The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1871-11-11

The marine killed was one
of those young men whom the recruit
ing officers endow with party
spirit as well as with uniform, and
to whom is supplied the cockade Of
the party which governs. For
chilly enrolled for the port of Brest, he
had left it with his companions, and
come to fight at Auray. This position,
understood by the peasants, because 1T
was that OF many of their children,
made the death of the marine lament
ed, and rendered her odious who had
assassinated him. There was, besides,
in the circumstances of the murder a
base wickcdness repugnant 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 a general cry OF anger against
the maiden, and as it happens in such
generous reactions where party feeling
yields to the voice of justice, indigna-
tlon was excessive, In default of tri
bunal 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 cabin, and soon she had no
other shelter than the porch of the
church. Everywhere she went people
were seer TO leap aside. At the foun-
tain, when she came, the women with
drew their pitchers, saying, "Give
place to the murderess.
! 1t was the name they had given her.
To seal the public reprobation, they
made a song in which the death of the
young marine was related with all its
frightful detail. Then, whenever the
young maiden appeared, she heard the
avenging notes repeated Her punish
ment was more than an ordinary pun
ishment having its time and place; il
spread into the public domain, it en-
tered into public manners. She walked
abroad like Cain, with the fatal mark
on the brow, in the midst of men who,
like SO many plllores, told her hel
crime and cursed her In vain she
wanted to flee her parish wherever
she could go the voice of the herdsmaI
resounded the terrible refrain.
One day she met III a field, far from
Auray, a little by OF five or six years
old, who was playing with the daisies
She approached and sat down at his
side. For her, unfortunate and aban
doned, 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 begins to cares
him after the manner of mothers, anC
to sing to him some complaints. WheI
she had finished, q know prettieI
song than you," says the child els
ten-my father taught it me-" And h,
begins to sing:
BE We attentive, Christians, here il
the recital of the crime: Mary Mar
ker killed a blue with stroke of tn,
sickle, blue who had asked mercy il
the language of her parish, and wh'
was a poor conscript of the country"
The unfortunate creature let tn
/. boy roll to the ground, uttered cry
and led with ali her might. 1t was tot
much shame and grief; the murderes
succumbed to it, and lost her reason.
Some years ago [ saw her, and sh
was mad. She rarely replied to ques
tions that enc addressed to her bu
when a single word of the terrible son,
reached her ear, as if touched by
galvanic shock, her stony, apatleti
body rose, and her cumbroua, statue
like person became flesh and suffering
She uttered cries, she wrung her arms
whirled around, then suddenly as i
seized b, vertigo, tainted, repeatin
the accusatOry couplets, and in propo1
ton as her voice rose, the song SCENE,
TO take more thoroughly its possession
Of her. One has said remorse was III
generated IN her: that it was formin
in her being two beings, of which th
mission Of one was to torture the other
and that her furious conscience CAV
pursuit to her soul. All her features
all her gestures, expressed the doubl
role Of victim and avenger. She wcp
and roared, asked pardon and hurle,
maledictions; it was a spectacle sucl
as one is not able to look upon withou
closing the eyes; the struggle Of tn
eXecutiOner and condemned upon th
edge Of the scaffold.