Year: 1864

| s from the Boston Post.l .
The death of Marshal Pelissier, the sec


ond man In the empire, which, had 1t hap
pcned some little while ago, would have


been rather relief than otherwise, Is at the


present moment terrible trial The old


Marshal was known to possess unbounded


influence over the army, an influence ac-
quired by the invariable cruelty of his dis
cipline. For that cause alone he had been
exposed to malevolence and jealousy for the
last few years of his life; and, strange to
say, for that cause alone is he regretted
now that he Is gone. The career of Mar
shal Pelissier has been one of uninterrupt-
ed prosperity, from his leaving the milf
tary school of La Fleche for Saint Cyr and
his entrance into the army as a sub-lieu-
tenant in 1916. The Marshal was the first
to develop the resources of Algeria as a
military school for the French army. His
campaigns in Spain, Greece. and the Cri-
mea are well known, and yet the one great
souvenir he has left behind, and upon which
his fame is founded, is the miserable feat in
the caves of Dahra, where he suffOcated
whole tribe-men. women. and children,
horses and cattle-by means of the inglo-
rious cdn0ufet, of which nc was the invent
or. The tribe had taken refuge in grot-
to of extensive dimensions at Dahra. The
summons to surrender had been met with
contempt; there was no time for long de-
murring; the army was compelled to move
on, and in a moment of hell-born inspira-
tion Pelissier ordered pile of wood and
furze to be placed against the mouth of the
grotto, and fire to be set to it in order that
the smoke might drive out the inmates and
compel them to sue tor forgiveness. But
the result was far different to what had
been expected. The panic-stricken crowd
which had gathered in that hiding place, as
soon as the smoke began to fill the atmos-
phere, naturally sought to press forward to
the opening; but the cattle, blinded by rage
and fear, trampled down the women aud
children, and the fames driven inwards by
the wind, setting fire to the flowing gar
ments of those who had approached nearest
the mouth of the cave, were carried back


wards amongst the struggling mass, and
soon the whole place was one huge furnace
in which were slowly consuming hundreds
of human beings, trodden out of all shape,
tom and trampled by the infurated cattle.
Not one individual escaped. A huge mass
of calcined bones still blocks up the en-
trance to the caves of Dahra; and although
the French soldier in Africa enjoys the idea
of plunder quite as much as that OF con-
quest, so great Is the superstitious awe
with which the caves are invested that none





gold ornaments and valuable relics which
must of necessity have remained on the
spot after the catastrophe. Pelissier
lived for many years after this "glorious
victory" he rose to the highest honors, and
was regarded by his fellow-mortals as a
man of iron whom nothing could subdue;
but he never more would remain at night
without light. and was reported to be
subject to hideous visions and cruel night
mare whenever the season came round


wherein the catastrophe of the caves of
Dahra was remembered. Now and then he


would put both hands to his ears and turn
deadly pale, even in the midst of the gay
est company. This tic he carried with him
to London, and once or twice gave way to
it. even when in all the pomp and panOply
of his ambassadorship from the Tuileries
he was dining at Buckingham Palace. He
never could be made to give an explanation
of this nervous habit which was wont to
create the greatest amazement in the be


holders; but it was generally believed that
it was produced by the sudden conviction
that he could hear the frightful death-shriek
of the human holocaust in the caves of
Dahra! He had grown religious after that
event, and built churches in every place
where he had been sent to fight. The
church at Constantinople, constructed at
his expense, after the taking of Malakoff,
is marvel of architectural beauty. The
priest who had been summoned to quiet his
guilty conscience had told him that no other
remedy could be found, and he obeyed. He
has left his great battle sword to the Church
of Sainte Marie at Algiers, and at his dying
request it will be hung up over the altar
where he was wont to pray to lose the echo
of that yell of agony from the caves of
Dahra, amid the tones of the organ and the
evening hymn of the poor nuns of the con-
vent attached to the church. Pelissier was
always the rude, coarse-minded soldier Of
the Revolution. He was used to laugh
heartily at the idea which was general at
the time that he had been sent to London
Just because of his vulgarity and want of
breeding. His embassy took place at mo-
ment when great irritation existed between
the Court of the Tuileries and that of Saint
James. and the Marshal was despatched to
take out in the small change Of petty an
offenses of which the British Government
had been guilty. Courtly tradition tells
yet witha quiver of disgust of his soldier
ly behavior in the courtly halls of the Eng
lish aristOcracy. How he hesitated not to
spit upon the best Wilton carpets, nor to
tap the knee of his listener with the heavy
bamboo cane he always carried, the little
short dry blows becoming heavier and
sharper as the argument grew more ami
mated. Tradition moreover adds that his
cane once played this nervous accompani-
ment to dialogue while conversing with the
highest parsonage in the realm, and that
when told of the dereliction to good breed-'
Ing he was anything but pleased with the
or grateful to the informant.
Not more than six years ago Marshal Pelis-
sier, then more than sixty-tive years of age, /
was married by the Empress TO a near re-
lation of her own. The marechale will re-
turn to Court and become lady oflhonor to
her Majesty. The only child, issue of the |
a girl, Is to be confided inn
mediately, according to the express terms |
of the Marshal's will, to the ladies of the |
Sacre C9ur OF Paris, by whom she is to be |
brought up till the age Of fifteen. The heart |
Of man can never realize its yearnings. 1t
Is only few months since Pelissier, being
In confiding mood with one of his oldest |
friends, naively confessed that the dream of |
his life had ever been the retired life of a |
town in France, with the small |
Afforded by the military pen,
sion, q bit of garden, and ariishing rod-no
very thought of one made him !
III