The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1876-02-05
HOW HE WAS SAVED.
An Incident of the Reign Of Terror
in France.

in France.
On May morning in the year 1903,
a man about thirty years of age might
have been seen winding his way over
the broad road, lined with luxuriant
old chestnuts, that leads out of the little
town of Brive-la-Galliarde.
1t was glorious morning. The
fresh, bracing air, the unclouded sky,
and the grateful odor of the young
vegetation, were all calculated to make
the heart light and the head clear.
But our wanderer-for such the bundle
he carried OH his shoulder, ON the end
of staff, denoted him to be-seemed
to take no notice of the beauties that
surrounded him. From time to time,
however, he would pause and cast a
melancholy glance at the spires behind
him, and ON the forest that lay half
league distant on the road
His heart was heavy and sad. One
more last look and he turned away,
never again, perhaps, to behold the
spot around which all his youthful
memories clustered.
The political horizon of France was
obscured by dark and portentous Clouds
The party known as the Mountain "
had drawn up a prescription list that
might well have been the work of death
itself. Even Latreille, the priest and
good shepherd of Brive-la-Galliarde,
WIS compelled, as one Of the prescribed,
to leave his humble home. Sentenced
to be transported, he fed toward Bor-
deaux, hoping there, by the aid of
some friends, to find an asylum
The heart of Latreille was warmed
by noble and innocent love-the love
of science, and especially for entomol-
ogy, which he pursued with great en-
thusiasm. So, now quickening and
now retarding his pace, he walked on,
listening to the cries of an occasional
locust, or watching the butterflies, as
thcy -4qAsr from. Ao--oz- to Ao---e-y sl,..
bright and morning sun. Thus guard
ed against the ennui of a journey on
foot, he walked en- for some hours,
until, finding himself weary, he sat
down in the shade of a tree. He was
scarcely seated when the buzzing of a
beetle attracted his attention. Latreille
sprang to his feet, weary as he was,
and gave chase. The insect was not
easily caught, but Latreille persevered,
and at last he-had it. 1t proved to be
an chronological rarity, a specimen of
the necropia ruficornis. Our naturalist
drew pin out of his coat-sleeve, with
which he secured his victim on the
interior of his hat.
Just after nightfall he reached the
village where he proposed to spend the
night. Without hesitation he raped
at the door of the house that seemed
to him most likely to afford comfort
able entertainment and offer greatest
security, when 10. what spectacle
presented itself to his astonished Wis
ion. A complete apparatus of the
Reign of Terror, with the minions
having it in charge; handouts, chains;
in short, iron, and nothing but iron,
with the necessary vehicle for trans
portation.
Latreilles appearance excited sus-
picion; he was questioned, and as he
betrayed degree of embarrassment
that rendered his story less credible
than it otherwise would have been, he
was arrested on suspicion. No plea,
no entreaty was of any avail against
the logic of the heartless wretches into
whose hands he had fallen; he was
destined that very day to be added to
the victims which the prisons of France
held in readiness for the murdcrous
guillotine. After brief hearing, La
treble, exhausted not less by the mental
anxiety of the last hour than by his
long walk, threw himself upon his
prisoners couch to await his sentence.
He had not long to wait. He had
frankly confessed himself guilty of two
offenses-that of being priest and one
of the prescribed What more was
necessary TO insure Il sentence of death?
The day was far advanced; the next
morning the execution was to take
place. Latrehle had become resigned;
he looked forward to the awful moment
calmly and fearlessly. Above all, he
felt the necessity of restoring his ex-
hausted energies. His jailer, for a
consideration, not only furnished him
with plentiful meal, but so far con-
descended as to give him his company,
and to return his toast to his own health
and that of his family.
The wine soon commenced to make
the jailer loquacious. He began by
giving his companion the history of the /
prison, with an account of the most
noted prisoners he had seen within its
wall, and such other particulars as
naturally belong to such narrative. |
What do you think, said he, sud
denly dropping the history of the |
prison, "what do you think of our cit
izen-president, who read you your death
sentence?" Mon dieu he has face,
to my mind, just such as president
ought to havc-as hard and stern as a
statue. And yet he has a handsome
head; don't you think so?"
Our good naturalist was content to
nod an affirmative.
"And, then, when he is out of the
he has rs many virtues as
they say the old Romans had no ha-
tired or envy, no anger or severity; he
is as kind and amiable as woman
In fact, he is model president and
citizen. But there is one thing, he /
tween you and me. / don't like in the
man.. It's true it's only a bit of fool /
ishness, but it is so unbecoming in such /
a man, and takes SO much from his
dignity. Only think, just as soon as
he has leisure hour, off he goes