The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1865-07-20
THE MAID OF sARAGosSA AND THE
WORTH OF FAME.

The 29th of May was kept in Spain as the
anniversary of the death of this famous hero
ihe, of whom SO many poets have sung some
what in the dark, and whose features, "cOn-
structed out of the consciousness" Of enthu-
siastic artists, have adorned so many albums
and books of beauty. In commenting upon
her great services to her country, one of the
Madrid journals gives us a curious Illustration
of the unreliability of history.
The maid OF SaragOSsa, we are informed, has
been described by Spanish writers of cred
it, and painted by Spanish painters, as dam
sci of the lower classes, wearing the pictures
que saga corta and brilliant petticoat Of that
order of Spanish women; it has been asserted
she died in 1882, and that she died insane at
hospital in Saragossa. So far are all these as
sertions from the truth, that the heroine be-
longed 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, but In
her own house at Ceuta, in the year 1857, and
IN the complete possession Of all her tacul-
tiesl agassa IL gi.il
What indeed, is the worth of fame if such
extraordinary blunders can pass current with
her own countrymen and contemporaries
about the most popular heroine whom the
age has produced, among people notoriously
gallant, chivalric, and enthusiastic?
At this rate, we may expect to find General
Sherman described in Massachusetts before
the end of the century, as an Englishman of
small stature, with but one eye and General
Butler remembered as stout negro, the Tous-
SAINT OF Louisiana, who ended his career
by dying gloriously in the trenches at Fort
Fisher.
We are sorry to be obliged to add, in refer
enee to the MAID OF Saragossa,n that this des-
criptive phrase, by which she Is commonly
known, is just as inaccurate as the particulars
of her appearance and history above related
The proper name Of the city for which She 60
heroicaIly fought, is not Saragossa, but Zarago-
"a; and she was so far from being minion of
the maiden moon, that she was married no less @s
than three tinesl It lis bad enough to know
that the @Maid of Athens" expired as @Mrs.
Black; !" but triply-wedded "Maid of Saragos-
sa" is still worse.
The heroine began her matrimonial cam
paigns with captain of artillery, continued
them with captain of infantry, and finally
died in the fostering arms of her third spouse
surgeon in the army.
These are the facts; but what is the use o
reciting them? A well established popula
falsehood is harder to be overthrown than a dy
nasty; and popular traditions will doubtless In
sist upon applying to the Spanish heroine th'
epltaph which Margaret Of Flanders wrote fol
herself Being caught by storm in the BaA
OF Biscay, and In danger of drowning, on hel
way to join the third prince to whom she hat
been afianced, both Of her previous nuptiali
having been annulled ere they were consum
mated, that indomitable young lady had th,
spirit to entertain herself with composing tn,
following couplet:
"Ci-git Marguerite, gentilIe demoisel,e
Qui fut trois fois mariee, ct mourit puceue"
1t lis satisfactory to know that one accurat,
portrait of this misunderstood lady ex
lists, It IS not in Spain, however, but in Eng
land, having been painted at Gibraltar in 1905
at the request of an English general, and pre-
scented to George Ill.