The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-09-19
The Last TEST Of Fidelity.

The reign of Napoleon, worried and
ransacked as it has been by the writer's
is memoirs, r~ecollections and histories,
Of a mine that still Contains a multitude
otrich End, as yet, unexplored veins.
The history of the secret associations
that sprang up during the latter days of
the empire, would form q most curious
and interesting volume, and there would
be no lack of material wherewith to Ill
it. The society Of the United Brothers
alone, would furnish pages of the the
most intense and absorbing interest,
while nothing could appeal more forci-
bly, to the imagination than the strange
and dramatic episodes connected with
it's mysterious limitations. Perhaps an
hundred incidents might be related as
striking and well conceived as the fol-
lowing:
An officer of the French army, having
incurred the suspicion or resentment of
the emperor, thought 1t expedient to
abandon his country and take refuge in
one of the Austrian provinces, and here
he became advised of and initiated into
a society, the object of whose formation
was to hufl to the ground the Colossus
whose arm smote and governed the whole
continentof Europewitha scepter ofiron.
One day q letter was brought to him
containing the usual signs ord passwords
of the society, md requiring him to re-
pair Oh the following night toa secluded
spot in a forest, where he would meet
some of his associates. He went, but
found nobody. The orders were repeat
ed four times, at intervals of a few days,
and fo,ir times theoficer sought the up
pointed place, with no better success
than at first.
On the fifth night of his appearance at
the rendezvous, after waiting some time,
he was on the point Of returning, when
loud cries suddenly arrested his atten-
ton. Drawing his sword, he fastened
to the spot whence they seemed to pro-
coed, and was fred upon by three men,
who, seeing that he was unwounded, in.
stantly took to flight; but at his feet lay
n bleeding corpse, in which, by the
feeble light of the moon, he in vain
sought for tokens of animation. He was
yet bending over the dead man, when q
detachment of chasseurs, summoned,
apparently, by the noise of the pistols
that had been discharged at himself,
came suddenly up, and arrested him as
the assassin. He was loaded with chains,
tried the next day, and condemned to
die for his supposed crime. His
execution was ordered to take place at
midnight.
Surrounded by the ministers of JUS.
tice, he was led, at q slow pace, by the
light of torches, and amid the funeral
tolling of bells, to q vast square, in the
center of which was a scaffold, environed
by horsemen; beyond these was a
group of spectators, who NUT
tered impatiently, and, at intervals, sent
forth a cry of adherence. The victim
mounted the scaffold, his sentence was
read, and the last act of the tragedy was
on the point of full ,llment, when an
officer let fall a word j. hope.
An edict had just been promulgated
by the government, offering pardon and
life % any condemned criminal who
should disclose the members and secret
of a particular association, the
existence of which was suspected; it was
that of which the Frenchman to whom
these words were addressed had lately
become a member. He was questioned,
but denied all knowledge; they urged
him to confess, with promises of adj
ditional reward-his only reply was a
demand of immediate death-and his in
itiation was completed. All that had
passed was but q terrible trial of his
fidelity; those who surrounded him were
members of the society, and every in
that has been described, from the
time of the first summons to the last
moment of expected death, was
only a step in the progress of the fearful
experiment by which they sought to
the trustworthiness of the
neophyte.