Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1898 — A LITTLE HEROINE. [ARTICLE]

A LITTLE HEROINE.

A Pathetic Story of the Siege of So*ago***. 1 Baron Lejeune, wbo played a conspicuous part at the siege of Saragossa during the Peninsular war, narrates In his “Memolres” a singular story of that terrible time, a story that speaks equally well for the chivalry of the soldiers of France and for the courage of a Spanish girl. - - There had been fearful carnage within, the walls of the unfortunate city; even the convents and monasteries were reeking with evidences of warfare, and the Inhabitants of were In a desperate plight s ' A band of Polish soldiers, belonging to the French army, had been stationed on guard at a certain point with orders to Are upon any Spaniard who might pass them. Suddenly a girl of about fifteen years of age appeared among them. A cry of warning whs heard on * every side as she approached, but the child seemed not to hear. She only 'continued to utter one ceaseless and piercing wall, “Mia madre! mla mad re!” as she hurried from one group of dead and wounded Spaniards to .another.

It soon became evident that she was in search of the body of her mother, and the pale, agonized face of the child, whose filial love bad made her almost insensible 'to danger, touched the soldiers’ hearts with pity. A moment later adesprairing cry announcing that she had found that for which she had risked her life. The Polish guards watched her movements with something like awe as she stooped and tenderly wrapped the mutHated form of the dead woman in a cloak and began to drag It away. Suddenly the girl paused and seized a heavy cart- \ rldge-box that lay In her path, with an energy that seemed almost supernatural. Her frail, delicate form swayed and staggered beneath the weight of her burden, but she did not hesitate. A thrill of mingled horror and admiration filled the astonished watchers as they perceived that there, before their very faces, she was taking from them an instrument for future vengeance upon them. The inhabitants of the besieged city were almost destitute of ammunition, and the motherless daughter sought to put into the hands of her countrymen a means by which her wrongs might be in some degree avenged. But the strain was becoming almost more than she could bear; she stumbled, and a cry of terror broke from her lips. .The Polish soldiers glanced from one to another, and then, moved by a chivalrous Impulse, they lowered sabre and musket, and as with one accord a hundred voices called ont, “Do not be afraid, little one! We will not hurt you.” And the Spanish maiden passed with her gruesome burden between a double line of her country’s foes, who made a silent salute as she crossed their boundaries and returned to her desolate home.