the Levant, he had with him,
as mate, Corsican of about his own age,
to whom he was much attached. A
handsome youth, and of superior manners
like himself, the mate was treated at all
times with respect and in the captains
cabin the distinctions Of condition disap-
peared and the Marseilles and the Cor
sican lived like friends
In their familiar intercourse, these two
young men were accustomed to pass jokes
on each other at times to proceed to
practical wit, excusable perhaps to ex-
Inherently spirited youth, but which is
always 80 dangerous were the blood is
warm. On the last voyage, as they were
returning from Alexandra, aud gay and
friendly as ever, the Corsican received a
blow-a slap on the cheek--it was given
in play by the captain, but converted into
deadly injury and insupportable insult by
the mate. From that moment the too sus-
ceptible islander never spoke to his cap
tain save on duty; he brooded necessarily
over the blow, and when they had come to
anchor in the Quarantine ground of Mar
settles, his felliugs whatever sthey were,
resolved themselves into a most fearful
deed One morning, as the captain was
lying reading on hen-coop on the quar-
terdeck, and two gardens were quietly
smoking their clay pipes on the poop of
the vessel, be went down to the cabin in
which he had spent so many happy hours
with his friend rather than master, and
opening the sainte-barbe, or powder
magazine, set fire to it's contents
The magazine was well furnished, and
the explosion, in consequence, terrible
To the dismay of the shipping, all
moored at a short distance from each
other in the Quarantine ground, white
smoke, whittier blaze burst from her, and
in the next instant La Belle Epouse flew
high into the atmosphere with an as
founding roar, dreadful as what accom-
panies the election Of some huge mass
from volcano When the disjointed
members Of the brig returned to their
own element, and persons could approach,
they found the dead bodies Of the Corsi-
can, the captain, the two guards, and the
cabin-boy, who was below at the time the
deliberate incendiary opened the maya
zine. The sailors to the number of
seven or eight, who were forward at the
moment of the explosion, were picked up
alive, but all more or less wounded and
bruised. The dead were gathered to-
gether on rock; they presented horrid
spectacle, but it was said by those that
saw them that while the faces of the
murdered appeared calm or languid, as
those struck by lightning, the face of the
murderer, though black as coal from its
close contact with the powder, wore an
expression of triumph, mixed with not
human hate but revenge.