The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1877-11-27

the ground
The only evidences of the murder left
were the pack, the hatchet, and the
corpse itself. This latter was quickly
disposed of. In n shed at the back of
the house were half dozen wine casks,
most of them empty. Into one of these
the body was thrown, and at daylight
Madame Maschez headed 1t up with her
own hands aud ran 1t full of water.
Several days passed, and the Maschez
house was always so beset with visitors
that no opportunity for u burial of the
body occurred. No one had seen the
peddler enter the house, and his absence
was not noticed.
On September 1S, the little girl, while
at the village school of st. Pol de Leon,
exhibited very fine silk handkerchief
one of a number contained in the ped
dler's pack. The handkerchief attracted
the attention of the village priest who
taught the school, and he asked:
:" Where did you get this fine kerchief
my dearY'
" Mother has plenty of them,' was
the innocent reply. 1.-THE strange man
with bundle who slept at our house one
night, and never went away again, had
them"
The child had unwittingly betrayed
her guilty parent. Suspecting some
thing from her remark, the priest at
once dispatched messenger for the al
calde. He came, accompanied by mu-
letter from Andorre, who, that very
morning had called at his house to in
quire for the missing peddler, to whom
he wished to deliver some goods. With
in an hour the school was dismissed and
strong party of villagers assembled and
under the leadership of the priest and al
calde, set out for the Maschez house.
The farmhouse was deserted From
a gully behind it, however, came a
sound as of splitting wood, and guided
by 1t, the party pushed on. AS they
crossed the patch of vegetable garden at
the back of the house they noticed q
smooth track on the ground as if q
heavy wine cask had rolled over it. On
reaching the gully this track was ex-
planned
AT the foot of the steep bank Maschez
himself stood, spade in hand, beside u
trench, newly dug, and deep enough to
accommodate the body of a man. Mad
anne Maschez, armed with sharp but
rusty hatchet, was beating in the head
of wine cask near by. Her face was
flushed and her manner determined. Her
husband, on the contrary, was pale as
death, and trembling in every limb.
Without word the party made rush
for the guilty pair. At the crash of their
approach Madame Maschez beat the
head of the cask in, and turned, with
weapon uplifted, to meet them.
In the caslS, almost full of water, they
could see the head and shoulders of
man
With howl of fury the half savage
mountaineers rushed at the murderers,
unable to escape, the amazon faced them
dealing blow after blow with the formi-
dable weapon in her hand. Half dozen
of the assailants sustained fearful
wounds. Then one of them with a
frantic rush drove the tines of hay
fork, with which he was armed, clean
through the body of the murderess.
With furious cut of her hatchet she
severed the stout staff as if it had been a
reed, and fell. One of the tines of the
fork had pierced her heart.
Maschez had disappeared at the COM
mencement of the fight Search for him,
however, revealed him insensible from
fright in the open grave.
He was taken to Andorre for trial and
the facts of the murder elected. The
entire spoil gained by the poor peddler's
death was little bag containing 26O
francs, and the contents of his pack,
worth perhaps twice as much more. For
his involuntary completely in the affair
Maschez was sentenced to the galleys
for life.
Practical Justice.