Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-09-04

return, Will give you my watch ana some silver
| with"
"Haye YOU anyP asked the peasant.
81 have"
"Where is iii"
"There"
"Show il me-"
| "DO you promise to save me afterwardF'
"Show me the money"
"You shall see it,.
The trusting marine balanced himself on his
knapsack that he had detached and which was
| lying near him; he began with both hands to
unbuckle with difficulty the straps. At the same
time the Breton maiden took step back in or
der to save room, and level upon his head a
| blow of the sickle, which opened his skull He
only uttered sigh; his arms relaxed, aud he
| fell, his face on the knapsack. Then the young
maiden took the watch, silver and garments.
| TRANQUILITY she washed her feet, which were
covered with blood in the marsh, then went to
| the field to cut her bunch of herbs, and returned
to the house. On arriving she threw upon her
| chest all she had taken from the marine, saying:
| 81 have found the body OF blue, and there is
what he had" They were in ecstacies over her
| good fortune, and so affairs stood. But the
same evening, the body having been found,
was recognized by the family. Soon several
| circumstances betrayed the young maiden and
| all was discovered. The marine killed was one
of those young men whom the recruiting officer
| endows with party spirit as well as with uni
| form, and to whom is regularly supplied the
cockade Of the party which governs. Forcibly
euTOlleu lOT Vi DTtSbJ IlG IL WIN
| his companions, and was come to fight at
Auray. This position, understood by the
| peasants, because II was that of many of their
| children, made the death of the marine lament
| ed, and rendered her odOus who had assass-
mated him. There was, besides, in the circum-
stances of the murder, base wickeduess repug-
nant to all. She had not killed this man for
deaths sake, but to rob him, which made the
crowd feel horror, for in such cases money
stains more than blood Thus was there
general cry Of anger against the maiden, and as
it happens in such generous reactions where
party feeling yields to the voice of justice, in-
dignation was excessive. In default of tribunal
Justice, popular Justice took upon itself the
punishment of the crime. The young maiden
was cast out from the society of Christians,
and people got out of her way as if leprosy had
struck her. No peasant was willing TO let her
a cabin, and soon she had no other shelter than
the porch of the church, Everywhere she went
people were seen to leap aside. AT the fountain,
when she came, the women lwithdrew their
pitchers, saying. "GiYe place to the murderess."
1t was the name they had given her. To seal
the public reprobation, they made song in
which the death of the young marine was related
with all its frghtful details. Then, wherever
the young maiden appeared, she heard the
avengiug notes repeated. Her punishment was
more than an ordinary punishment having its
time and place; it spread into the public domain,
it entered into public manners. She walked
abroad like Cain, with the fatal mark on the
brow In the midst of men who, like so many liy-
ing pillories, told her her crime and cursed her.
In vain she wanted to flee her parish; wherever
she could 90 the voice Of the herdsman, the ter
rible refrain reSounded.
One day she met in field far from Auray,
little boy of five or six years old, who was play
ing with the daisies. She approached and sat
down at his side. For her, unfortunate and
abandoned, who had not touched the hand of
anybody for year, it was great JOY to caress
this child. She places him on her knee and be-
gins to caress him after the manner OF mothers,
and to sing to him some complaints. When she
had finished, 81 know prettier song than YOU"
says the child; "listen-my father taught it
me-" And he begins to sing:
"Be We attentive, Christians, here is the recital
of the crime: Mary Marker killed blue with
a stroke of the SICKLE a blue who had asked
mercy in the language OF her parish, and VINO
was q poor conscript of the country"
The unfortunate creature let the boy roll to
the ground, uttered cry, and fled with all her
might. 1t was too much shame aud grief the
murderess succumbed to 1t, and lost her reason.
Some years ago saw her. and she was mad.
She rarely replied to questions that one adj
dressed to her; but when single word of the
terrible song reached her ear, as if touched with
a galvanic shock, her stony, apatheuc body
rose, and her cumbrOus, statue-like per-
son became flesh and suffering, She
uttered cries, she writing her arms,
whirled around, then suddenly, as If seized
with vertigo, tainted, repeating the accusatory
couplets, and in proportion as her voice rose, the
song seemed to take more thoroughly its possess
sion Of her. One had said remorse was incarna-
ted in her; that it wds forming in her being two
beings, of which the mission Of one was to tori
ture the other; and that her furious conscience
gave pursuit to her soul. All her features, all
her gestures expressed the double role of avengcr
and victim. She wept and rOared, asked pardon
and hurled maledictions; it was spectacle such
as one is not able TO look upon without closing
the eyes; the struggle Of the eXecutioner and
the condemned upon the edge Of the seaaold.