WOMEN WARRIORS

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22941, 10 February 1940, Page 17

WOMEN WARRIORS

/specially -written pos the press.) [By JOHN CHILSTON.]

wooden wedges between her. toes, the lead, pitch, and water were about to boil, when pardon came. Back in Spain she was rewarded by the king. . ia . K . She died mysteriously about 1645, little but swash-buckling seems to have filled her life, and there are no portraits. But contemporary accounts say that she looked- completely a man, and that only her hands betrayed that she was a ! woman. Another swash-buckler was the famous Mademoiselle Maupin, the operatic star, born 1670. It seems she had no right to either title. Her real name was d’Aubigny, and Maupin was the unfortunate who married her. , , She had a taste for duelling, and she liked to parade in ■ men s clothing, bedizened, and wearing a bright blue sash. One night she was in a tavern when a young nobleman, guessing her secret, said: “Come now, my bonny bird, I ve heard you a’chirping, but what is your plumage like?” . Mademoiselle says she answered by running him through. >.the body. Then there' was the . “Breton Double,” decorated on the Field of Mars with the Legion of Honour' by Napoleon. Madame Ppncet (nee Ducaud Laborde) was a “volunteer,” masquerading as a man, fighting with her husband for eight years, until (in her own words) “the femperor might be good enough to allow her to enlist.” . At Eylau she dashed forward, sword in hand, and slew the enemy captain, rescued - a company of French soldiers, and rode back wearing the slain captain’s sash. At Friedland, she was wounded in the right thigh, but fought on; then she was struck in the right shoulder by a bullet. Picking up her sword in her left hand, she captured six Prussian officers. Napoleon gave her the Legion of. Honour, and made her quartermaster.

ONE of the biggest scallywags of all women warriors in history was Catalina de Eranso, nun and .adventuress. In 1607 Catalina was. 15 years old, and her father entered her in a convent at gan Sebastian. But this was not for Catalina; she fled in man’s clothing, and left a farewell note. Before long she fell in with a gaiyj of brigands. Within a. month GiSlina was the toughest- cut- r t.jj'jkt in the band. felting 1608 she was serving as atvrge in the palace of the Secretary of State. . Soon Catalina took to the roads again. Then for a time she was a pifate, and her ship was driven ashore in Peru. . _ Mere adventures followed. She picked a sword fight with two men, and in her own words, “slashed onq across the visage,” and “gave the other a terrible thrust in the side so that he fell.” She was thrown into numerous gaols, and was even , compelled to go through a marriage ceremony with a beautiful young , girl. Unaware of Catalina’s real -sex, a good priest thought this ■ would .reform “him.” Catalina fled ■ again. .Her biggest triumph came when she enlisted in a company in Chile. *t was captained by her own : brother, Miguel de Eranso. The two b *c4me firm friends, but Catalina able not to betray her secret. Miguel often talked of his little Catalina. - Catalina fought the Indians, arid •o* 1 her bravery was made ensign. She fought numerous duels, and killed most of her oppbnents. Then *®e day she received an anonymous challenge to meet a man in a lonely E Pot that night. Catalina wertt, and s he and her challenger without fell to. A few passes and be fell, Catalina discovered she be® slain her brother! i~ adventures followed. Twice she was sentenced to death. Once ! garotte was about her neck, the