The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-16
THE SEPTEMBER MAGAZINES.


from MT, i1enly -. Leu > al OloiS VI
and Nuns in France we quote the following
account of the case of Annabella hohrsch:-
If the careeroft the PCtjtcy S1HIS yes F""SrcS
shows that Christianity has lost nothing Oh itS
bonofcopt and self-sacriicing fervor IN the
lapse of ages the case of Annabella hohrSch
nroves that the fanlticism which KIN
dlod in the hearts of st. Dominic and Conrad
of Marburg is still as active as OF old.
Fortunately the laws which some centuries
AGO pelmitted this fanaticism to find express
sion in the torture and the stake, now force 1t
TO seek the salvation of souls in n manner less
decisive: but the spirit is there, as tervent as
ever. though it may pcrforce be limited IN lts
manifestations From the official record of
the trial at Ghent, in July, 1860, as printed
by NJ Sauvestre, we condense story that
might have served as q groundwork Tor MIS-
Radcliffe or Monk Lewis.
family of Tmtherans named Kohrsch, con-
sisting of father. q son, and a daughter,
moved from Pellau in Prussia and settled IN
Antwerp. On his death-bed the father eXacted
of the son. Richard, a solemn promise to
guard the faith Of his sister stoadfastly in the
religion of her ancestors. Richard was
younp man earning a moderate livelihood as
n clerk Living in rooms from which his
duties kept him absent throughout the whole
dav he had no proper home for young grl
of seventeen and as his straitened means
imposed on him the necessity of economy, he
finally placed Aunabella as a boarder with the
Sisters of Charity Of Moscle. Mindful of his
promise to his dying father, however, he eN-
acted condition that no attempt at prosely-
tism shouldbe made, and in July, 1897, he re-
ceived from the superior of the convent
written declaratiOn:-
"En egard aux GRANTEES que yous vcnez de mex
poser, je yOus garants que mademOlseue nest
ObligCe a suiyrc aucun cNerclce relGleuN eJ lOuIJ
dune CntierC lbertc, quaint aux prescriptions ue 81
prOpre crOydncc.
Within month after this Aunabella was
convert, secretly baptized i'll the Catholic
faith, and fortnight later was admitted to
communion SO little connection did these
fervent propagandists recognize between re-
ligion and morality. that no resources Of false
hood were spared to keep the truth from being
known. On the very day Of the baptism
Annabella received a visit from her brother,
and the neophyte was trained to lie unblush-
ingly in order to avert his suspicious.
At length Richard grew uneasy. and in
May. 1899. he withdrew his sister from the
convent Her spiritual director. Pierre Ge-
rard Bogaeris. cure Of ST. Augustine in Ant
werp, and the principal instrument in her
conversion, dispensed her from the obser-
vances Of her religion, in order that she
might continue its COucualmeut IhlS ne
cessaTy disSimuI.tiOn. however, threatened
too serious a risk to her salvation, and in
company with a Jesuit father. Philippe
jacques Schools, also deeply implicated
in the matter, he plotted her abduction In
three days after her return hOme-three days
of apparently uninterrupted atfection-Au-
nabella disappeared, leaving behind her
most loving letter, in which She bewailed the
necessity of separation Richard suspecting
that a religious intrigue was at the bottom of
the mystery, applied to the Prussan Consul
who set the authorities actively TO work in
search of the missing girl, but their efforts
were vain, and for nine months all trace of
her was lost.
Leaving her brothers lodgings at five in
the morning Of the lth Of May, Annabella
went to the house of Marie Jeanne Lauter-
baen, who had served as god-nother at her
baptism. There she was disguised as
a servant girl, and was taken
thence to Marie Nandermolen,
dealer in embroideries. Meanwhile Bogaerts
and Schools had arranged to send her, under
charge of a milliuer named Rosalie de Duye
to Brussels with Il letter asking admission for
her in the convent Of Jette. A carriage was
procured in which, to avoid detection, the
two women were driven out of town to a way
station on the railroad. and they reached
Brussels without molestation.
All this was a serious crime in the eve of
the law, for Annabella until she should reach
the age of twenty-four, was yet a minor,
under her brothers guardianship The nuns
OF Jette apparently suspected that some
thing was wrong, and refused to receive
the fugitive. Rosalie then, after much diff
Guilty, succeeded in obtaining permission
for her to remain for few days in another
convent. The proposed asylum having
failed, Bogaerts and Schools then de
termined to send their perilous charge
fO Paris I'nGnr the nf Euoapia ID
Marie, and with a false passport, Annabella
was accordingly conveyed 10y Rosalie to the
house of st. Joseph in Paris, where she re-
manned at the expense of Bogaerts until
September. For some unexplained reason,
Rosalie was then sent to Paris to bring her
back. At Mechlin, the two were met by
Schools, who conducted them to the house of
the jSGuTS de J. Union dU Stc1c CGii1 at Hou-
gaerde, where arrangements had been made
for Annabellas S reception. After three months
OF rest, something occurred to alarm the
reverend conspirators, and ROsalie was sent
TO bring Annabella back again to Antwerp,
where she was placed in the Carmeite Con
vent. The Superior Of the Carmelites found
that her nerves could not long endure the
risk to which she had exposed herself, and
she applied to house in Bruges to receive
the fugitive. The dangerous task was pru-
IDENTIFY declined, but a bolder spirit was found
in the head of theSisters of Charity at Eecloo.
To Eecloo, therefore, two days before Christ
mas, was Rosalie despatched by Bogaerts, in
charge of the luckless Annabella, to whom the
name of Marie Toinez was now given.
Thus far the plot had been successful; and
if the object of these ceaseless cares had
gratefully persevered in preferring heaven to
earth, as advised by her ghostly counsellors,
she might never more have been heard Of
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