Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-01-15
WOMEN OF FRANCE
VALIANT WARRIORS
Besides Joan of Arc, Hundreds of
Women Have Their Names on
the Nations Scroll of
Honor

PARIS, Jan. H.-Grenoble has remem-
bered, after two hundred and sixty years,
that 1t owes something to a gallant lady
and has decided to erect an equestrian
statue In honor OF the valiant and graci-
Gus Demoiselle Phyllis de la CHARGE de
ia Tour du Pin, says the London
Standard.
She Is only one of a long list of the
daughters of France who have upheld
the traditions of their race and honored
the history of their sex. France. the
country of Joan of Arc and Jeanne
Hachette. has always boosted the wit and
courage of its ladies, and the Echo de
Paris recalls in alluding to the proposed
statue a few of the most ilIustrious of
these Phyllis de la Tour du Pin was one
OF that race of heroines whom the gen.
ius of TaSso and Ariosto has immortal
ized under the names of C1orinda and
Bradamante, simple and modest and pure
in their private lives, fearless and free
| In the field.
Those VINO care to read may learn from
the old chronicles how Phyllis equipped
company of her vassaIs and putting
herself at their head rode boldly through
the plains from Gap a Die to Valence
to guard the passes through which the
mercenaries of the duke Of Savoy were
hoping to invade the Dauphine. Suffice
1t 10 say that she alone held Dauphine
for France and justified the device of her
illustrious house. Chez nous femme
vaut homme" Her feat of arms brings
up the memories of many another
heroine
In the troublous days of the Fronde
when the rivers were tinted with blood
and the scent of the iris was mixed with
the acrid smell of powder, was 1t not a
princess of the blood royal. the Grande
Mademoiselle herself, who, accompanied
by her two friends. Mines, de Tiesque
and de Montenac, put herself at the head
of an army and seized the town of Oc-
leans, an appanage of her father, CASTOR
dOrleans. brother of Louis XIII? In the
fight in the Faubourg st. Antoine the
royal 'frondouse" herself insisted on set
ting the match to the touchhole of the
first cannon that Numbered from the
Bastile to cover the retreat of Condo.
Other Famous Women
Under the Grand Roi the charming
Mile. de Premoy covered herself with
glory under the name of the Chevaliere
de Baithasar Among the Vendeans how
many Vendeannes? Nine. de Rochejac-
quelin, Nine. de Bonchamp, Nine. de Sa-
| pinaud, Mile. Renee Bordereau and Nine.
de Beauglie, the last one leading a troop
of horse of her own. with carbine elung
at her back. And there were other hero
| isms than those OIL the sword and bat
| tie. Listen to Olympic de Gouge demand
ing the right to defend Louis XVI. at the
| bar of the convention with the words:
| women, who have the, right to mount
| the scaffold, have also the right to APP
pear at the bar" And Nine. de la Roche
| st. Andre, crying through the bars OF
her prison to her sons, who We're being
taken out TO execution: 'Goodby. my
children. Adieu! Die nike Vendeans!"
Virginie Ghesquiere, who thought her
brother too delicate for service under
Junot in the army of the republic, but
not herself, took the uniform under his
name. Distinguishing herself In Portu.
gal, she was promoted to be sergeant
and nobody found out the pious fraud
of the Jou .-ergeant, as she was nick
named. until one day she was wounded
in trying to rescue her colorel. The
Little Sergeant" obstiaately refused tc
have her wound attended until the gruf
old army surgeon shouted: ''Undress thai
man there and let me sew up his side
Then the secret was out, and Napoleon
gave her the coveted cross, like her com.
rade, Marie Sche .lirck. better known as
the Sergeant of Jemmapes."
| Auge.ique Duchemin, too went through
the campaigns a. Lieutenant Duchemini
was decorated in 1851 and ended hei
days at the Invalides. These are orly
| few of those mentioned in the Echo
but, coming down to our own times, Il
is evident that the spirit of her ances.
tors still lives in the French woman to-
day.
| In the worst of the Armenian massacre:
Nine. Cartier, the wife of the French
consul, kept the Kurdish hordes at bay
and saved hundreds of lives, pistol II
/ hand. and il IS not a fortnight since
Nine. Tournier at Casa Blanca was rec
commended for the cross for similar gal
lantry in the face of odds. All these will
have their niche, even II II be small
one, in history. but one is tempted. II
spite Of the admiration their courage com
pels, TO ask II their epitaphs win honol
them more than the inscription over th'
tomb Of Roman matron, "she remained
at home and spun WOOL"