Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1870-10-27

Keeper of the Woods and Forests Of the
province and Claire Tabouillot, daugh-
ter of a magistrate. They were all Of
radiant beauty, say the Grown Princes
memoirs the eldest of them was not
more than three-and-twenty, and the
two youngest were only sixteen. A sub
scription was raised on the spot to buy a
handsome casket. the Baroness de La
lance. aunt of the sisters Henry, offered
herself as chaperon, and the nine ladies
were soon on their way to the camp in
the Baroness's coach-a fact which, by
the-by, speaks we'll for the capacity Of
vehicles in those days. One would
scarcely imagine that in such a simple
proceeding as this bonbon embassy to
the King of Prussia lurked all the ele-
ments of future indictment for treason;
an! yet SO it was. and the fortunate box
Of sweet meats was fated to cost three
and-thirty persons their heads, The
King refused the present, but there is
very little doubt that it saved Verdun
from pillage; for. although Frederick
William II. showed himself cold, and
even harsh, to the deputation, there is
his sons authority for believing that he
was very much struck with the beauty OF
the young girls, ard had not the heart to
consign them to the fate which would inev-
itably have been theirs had Verdun been
abandoned to his sold iery.. The French,
however, were then even fuller of the
Prussian spy mania than they are now.
Everybody who was not sans-culotte in
those blessed days of Freedom was &C
counted sold to the foe, aud upon the
evacuation of Verdun by the Prussians
after Valmy and Jemmapes, the eight
virgins 0: Verdun." their mothers,
Nine de Lalance, and: twenty-one old
gentlemen who had subscribed for the
bonbons, were arraigned before the revo-
lutionary tribunal on the charge of ode
livered the town of Verdun to the Prus-
SLAMS, aided and abetted the success oil
their arms on French territory, and con-
spired with them to destroy liberty, to
desolvo the national representation, and
restore despotism." 1t may be mention.
ed incidentally that tho surrender Of
Verdun was one of the principal causes
that sent Louis XVI. to the scaffold.
Then, as now. it was pretty much the
way with the French to believe that when
ever they we're beaten it was their king
fault, not their own; so that when the i'll
starred monarch pleaded that be really
could not help it fifth bourgeois of Vcr.
dun had failed in Endurance, this answer
was treated as fippant, derisive, and an
insult to the sovereign people. The
same system of argument was adopted
towards the Virgins Of Verdun. After
being carted about from prison to prison
for two years, they were at last
put up on their trial in Paris in 1894
Their beauty, their gentleness, and
their resignation were such that thrill of
of sympathy went through the audience,
and upon Faquir-Tinville, the Public
Accuser, rising to ask that they might
be sentenced to death, one of the soldiers
Oil duty, who had been kind to them
throughout the trial, fell heavily forward
and rolled on the floor senseless. Natu-
rally they we're found guilty-guilty of
being in league with the Prussians;
and they were condemned to be behead-
ed. AS particular mark Of Republi-
can clemency, however, the two young
est of the virgins, Barbe Henry and
Claire Tabouillot, saw taeir sentence
committed to twenty years. penal servi-
tude and one day pillory. Barbe Henry
was released after the fall of Robespierre,
and subsequently married Colonel Mes.
lier; but both her sisters. her mother. and
her aunt were executed, along with the
other young girls who carried the sweet
meats to Frederick William, aud the
twenty old gentlemen who had subscribed
to the gift, five of whom were over sew
enty. OF course the mayor and the YES
tryman Cordisr escaped; those sort Of
men always do.