St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1885-05-23
THE SPECTER IN RED.
Some OF the Traditions Current Among
the French People.

Some OF the Traditions Current Among
the French People.
There exists q tradition that the Lou.
vre. the great square and the Tuileries
palace, where it stood over there to our
right, are haunted by = specter called
lie Petit Homme Rouge" The ap-
pearance of this specter is always fol-
lowed by a national misfortune-civil
commotion, revolution, public disaster,
or the death of the head of State. When
Catharine de Medicis built the Tuileries
she took forcible possession of lot of
other peoples property, including .
butcher shop, the owner of which was
known among his neighbors as the "Lit-
tie Man in Red," because of his bloody
business. This butcher was the witness
of some of the adventures of Kate dc
Medicis, and, in order to be sure of his
silence. the queen-mother had him de-
coyed into a subterranean passageway
that connected the Tuileries with the
Louvre, where he was murdered. The
spirit of this poor fellow took up its
abode in the garret of the new palace,
and ever since he has been herald of
death or misfortune. In the latter days
of the reign of the grand king the
Petit Homme Rouge" showed himself
to Louis XIV, and then followed
ruinous and disastrous war. the death
of the Duke of Bourgogne and his wife
within six days of each other, and then
the kings own death. Louis XIV. next
mounted the French throne and was
called by his people .'le bien aime."
One day the Little Man in Red" showed
himself to the king, and not long after
he died with smallpox, loathed and de-
serted; he died as hated and detested q
monarch as ever sat on throne. Poor
Louis XVI. must have seen the butchers
ghost the first night he slept in the
Tuileries after that bowling mob had
forced the royal family to move into
Paris from Versailles. On the Goth of
June, 1892, the sans culottes gathered
in this Place du Carrousel and forced
their way into the palace. For six long
hours the royal family were forced to
witness defle of the vilest scum
through such rich apartments. The
king and queen sat at the council table;
the Princess Elizabeth sat beside her
mother. who held the young dauphin in
her arms, and from time to time stood
him on the table for the people to look
at. One fellow took off his red cap and
placed it on the head of the infant
dauphin. who began to laugh and
amuse himself by peeping out from
under it at the crowd. The beast of
Santerre, finding that this baby incident
was putting the rabble into a good
humor, shouted out: Take off that
cap. Don't you see it is sitting the
child?' Among the spectators Of this
extraordinary scene was young lieu
tenant of artillery, who, as he walked
away when all was over, remarked:
with these cannon planted at the
palace door, l could have swept the
Place du Carrousel of all this candille in
five minutes" That officer, Bonaparte
by name. was destined to be the imme-
diate successor of Louis XVI. in the
Tuileries, and only three years later he
had an opportunity to show the effect of
skillfully handled guns on q mob, when
from the steps of st. Roch. Church he
cleared the same place and put an end
to the reign of terror.-Pdris Cor. n. o.
Picayune.