River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1877-10-04
The Best Test Of Fidelity.

The reign of Napoleon, worried and
ransacked as it has been by the writers in
memoirs, recOllections and histories, of
mine that still contains multitude of
rich and, as yet unexplored veins. The
history of the secret associations that
sprang up during the latter days of the
empire, would form most curious and
interesting volume and there would be no
lack of material wherewith to fill it. The
society of the United Brothers alone,
would furnish pages of the most intense
and absorbing interest, while nothing
could appeal more forcibly to the inn
agination than the strange and dramatic
episodes connected with its mysterious
limitations. Perhaps an hundred incid
ents might be related as striking and well
conceived as the following:
An officer of the French army, having
incurred the suspicion or resentment of
the emperor, thought it 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 hurl to the ground the Colossus
whose arm smote and governed the
whole continent of Europe with a scepter
Of iron. One day letter was brought to
him containing the usual signs and pass
words of the society, and requiring him
to repair ON the following night to a Sc
Guided spot in forest, where he would
meet some of his associates. He went
but found nobody. The orders were re-
: peated four times, at intervals of few
DAYS, and four times the officer sought
Inc appointed place, with no better sue
cess 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 attention.
| Drawing his sword, he fastened to the
| spot whence they seemed to proceed, and
| was fired upon by three men, who, seeing
| that he was unwounded, Instantly took
| to flight: but at his feet lay a 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 detachment of chas-
seurs. summoned, apparently, by the
noise of the pistols that had been dis
| charged at himself, came suddenly W and
/ arrested him as the assassin. He was
I 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 justice,
| he was led, at slow pace, by the light
of torches, and amid the funeral tolling
of bells, to vast square, in the center OF
which was a scaffold, environed by horse
men; beyond these was a numerous
group of spectators, who muttered inn
patiently, and, at intervals, sent forth a
CRY of adherence. The victim mounted
the scaffold, and the last act of the trag-
edy was on the point Of fulflment, when
an officer let fall a word of hope.
An edict had just been promulgated
by the government, offering pardon and
life to any condemned criminal who
should disclose the members and secret
tokens of a particular association, the
| existence of which was suspected; il was
that Of which the Frenchman 10 whom
these words were addressed had lately
become 4 member. He was questioned,