New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-08-24
FIRST ACCOUNTS RECEIVED IN FRANCE


FIRST ACCOUNTS RECEIVED IN FRANCE.
,xr,rrxcE OF RocHEFoRT's ExAMpLE-soME DE-
TAILS OF THE EscAPE-DEvoIoN OF MADAME
BAZAINB TO HER HUSBAND.
IPRoM THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE i"noN'
PARIS Aug. l2-Tbe great topic of conversation is
again Bazaine SAYS WISE Bishop Hall I'VE are
naturally apt to be carried by examples 1t is one Oh
the greatest improvements of wisdom 10 kho"
when IN what, and how far we may lmitate. 90
odd as il seems ut first glance the Imperial Marshai
was naturally carried away from his penlentlal re-
treat as Republican Rochefort from his, IN an exem
MARY row-boat The Improvement OF Ba-
yaine's wisdom, between his stay IN Metz
and his retirement from Ste. Marguerite
meets all the good Bishops requirements, is honor
able to his doclle disposition and ustihes his gradu
alton from the State institution theIe Like Roche-
fort he escaped in row-boat to foreign vessei
awaiting in the ofing per contract and OF DARK
night Could curriculum be more studiously foi-
lowed 7 Thus Bazaine begins his new LIE ana
passes master of his actions again. at the end OF
abont eight months out of the establishment where
he was taken by q tutelary government for twenty
years.
To be sure the hero of Metz was first condemned
TO death after a most careful, prolonged trlal by
calm, eminent judges, while the author of the
Lanterpe was finally and swiftly condemned for life,
by tribunal whose chief officer presently after
ward broke out into patent insanity. Roehefort
was dispatched TO Noumea year ago last saturday;
Bazaine was sent the Isle Ste. Marguerite the Ath
December, 1873. The general parallel between the
late imitator and the original teacher
breaks otherwise in particulars. The Isle Ste Mar
euerite. in the near Mediterranean waters, has
pretty name and odfamily, romantic and historical
associations of which the remote parvenue island OF
the Australian ocean is bare. 1t lies by healthgv-
ing Cannes. hardly two miles from the MAN, 1t
was fortified and had strong place built on IT with
dungeons some 2G0 years ago, all in the reign OF
Louis XIV. wherein that great good man Kept that |
charming romantic Man of the Iron Mask close pris
oner for twelve years. When that honest monarch |
meant to keep state prisoner he kept him.
don't believe as many seem to do, that the Gov
ernment was in collision with the brother imperial
officer of President MacMahon, of Minister Ger. de
Cissev and of Minister Gen. Chabeaud-Latour In
bis escape any more than believe that they fell TO
weeping when the surprising news of his escape
reached them. ! do believe that the rigorous meas
ures now promised of investigating the affair and
furnishing the accom- plices of the evasion viii really
be rigorous, and undertaken with sincerity,
even as those lately referred to by the Minister of
Foreign Affairs in his two Last very able notes IN
skillfully detailed reference to the relations of
France to the Carlist and the Republic of
for arguments sake, GamDetta-cOuld be |
condemned to a term of twenty years in |
the fortress of Isle Ste. Marguerite, am confident
that he would not succeed in evading his punish |
ment bv rope or rowb oat-not at least during the |
Septennate In perhaps somewhat varied sense, |
am confident that the CaTiiSs and their cause do |
presently, and henceforth will, not receive and |
enjoy from that part of France bordering on the |
Spanish frontier the favors and convenences which
ILL
demonstrated that they never have received and
enjoyed. Now that the horses are gone, devouty |
believe that the Department of the Pyr6nees is
nearly inaccessible and quite Improbable to Carst
cavaliers and that the fortress of the Isle Ste Mar
Cuerite will be secure place of residence for its
next State prisoner.
We are as vet uniformed as to the minor details |
of the method and fual means Of Bazane's evasion
From the facts at hand however, il appears that |
some three four weeks ago, probably not for the
first time, Madame Bazaine aided by friends, made
a pressing appeal to President MacMahOn to ame-
crate the hard prison conditions of her husband,
which was respectfully but absolutely rejected AT
this the woman sank loyalty to half-friend,
and a government, not of her wOmans
choice beneath this overwhelming duty Of
fealty to her sovereign husband. She argued.
Tor awhile vainly. to him that he was liberated
from any sOldieTy or other moral obligation not to
profit by any chance of escape from unjust imprison-
ment His counter argument was. conceivably, that,
seeing that his wife and children and his faithful
friend Col. Villette, had constant access to him
that under conditions exceptionally free and easy
for State prisoner whose term of 20 years a
generous Communication of a death penalty, other
persons had access TO him, he as a military man
and gentleman was partially bound, if by parole,
not TO distOrt to profit of evasion benefit and ad-
yantages conceded to him as prisoner, accepted
and implying obligations ostensibly recognized by
him not TO abuse such officially permitted advan-
tages.
1t was uncommonly hot in July, in all Eastern
Europe at the Isle Ste. Marguerite as elsewhere.
Ii is needless to say that the thermometer rises with
perfect indifference TO social grades and that folks
of the superior classes suffer intOlerably more from
inconvenient heats than the low commonalty.
That stout gentleman, ex-senator and ex-Marshal,
having an apartment with terrace to himself,
should not suffer from passing heat inefably more
than the close packed garrison of common soldiers
who were there TO guard him, is not matter for
discussion
Wont You then, dear protest practically against
tie leveling injustice of the elements, renounce
your implied promise to stay, use your free night to
90 and look kindly ON the easy means have col
lected here for the assurance OF your golng| were
the tempting arguments to which he was subjected
"No." responded the Marshal at first But again
and again the lady returned with her illogical at
tack and so finally carried the Marshal.
The rest is a mere material arrangement of ma
chineries. The moment that Bazaine was resolved
TO withdraw from his prison. nothing very remark
able was requisite to carry out his resolution. IT, as
some pretend, he made bis rope ladder bv Baron
Trenck process of unweavng and revealing the
rope strappinps of his baggage, he gave himself