A FRENCH HEROINE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16561, 9 June 1917, Page 2 (Supplement)

A FRENCH HEROINE.

HELD UP THE GERMAN ARMY

TWICE CAPTURED.

The most signal honour France can bestow has been conferred upon little .Marcolle Seramer for her heroism in the war. Long ago, as far back as the retreat to the Marne, she won the Cross of the Legion of Honour, and since that time her gallantry had been such that she has been acclaimed in the great hall of the Sorbonne at Paris. It is here that Franco

gave honours to the great mon of the world, poets, philosophers, and scientists in time of peace, and, as we read the account of Mile, Semmer's deeds, it must be agreed that she was worthy of the honour. ' Tho outbreak of the war found her an orphan girl in the little village of Eclusier, near Frise, on the Somme. There she was a book-keeper and superintendent of a phosphate factory founded by her father, an Alsatian, who had fled from Alsace in 1871, not wishing to bocomo ft German subject. After the defeat of the allies at Charleroi, the French tried to make a stand along the Sommo, but being outnumbered by the huge forces of the invaders, they fell back across a canal in tho vicinity of Marcelle Semmer's home, with the enemy in hot pursuit. When tho retreating Frenchmen had got across the canal the young girl had the presence of ftiind to raise the drawbridge over the canal. Then, fearing that Cerra.tn advance guards, now close behind, might swim across the canal and seizo from her the key, without which tho drawbiidgo could not be lowered again, fhe threw it into the canal. She was in the nick of time. Already German soldiers on tho other bank were firing across at her and the fleeing Frenchmen. By this audacious act Marcelle Semmer held up the advance of an entire German army corps until the following morning. Not until then were they able to collect some boats, make a pontoon bridge, and negotiate the passage of the canal, thus giving away golden hours to the hardpressed French, troops.

■ Caught by the Germans. In spite of all the risks, the young girl insisted on remaining in her village dur- ■ ing the German occupation. In a subterranean passage used in the working of a phosphate mine near Eclusier, the bravo farcelle managed to, conceal no less than sixteen French soldiers who had strayed from their commands in the precipitate retreat from Charleroi and Moris. She not only kept these men hidden, but fed them, provided them with civilian garments, and, when a propitious moment arrived, .aided them to escape into tho French lines. '„■'•■ ... .', -While she was helping a . seventeenth she was 1 caught by a detachment of Germans, wJk> dragged her and tho French soldier before the local commander. When asked whether she had indeed meant to help the soldier to escape, she cried out: "Yes! And he is not the first. I helped' sixteen ■ others, and I got them where yon cannot catch them. Do what you will with me now. lam an orphan, „ and have but one mother—France! I am ' not afraid to die." ;.* .. She was sentenced to be shot. They [ took her, from the court-room and placed her before the firing squad, but while the girl, had : been r helping seventeen soldiers ;. to escape the Battle of the Marne had been fought and .won, : and the French were now rapidly advancing', v At the ■ moment when her ' death seemed ■■ 0n1y. 5 a moment away the French artillery opened | fire lon ', the town, .- arid the G.ernian t posi- ■=■ tions i around Eclusier. ' The , cannonade v . was so sudden .that the firing squad was i disbanded, and in tho confusion Marcelle ■j, was = able to j escape to ■• her : subterranean ";, : gallery. V. j"' --s . _ : '-..:■• Shortly after the French ,-reoccupied Eclusier. "■/,..- '■■ ; :"' 1 •;* *'•'..;■ •* :^ Between the lines of the opposing armies lay the Somme, which in the vicinity of X Eclusier and Frise spreads out into a sort of big pond with marshy banks. When the water-rose-it often flooded the lines so that soldiers frequently lost their, way, | and here it was that Marcelle again found ?ai means; of j aiding - France. ; ' Being thoroughly acquainted with f\ the neighbour- , hood, she used to pilot parties of soldiers. -This brought her again close to death. While leading a squad of men who wanted Ito dig -"an. ■ advanced trench 'in the village of Frise she fell into the hands of a'party of Germans. '" -4 ' ,;' ' , £& They > locked her up in the little village church of Frise, reduced last summer to * a heap of ruins during J the \ Battle of. the . Somme. On the morrow, she felt sure, they would shoot her. >. ■";•■" -;:.?'/" \ * " Another Escape. I .„, But once more luck and the ( French 4artillery .were her salvation. 7 The (French lacross the Somme began a livelv 'bom■s bardment . of Frise. ,•' One » shell "blew a : rlarge hole lin t the church ' wall. >■■ Through "/this hole, unperceived by. her : captors, \ Marcelle crawled. % Creeping past the Ger- . maris'scattered through, Frise, she soon :•■•' tumbled, safe and sound, into the nearest French trench;*'^ i>\.-_ ;>. ''<-.• ' ".-' !>;!"By this time her fame had spread, and rewards began to shower upon her. She I s got * the Cross :of (ho Legion of Honour, -**'and some time later the'; War, Cross. In spite of all she had gone through, she persisted •in staying in the Somme country, '■£ and ' continued .to , work i for the cause of •France. For.fifteen months she' remained, despite shot arid shell; in her little Somme > village, taking '; care of wounded soldiers. '/-. Everywhere soldiers knew and admired s her. On 6 English general ordered his soldiers to salute when she passed,' and re- ; frain from addressing her unless she spoke first. v;. ■■••'':* -■■ '<'"', • % :At last, however, the , strain , of bombardment and work, aided by her grief ■ at the death of her soldier-brother and

V' '., I brother-in-law, ■ proved too much for her. strength, and she,.was persuaded to go to Vili'- Paris. £ Yet she had 'no • intention of ;stop; 4 ping her efforts. 'She petitioned tho au- '-: .'. thorities to;, allow her to enter > a nurses' > 'school; in order that she might continue to '' >■ aid the wounded. ; She added that' it was •y&necessary for her to work,;as everything ''->'■;{ she possessed had ; been 'lost in the war. .X, Her request '.was granted., • . .