Year: 1878

a human life had been taken for the sake
of a few gewgaws and a couple of hund.
red francs.


Such was the tradgedy which occurred
in the Andorre pass on the night OF
September 10, 17SS, as told at his trial
by the husband of the muderess himself
So quick and noiseless had the crime
been committed that the little child who
had been awakened by the crash of the
storm, had heard no other sound than
that which had disturbed her slumbers,
and went to sleep again.


The female tigress compelled her
cringing spouse, by furious threats, to
assist her in dragging the body into the
kitchen. Under cover eff the storm this
was done without detection, and the
pack was likewise transported to the
common room. The sheep-skin, over
which the murdered man had been
lying, was soaked with BLOOD, and, to-
gether with his clothing, was thrown
into the fire. The pools of blood on the
earthen floor were speedily soaked up
by the ground.


The only evidences of the murder left
were the pack, the hatchet and the
corpse itself This latter was quickly
disposed Of In a shed at the back of
the house were half dozen wine casks.
most of them empty. Into one of these
the body was thrown, and at daylight
Madame Maschez headed it I'D with her
own hands and ran it full of water.


Several days passed, and the Maschez
house was always so beset with visitors
that no opportunity for the burial of the
body occurred. No one had seen the
peddler enter the house, and his absence
was not noticed.


On September Is, the little girl, while
at the village school of st Pol de Leon,
exhibited very fine silk handkerchief,
one of a number contained in the ped
dlers pack. The handkerchiefattracted
the attention Of the village priest, who
taught the school, and he asked: 81


@Where did you get this fine kerchief,
little one?" a1


Mother has plenty of them" was the
innocent reply. "The strange man with
a bundle who slept al our house one
night, and never went away again, had
them" -- ..l-1 81


The child had unwittingly betrayed
her guilty parent Suspecting some
thing from her remark, the priest at once
dispatched a messenger for the alcalde.
He came accompanied by a muleteer
from Andorre, who, that very morning,
had called at his house to inquire for
the missing peddler, to whom he wished
to deliver goods. Within an hour the
school was dismissed, and a-strong party
of villagers assembled, and, under the
leadership of the priest and alcalde, set
out for the Maschez house.


The farm house was deserted. From
a gully behind it, howeverycame a sound
as of splitting wood, and guided by 1t,
the party pushed on. AS they crossed
the patch of vegetable garden at the
back Of the house they noticed smooth
track on the ground as ifa heavy wine
cask had rolled over it. On reaching the
gully this track -as explained.





At the foo # the steep bank Machez
himself stood, spade in nand, beside a
trench, newly dug. and deep enough to
accommodate the b .Iy of man. Mad
anne Maschez, arnu with a sharp but
rusty hatchet, was beating in the head
of wine cask near by. Her face was
flushed and her manner determined.
Her husband, on the contrary, was pale
as death, and trembling in every limb.


Without word the party made a rush
for the guilty pair. At the crash oftheir
Madame Maschez beat the
head of the cask in, and turned, with
weapon uplifted, to meet them.


In the cask, almost full of water. they
could see the head and shoulders of
man.


With a howl of fury the half savage
rushed at the murderers;
unable to escape, the amazon faced
them, dealing blow after blow with the
formidable weapon in her hand. Half
a dozen of the assailants sustained fear
ful wounds. Then one of them with
frantic rush drove the tines of hay
fork, with which he was armed, clean
through the body of the murderess.
With furious cut of her hatchet, she
severed the stout staff as if it had
been reed, and fell. One of the tines
ofthe fork had pierced her heart.


Machez had disappeared at the COM
mencement of the fight. Search for him,
however, revealed him insensible from
fright in the open grave.


He was taken to Andorre for trialand
the facts of the murder elected. The
entire spoil gained by the poor peddler's
death was little bag containing 2GO
francs, and the contents Of his pack,
worth perhaps twice as much more. For
his involuntary completely in the affair
MascheZ was sentenced to the galleys for
life.