Bisbee daily review., 1916-02-18
MADAME DARE DEVIL
 DEAD AFTER CAREER
 OF WILD ADVENTURE
Her Audacity Deceived Ger mans who Permitted Her to
 Pass Through Their Lines
 with Provisions for French.


 dead. Madame Daredevil was the name given by the French soldiers to Madame Meunier, the wife of farmer at Lessart, not far from Nanteuil-le- Haudouin, where the English troops passed Sept. 2nd under the pressure of continually multiplying German troops on its left flank. The peasants of Les sart, most of them, piled their person. al effects into carry-alls and carts and fled before the conflict. Madame Men uier, however, refused to budge. Solid ly braced against her door-sill, she turned a deaf ear to all appeals. She remained alone there with her old mother of 73 and three young servants She buried her choice provisions, her wine and a number of bottles of old brandy in the garden, bought a poig- iard for personal defense and waited for the Germans.
 From the surrounding country there succeeded wave after wave of thick ranks of gray. Five army corps. near ly three hundred thousand men, march
  ed through that region toward the Marne. In the early morning hours of the next day German officer knocked on the door of Madame Meunier's farmhouse with the hilt of his sword:
 q must have milk, bread, meat, wine, salt, pepper. for my men," he cried.
 Madame Meunier got together all the provisions that were visible in the house, and when the count had been made the German officer offered her a bank bill. Madame Meunier drew her self up, and pushed the bill back with her hand:
 "I have only given you what you have taken if I had refused. I do not want your money. You can take ev- erything you find here free of charge, but on one condition
 "A condition?"
 "Yes. on condition that I shall go and come as will I will attend to my affairs in my own way. Otherwise you shall have nothing more at all"
 "So be it." the officer replied, but let me give you a little advice. Take good care of yourself My men don't trife."
 Scarcely had the officer turned upon his heels when Madame Meunier ran to the stable, hitched up the only con veyance she had, stuffed her cart full of the provisions she had secreted and in 6 few minutes the old horse was trotting at top speed along the road be tween the lines of German troops on the march. At Versigny a patrol stip- ped her, searched the cart and showed their delight at the find they had made The legend has it that Madame Meuni- er, with a raised whip exclaimed:
 Down with your paws. These pro visions are for the German general stas."
 At. this. it is said. the patrol divided respectfully and allowed the cart to pass on.
 Violating all orders by her audacity Madame Meunier got through the Ger man lines, reached the hospital at Nan teuil-le-Haudouin and distributed her provisions among the wounded French and English soldiers at the hospital, slipping pieces of money into their hands and left with the triumphant icry: Until tomorrow. my lads"
 The next day and the following and for ten days thereafter, Madame Meu- nier passed through the German lines every day with her charge of provis- lions for her proteges iR the hospital. On the 18th of September, on the road from Nanteuil to Lessard, her old cart was suddenly caught in storm of shells The Germans all round under brief and nervous orders were forming in columns, hitching their horses to their field guns. Within a short dis tance from her farmhouse Madame Megnier picked up the fuse of shell. It was a French fuse and she believed the deliverance of the region was at Ihand. That night Madame Meuniei remained up to watch the German re- treat under the galling fire of the fam ous French 3-inchers, and before morn ing counted a score or more of the gray-coatcd men who had passed by few days before waiting burial on the high road At one place, she jumped out of her cart and found German soldier, bleeding from a wound, with his rife beside him. F "The gun first, my fellow" ordered Madame Meunier. She seized the rife unloaded it, installed the German in | her cart and ten minutes later arrived at the hospital of Nanteuil. now sur rounded by French Chasseurs.
 '1 bring you a prisoner" cried Mad anne Meunier. but am going to keep the gun. When my husband comes 1 back from the war it will be proof to him that have not simply remained at home twiddling my thumbs"
 Madame Meunier would have receiv- ed the war cross certainly. and prob ably the military medal, but the priva- tions she imposed upon herself and the