The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1863-12-03
a Rural 6 e
Erances
One Pretty Shepherd Girl z lis Another
- for a New Bonnet.

TO Cno NUMBER Oh nan a lnlilIOI, anu superb
tended by about a thousand shepherdesses. =
These fair ones, on close inspection, are foun'
to be no poetical beings such as Shenstone de
lighted to portray, but stout, strapplng dam
sells, with horny hands, leather legglngs am
wooden shoes. However, there are excep
tions to the general portrait Of the sex, an
two such exceptiCns-fair girls with blu
eyes and glossy ringlets-lived latterly in tn
village of Mehers, a few miles from the Chat
eau of st. Afghan. The two shepherdess es
Louise Rousseau and FRANCHISE Laurier by
name. used to drive their focks together OF
the plains, Willing away their time by re
peating to each other stories Of elves anC
witches, said to arise at midnight
from the damp lagoons, dancing
around jack. o'-lanterns, and mock
ing the poor mortals who live i'll holes in the
ground. Full of such fairy tales was the
brother of Louisa Rousseau Denis, an ill-torm.
ed little hunchback, with monstrous head anC
wonderful thin legs, himself resembling one
of the supposed demons of the marshes
Denis Rousseau frequently went with his sis
ter and her friend to tile plains, assisting il
tending the sheep, and watching with his
keen grey eyes every movement OF the fan
form of FRANCHISE. The latter seemed scarce
~ to regard him; vet, secretly conscious OF
her power over the little dwarf, held him I'M
der complete control, employing him on er
rands and the execution OF little orders. One
day she commanded him to bring Ter a stout
piece of string the next morning, and, having
done so, she sent him on a Journey far on the
mOors, pretending to have lost one OF her
theep. That morning Louise Rousseau had
come up to the ordinary meeting place with
a new bonnet, bought ut the special request
of her friend, and which she intended to wear
at the forthcoming fete of Mehers. 1t was a
simple euougl piece o. dress, a few gay rib
bons tackled t. a pee OF muslin but as II
was it excited the intense adnlirltlon OF both
the girls. trying It alternately OIL each 9th
er's heads. they wandered together far INTO
the fields, till they came at last to a piece OF
mooriand. overgrown with low brushWoOd.-
Here Louise Rousseau sat down to rest with
the bonnet in her lap, entirely lost i'll the
pleasure Of looking at it. Suddenly a rope
flew around her neck, skillfully thrown by the
girl Francoise, and, after a few convulsive
struggles, Louise Rousseau ceased to breathe.
The dead body remained for days i'll the low
lagoon, attacked by v~ultures lowering III the
air,
w tI . hllSt AlllJ SfSaA w. go -
June, 1870, FRANCHISE appeared at the village
fete in a new bonnet, radiant with delight,
and full ~ofs!niles for the admirers who throug-
ed around her. Among the latter was the
dwarf Denis, who saw at q glance, that the
bonnet of his lost sister, believed to have
been drowned in one of the ponds, was on the
head of the murdercss. He trelnbled, he says
in his evidence, within himself, divining d
| F,,,l 1r;,x,a In1t hoA YOt tLp po11 rl Cp tp pOTiITE
his thoughts to any one. The next morning
he, with another lad, went to the moors to
cut wood, when all at once they came to and
almost stumbled over the corpse Of Louise
Rousseau. The dwarf fell to the ground
senseless, while the other lad ran back to the
village to apprise the people Of what he hac
seen. Soon a number OF men arrived, who
carried the body of the poor shepherdess tC
the hut of her parents; and before many hours
were over the JNdge a. 1rSJ@u.tsoa, with ger
d'arIns from Blois, made his appearance Oh the
spot. A cursory medical examination left
no doubt that a cruel murder had been ON
mitted, the rope with which she had beer
%strangled being still found on the neck Of
/ Louise Rousseau Whose rope was it? The
| declared positively that he had seen it on the
/ very morning OIL NlltCtl I9OuIoC Unsupported
in the hands of her brother Denis. He knew
it by a line Of black on one end, caused by il
having fallen into tar, as also by a peculiar
knot towards the centre. There seemed ne
doubt the dwarf had murdered his sister anc
he was horribly ugly, lie was forthwith Ia
ken uD and put iutD prison, amid the yelis OI
adherence Of the whole population. Only
one Young man, a worker i'll al iron forge,
-I Nh d., =, liz, I,abind tho throne which
followed the Il varf to the door OF the jail nel-
ther shouting Or speaking to any one. 1t was
he who had given a bollnet to Louise ROus
seau at the beginning OF June, and he, witt
his own eyes. had seen the same bonnet Oh
the head of FRANCHISE Laurier on the day O
the village fete. The crowd having dlspers-
ed. he vent quietly to the Office OF the jug
and told his short tale. An hour after fran
coise L.aurier found herself i'll the hands o
the geiu'arms aud was carried oil to the prls
on OF Blois.
The assizes of the department Of Lolr-et
Cher Oh the 9Th of August, amid an l,hmenst
concourse OF spectators. For weeks the who'll
! province had talked of nothing but the muir
der of Louise Rousseau. aud smany We're tat
succulatious set alioat upon tne subject. Ih'
majority inclined to think Denis guilty OF thC
mur ier-ha was sucu an ugly iIttlo dwarf,
always hiding on mours and III out-ot-the.w
places, aud evidently III secret communion
with demons ald IiOD-gobiIns. Francois
Laurier, Oh the other hanj, was SHOWN 10 b
a most su Get tempered giri, always laughing
y and playing, and evidently amt to commit
the foul deed Of asSassIn-tlAg a friend am
companion. So the asizes opened, and ex
! animation and cross-examinatlon OF accused
and witnesses commenced. At first all wen
in favor of FRANCHISE she confessed having
received the fatal bonnet as "a gift from IT,
dwarf, but utterly denied all completely IL
the assassination. The evidently favorable
imprlssion which this statement made upol
Judge and jury induced FRANCHISE to go a stel
/ further; she said she had seen Denis murder
his sister-seen it at a distance. Pressed yer,
hard Nv, she confessed having helped tia
dwarf to tie the hands Of his sister, but Oni,
after lie had committed the fatal act, Inf
then being nearly extinct. 80 she lost her
self in a maze Of assertions and counter-asser
tons, in which before. long She was op]elessly
entaupIed. She all but confessed having
committed the murder, repeating, however
with great vehemence, that the crime had ia
ken place under the influence and lnstlgatiot
of Denis. Then the little dwarf was interro
gated, and in simple and unaffected language
he told the whole story ofthe last few months
how he had tie bring the fatal rope; how b.
had been sent away Immediately after how
he had seen his sisters bonnet on the head o
FRANCHISE !. and how terror had overcome fra
ternaI feeling. The word dove he did no
pronounce but the feeling was too transpar
ent to escape observation. The co1 pop"ta
in the shape Of twelve stout men in the jur,
box evidently now got some dina insight int
the real state of affairs, and at their request
Francois was put under examination one
more, aud was gradually brought to ADM
f that she herself had thrown the rope arounc
the neck of her friend, but in mere playtulness
and that the string having become entangled
t poor Louise Rousseau had been killed by he
r own efforts to disengage herself.
: After this confession, the Judge thought fun