The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-08-01
FRENCH HEROINE FACED DEATH
TWICE BEFORE FIRING SQUAD
OF CERMANS--NOW WEARS CROSS
Only Woman to Be Decorated With Soldiers Medal
Saved by Miracle in the Hands Of 1ate Germans
Who Were Impeded in Marches AS She Alone With
stood Their Fire on Drawbridge
written by Jeane Gunaud.)


In Marcelle Semmer, a girl Of FL, an
orphan of simplest peasant stock,
France has found her Edith Cavell.
More fortunate than England how
ever, the Republic can take to her
heart the living form Of her most glo-
rious daughter, upon whose bosom
she has already pinned the Cross of
the Legion of Honor and the Cross
ever before been privileged to wear.
For, although on two separate oc-
casions she stood iblindfoIded before
a German firing squad, the heroine.
whose name will blaze in history be-
side that of the martyed Englishwom-
an, has lived to hear her country
laudits and to receive the recognition
that is. her due.
Here are the words with which Mar
celle faced German court-martial-
words that are already immortal in
France.
"Do with me what you will, I ann
an orphan, L have only one mother
France-and it doesn't disturb me to
die.''
Her acquaintance with war began
in the early weeks of the 1914 cam
Somme, with the Germans at their
heels, the French neglected to de-
stroy a drawbridge spanning the lock
at Eclusier.
Marcelle, then a lass of 1s. had
never heard of tactics or strategy;
plain, common sense, the heritage Of
her peasant blood, told her, however,
/ that the Germans must be prevented
from using that bridge.
Having no dynamite to destroy the
structure, she did the next best thing,
which was to open wide the draw and
throw away the key, so that it could
not be closed again.
Stoned to Death.
This she carried out under brisk
fusilade from the approaching Ger
man infantry, whose advance guard
seeing what she had done, directed
their fire as much at her as at the
retiring French soldiers.
They went further. They stoned
to death, on the other side of the
canal, two wounded F'renchmen, and
yelled across to her that she would
meet the same fate as soon as they
reached Eclusier.
She ran off unscathed, however, and
| with. a dozen women, children .ane
old men hid in the cellar of farm.
house. For fortnight they remain
ed in their precarious shelter, bu'
Marcelle nightly risked capture by
sallying forth to get food for her com.
| panions and herself.
On these excursions she would NEE
with French soldiers, lost or wounded
! and in nomentary danger of falling
| into the enemy's hands. Obtaining
civilian clothes for them lshe would
~ until they
were out of the German lines ant
able to rejoin their regiments.
i Saved Sixteen.
But there was one of her soldier
| countrymen who was too badl.
wounded to make his escape. Ever,
night Marcelle would creep out to thu
| haystack in which he lay hidden ant
bring him food and water, and d.
what she could to make him comfort
able.
| A German patrol found her ther'
and dragged her before their colonel
BY drumhead courtmartial she wa
sentenced to death. They asked he
| whether she had assisted othe
| French soldiers to escape.
1 Certainly" she replied, with tn
| directness of Jeanne dare herself, g
! succeeded in getting 16 out of you
reach"
Immediately she was placed will
her hands bound and her eyes ban
daged against a stone wall. A squa'
of "a men levelled their rifles
/ her.
! Then, sas if it had fallen from
Heaven as Marce1Ie herself put It,
F'-enc1. shell exploded right In tn
midst of the firing party
| Several were killed instantly, an
the rest fed. The first shell was tn
forerunner of terrific bombardmen
which drove the Germans back out
Eclusier, and brought the French int
the village again. They found Mar
celle, still handcuffed and blinded
lying against the wall. Shells ha
burst all about her, but she was un
touched.