Baton Rouge tri-weekly gazette & comet., 1865-07-08

THE MAIB OF SARAeossA AND THE
WORTH OF FAME.-The goth of May
was kept in Spain as the anniversary
of the death OF this famous heroine OF
Of whom SO many poets have sung
in the dark, and whose fea-
tures, CONSTRUCTED out of the consci-
ousnessn of enthusiastic artists, have
adorned so many albums and books Of
beauty. 10 commenting upon her
great services to her country, one OF
the Madrid journals gives US curious
illustration of the unreliability of his !
tory.
The maid of Saragossa, we are IN
formed has been described BY Spanish
writers of credit and painted BY Span
ish painters as damsel Of the lower
classes, wearing the picturesque saga
coyta and brilliant petticoat OF that Or
der of Spanish women; it has been
asserted that she died in 1882, and
that she died ansame at hospital in
Saragossa.
So far are all these assertions from
the truth, that the heroine belonged
to the upper-middle classes; dressed as
ladies of condition commonly dress all
over the civilized world; never went
mad, and died, not in 1882 in the
hospital at Saragossa bnt in her own
house at Ceuta, in the year 1857,
and in the complete possession all her
faculties.
What, indeed, is the worth of fame
if such extraordinary blunders can pass
current with her own countrymen and
contemporaries about the most popu-
lar heroine whom the age has produ-
ced, among a people, lsotoriously gal
liant, chivalric and enthusiastica
At this rate, we may expect to lind,
General Sherman described In Massa-
chusetts, before the end OF the century
as an Englishman of small stature,
with but one eye, and Geneal Butler,
remembered as stout negro, the Tous-
saint of Louisiana, who ended his ca
reer by dying gloriously in the trench
es of Fort Fisher.
We are sorry to be obliged to add.
in reference to the "Maid of Saragossa"
that this descriptive phrase, by which
she is commonly known, is just as IN
accurate as the particulars of her ap-
pearance and history above recited.-
| The proper name of the city for which
she so heroically fought is not Sara
gossa, but Zaragoza, and she was SO
far from being minion ofthe maiden
moon, that she was married no less
than three times! 1t is bad enough to
know that the "Maid of Athens" ex-
pred as "Mrs. Black" but triply
welded "Maid of Saragossa" is still
worse.
The heroine began her matrimonial
campaigns with captain of artillery !;
continued them with a captain of in
fsntry, and finally died in the foster
ing arms of her third spouse, a sur
f geon in the army.
3 These are the facts; but what is
, the use of recitiug themll A Well es-
E tahlished popular falsehood is harder
to overthrow than dynasty and
popular tradition will doubtless insist
y upon applying to the Spanish heroine
the epitaph which Margaret of Flan'
ders, wrote tor herself. Being caught
by storm in the Bay Of Biscay, and
J. in danger of drowning on her way to
join the third prince to whom she had
been affianced, both of her previous
nuptials having been annulled ere they
were consummated, that indomitable
: young lady had the spirit to entertain
herself with composing the following
!, couplet
''Ci.git Marguerite, genie demoiselIe,
Qu iut trois fois m&riee-et mourut pucelIs."
1t is satisfactory to know that one
accurate portrait of this much mis-
! understood lady exists. 1t is not in
d Spain, however, but in England, hav.
Q ing been painted at Gibraltar in 1909,
D at the request of an English general,
and presented to George III.