A TERRIBLE ORDEAL.

North Otago Times, 22 May 1909, Page 3 (Supplement)

A TERRIBLE ORDEAL.

An officer in the French army, dta--ing the reign of Napoleon, having incurred the suspicion or resentment of the Emperor, thought it expedient lo abandon his country and take refugv. in one of the Austrian provinces/and litre ho became advised of and initiated into a society, the object of whose formation was lo hurl to the around the Colossus whose ami smote- nmi governed the "hole continent of Europe with a sceptre of iron. One day a letter was brought to him containing the usual signs.uml passwords of the society, and requiring him to repair, on the following night, to a secluded spot in a forest, where he would meet some of his associates.

He went, but lie found nobody. The orders were repeated four times. The officer sought the appointed place with no better success than the first. On the fifth night of his appearance at the rendezvous, after waiting tome time, he was on the point of leturning, when loud cries suddenly arrested his attention.

Drawing his sword, he hastened lo the spot whence they seemed to proceed, and was fired upon by three men, who, on seeing that lie remained unwounded, instantly took to (light; but at his feet lay a bleeding corpse, in which, by the feeble light of the moon, he in vain soiißht for tokens of returning animation. He was yet bending over the dead man, when'a detachment of chasseurs, summoned apparently by the noise, of the pistol that had been discharged at himself came up suddenly and arrested him as the assassin.

He was loaded with chains, tried the next day, and condemned to die for his supposed crime. 'His execution was ordered to take place at midnight. Surrounded by the ministers of justice, lie was led at ut slow pace, by the light of torches, and the funeral tolling of bells, to a vast square, in the centre of which wns a scaffold environed by horsemen. Beyond these -were a numerous group of spectators who muttered impatiently, and at intervals sent forth a cry of abhorrence. The victim mounted the scaffold, and his sentence was read, nnd the first act of the tragedy was on the point of fulfilment, when an officer let fall a word of hope. An edict had just been promulgated by the government offering a pardon and life to any condemned criminal who should disclose the members and secret tokens of a particular association, the existence of which the Frenchman to whom these words were addressed had lately become nwarc"oi', and of which he had become a member. He was questioned, but he denied all Inowledgc. They urged him to confess, with promises of additional reward. His only reply was a demand for immediate death—and his I initiation was completed. I All that bad passed was a terrible ' trial of fidelity. Those who sur--1 vorawteft hnw w«c members -of the society, and every incident that has been described, from the summons to the last moment of expected death, was only a step in the progress. 0! the fearful ordeal by which the society ' sought so determine the trustworthiness of tht neophyte.