Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-12-31
TherOigne de Meric0urt, the Hand
some Mad Woman.

10 the autumn of the year 1898 there is
q debate at the Cub of the Jacobius, st
which Robespierre's policy is violently
debated. Theroigne-her manner has
been strangely excited lately; some say
she spurs her tagging energies with ar
dent spirits, others say she is losing her
reason-is present, and again and again
vehemently interrupts the orators At
frat, losipg all CONT mand over herself, she
scrambles over the barrier which divides
tho members from the auditory, forces
her way into the midst of a knot of politi-
clans, violently denounces Robespisrre
insults Collet d'H Herbsise, and, it is said,
goes so far as to strike Couthon. For
awhile the meu laugh at her, but she is so
unsparing in her denunciations that her
hearers lose patience at last. She ia
taken by her shoulders and turned out of
the Jacobin premises. As they force her
out, she screaming, and kicking, and
biting, she meets, even in the midst of
her frenzy cold eye fixed uron her.
She encounters that citizen Quintus Cur
tids, now very prominent member of
the Jacobin Club, and who has an &C.
count to settle with her. A sudden calm
comes over the tempest of her passion,
and when she finds herself in the, streets
she turns sick and faint, and he knees
trembled under her as they did that
August day at the Tuileries, " hen the
man in the leathern apron held up Lalle-
mand's CORY head
A few days nfterward, Theroigne is
walking in the Tuileries garden alone.
She has reached the ruined promenade
of the Terressee des Feuillants, where
she hears her name pronounce by angry
voices. She turns to find herself sur
rounded by furious mob. mainly COM
posed of those tricoteuses ind washer
women and fish-women, of wh ON she was
once the heroine and the darling. But
now fists are clenched; feet Lre stamped;
threatening arms are waved in the Dir
now threatening voices utter fierce in
vectives.
"A la lanterne with the sls nder Of
r obespierre J.
Filing the Austrian spy into the
Seine T.
"Cut the aristocrats throat |"
These are the cries, these the recon
mendations she hears The mob gather
round her; rude hands seize her They
pluck eff her Phrygian cap; they hs ul at
her hair and her garments; and more
furious cries arise that she shah be
hanged or drowned forthwith.
Hanging-drowning sense" !" q
voice cries and person seemingly of
some importance pushes through the
throng. Room for the Citizen Quintus
Curtius," shout the rabble.
"She is not worthy of the ldnterne---
not worthy of the Seine or guillotine !"
pursues this eminent Jacobin. "She is
but troublesome, imperIinent and un-
reasonable woman. The best punish
ment for her would be good whipping.
Lay her down, then, citizens, and scourge
her to your hearts content"
The villsinous proposition is met with
O yell of approval. 1t is at once carried
out. Implements of torture--belts, cords,
branches of trees, carter's whips are
soon found. A dozen executioners
crowd around the victim. Her entres-
ties for mercy are disregarded; her
clothes are tora from her; she is laid on
a bench and scourged till she swoons.
When she RECEIVERS consciousness, she
finds herself lying on the gravel paths of
the Terrassee des Feuillants alone.
Stay, there is footsep grating over the
gravel. Il is the Citizen Qaintus Cur
thus.
I'VE are quits now, Theroigne," he
says. "You remember the complaint
made TO the Proriseur of the Jesuits'
College, at L'sge? owed You some
thing, and now l have repaid yon with
interestr
From the day of her shameful punish
ment, Theroigne de Mericourt became
insane. At the beginning of the year
1884 she was sent to the asylum OF La
and there, a howling, hope
less maniac. she lived through the Direc
tory, the Consulate and the Empire,
she died in 1917, in the second year of
the Restoration of the Bourbons. g. A.
Sdld.