MAG STANLEY.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 2971, 24 June 1898, Page 3

MAG STANLEY.

THE QU&EN -OF THB BUSHRANGERS. While a ohild Marguerite Stanley's life "was' guarded;from temptation by high hedgerows of precaution, . just - as . the . lovely- Bowers in the: parsonage grounds were shielded from the gaze of the vulgar public. '•' Her father waß a clergyman of the Churoh of England, and in bis veins flawed the bluest, blood in the United Kingdom. At sixteen she was bright, beautiful, and vivacious. Her French governess de* olared she knew French like her native tongue, and her teachers ia other branohes were in raptures over her powers of memory and reason. The girl knew much of books and flowers and art.but she was practically ignorant, when she reached womanhood, of the greater swarming outer world. Indeed, she subsequently declared that at tbis time' she believed the world divided into three classes—clergymen, most respectable congregations, aad moßt obsequious and obedient servants. It had been arranged to send Mag Stanley (she waa always called " Mag ") to a famous and fashionable school near London, where the daughters of the aristocratic and wealthy were prepared to bold their own in the ceaseless struggle for sooial pre-eminence and success. The departure from home was to follow the celebration of the beautiful girl's birthday. At home and all through the parish, where tho young lady's father waj deservedly popular, unusual preparations were made for the observance of this great social event. A Mysteriouß Disappearance. A week, to a day, before the time set for the celebration Mag, always prompt at meals aud prayers, did not appear at breakfast. A servant went to her room and came back -tbitefaced and bieatbltss to report that Miss Marguerite was gone, and that her bed had uot been slept ia the night before. Tbe peaceful parsonage was at once in a state of horror and alarm, j Search was made all orer the quaint old building. Possible and impossible places were looked into without revealing a trace, sign, or line of the beautiful girl. Servauts were mounted md sent to all the neighbouring estates. The alarm .-pread, and before night from Lands End to John o'Groats messages were flying. From Plymouth, Salisbury, Exeter, aud Torquay, the latter then in the height of tbe fashionable season, friends, officers, and private detectives DRStened to the parsonage of Craig's Height to j inquire about the girl aad to tender their ser- j vices in finding her. Weeks passed, weeks ol anguish tbat sent the gentle mother to a bed from which she never rose, aud deepened ths furrows ou the parson's cheeks and changed the : grey bair to white. In the meantime not only ; all the United Kingdom, but all Europe, had j beard of the mysterious disappearance of tbe beautiful girl Marguerite, aud every man with a sister, daughter, or sweetheart felt it was his duty to discover the whereabouts of the girl if i she were living. Suicide and murder win hinted at, and ponds were dragged and riveis j searobed in vain. The Secret Out. ! From tlie first the hard-headed detective*) of Scotland Y*rd declared that luve was at thibottuin ot the girl's disappearance, but as she had ever lived at home and all her doings were known to her parents, this suggestion was ignored, if not scoffed at. After three months, and when the clergyman snd his friends had reached the conclusion that the girl was dfad, ue**^s came from "Vienna that a young woman answering Mag's description had been seen in a «ipsy camp, co the plains of Eastern Hungary Tbe telegraph confirmed the first story, and the clergyman and lome friends, provided with letters to the British Minister at tbe Austrian Court, at ouce started for Vieuua. The report waa true, and here a word of explanation is necessary. Tbe popular gipsy uame in Great Britaiu is Stanley, or Wis-Stauley, the names being assumed. It may havo beeu tbe parson's name, but more likely it was the credulity of tbe sorvauts, tbat, unknown to the master and bis wife, brought a. strange crowd of gipsies to the kitchen, where fortunes were told for tininvariable " stiver " considoration. The gipss queen — these people always name one thi queen for business reasons, even if there are bul three in the gang— called herself Stanley. Sbwas an imposing woman ot 40, who from th< Brsfc meeting with the pai son's daughter curtrolled her thoughts and dominated her life. A Gipy's Bride. The Gipsy Queeu had a son of about twenty, aud, like nearly all the young men of thif strange race of wanderers, be was strikingh handsome. How tho mother brought about t> meeting between Mag Stanley and her son ir not kno-rrn, but it is known that tbe girl, full of life, health, beauty, and imagination, and almost ignorant of the other sex, obeyed tl.e irresistible impulse of nature and fell insanely iv love with the young barbarian. The gips*, woman planned the elopement. The you*£ people were married according to tbe Romar-y rules, and while the ponds ot Devonshire were being searched the girl was being whirled t Eastern Hungary, where the gipsies thea wen and aro in considerable Force. On reaching Vienna Mr Stanley fell sick, but his friende kept on to Bud the girl. All were now suretbat she had been kidnapped. Under the Hun gi-rian laws,' which differ in some respects from those of the allied kingdom Austria, a girl is able to contract marriage at the age of seveuteeu without the consent of her uatur-i! guardians. After ten days the clergyman's flies Is returned, and they drew lots to see whicb should tell the father the whole trutb. Aud the truth was that the girl had left boms of ber own vulitioa, was then the wife of a youuu gipsy who called himself Paul Stanley, and that she would never return to Devonshire alive if the law forced her to go. The Rev. George Staaley was taken home by his friends, and within fifteen months was laid beside his wife ia the graveyard of the parish churoh. f alliag Lower The Austrian authoiities after this kept a close watoh on the English girl and her associates. When Mag was 19 and growing heart weary of her life, her husband and mother-in-law were arrested as conspirators witb a Hungarian count for poisoning bis father, aad all were convicted and paid the penalty with their lives. Mag was ordered to leave the empire at ohco. In the meantime she had formed intimate relations with a Jew, and she confessed herself that she lived witb him as his wife before the law gave her the right to de so. This man, Hertzberg, claimed/ to bs a native of Germany. He knew mauy languages, after a fashion, and he said he bad large interests in Loudon. He prevailed oo his wife to goto England with him. A worse man than this Erdman Hertzberg never lived. Up to tho time of ber meeting him, Mag Stanley was a. deluded woman, but at heart a pure and a noble one. But Hertzberg, seeing profit in her wondrous grace and fascinating beauty, made up his mind to profit' by it, He started a club, a gambling rendezvous-, ou Piccadilly, and within easy reach of the great clubs. Tbe place was sumptuously fitted up, but its great attraction was the gipsy queen," as he caused Mag to be called. Hertzberg prospered greatly, but there comes, sooner or later, an end to all such prosperity. Ono night there was a row, not over the cards or wiae, but after both had beeu indulged in. Hertzberg caught a young officer of the Guards kissing bis wife in the hall. If the Jew had not been drinking theie would have been no trouble, for Mug, like the cards and wive, was an attraction. Penal Servitude. A fight followed. Captain Griffith was stabbed

to the heart. Hertzberg and his wife, the latter afterwards ipdiated as *•"***■ Mre.-Erdman Hertzberg, alias the Gipsy Queeh^ --werCi arrested. Herteberg was tried, convicted, and hanged. 'His wife was sentenced to penal servitude for life. -■■-: -.:.--. -..■■■■ J,-;., ■■' , This was in 1848, when Marguerite was 21 years of age. England's great penal colonies at that time were New South Wales, in Australia, and . Van Dieman's Land, now known as Tasmania, to tbe south of the island continent. To the latter colony Marguerite Stanley was sent on one of those floating hells, an English convict ship. Of the 509 passengers, or rather convicts, on that sailing ship 97 weie women. Many of both sexes were sentenced for trivial off ehces, like poaching or pocket picking, but in the maiu tbey were a bad lot, and the law bas made them in most cases what they were. The officer in obarge of the oouviets fell iv love, after hia fashion, with Mag, and for the sake of the advantage such an alliance offered she been me his mistress. This mau became infatuated with her, and after they reached Launceston, in Van Dieman's Land, a daughter was born, which fortunately died very soon. " Queen of the Bushangers." This overseer whose name was Tre Senick, was transferred to Sydney, and he had sufficient influence to have Mag brought with him. On board the ship bouud for Botany Bay was a young English convict, of whom Mag became enamoured. He was then known by tho number •' 13 " but afterwards became distinguished as Gaptain Starlight. The youug man and Mag escaped, and were joined by a lot of daring convicts, afterwards known as tbe Kelly Bushrangere. Of these Mai* became the queen and leader. She set the seven colonies on fire, and her followers for two years ruled the land and forced England to send two brigades to Australia. At length tbe Kelly s were captured, and Starlight was killed in a Ktandup struggle, claimiug that he was fighting to make the Australian colonies free, like America. After the Bushrangers were broken up their '• queen " disappeared and no trace of her was ever fouod. But oan a greater change be imagined than tbat from tho Devonshire Parsonage to the camp of tbe escaped convict outlaws in New South Wales ?