WOMEN IN WARFARE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 205, 16 December 1876, Page 2

WOMEN IN WARFARE.

Within the push cent ivy the historic an nals of Europe have chronicled many re markable instances in which women have taken active part in the battlefield. Buiwer says that the French armies liav« never been engaged in the neighborhood of Paris without seeing many of those females whom one sets in tiio saloons of Paris, slain on the fi Id of. battle—to which they had been led, not so much bj - | their violent passion for a lover, as a desire for adventure, which they are willing to gratify even in warfare. Dumonrier had at one time for his aides-de-camp two delicate and accomplished women, who delighted in the bloody scenes of war. '' Often, in the most desperate crisis of the battle," said the general, "I have heard their slender but animated voices reproaching flight, and urging to tho charge ; and you might have seen their waving plumes and Roman garb amid the thickest of the fire." After th_ battle of Waterloo there were ound among the dead several Parisian girls, who had gone forth with their lovers, and actually fought in their company, Nor was this an ungammon event. " One morning," says Mrs. Scott, " when passing the Palais Royal, at Paris, X saw one of these women dressed in military costinge, with boots, spurs, and sabre. No Frenchman seemed to consider the sight a strange one." The spirit of Joan of Arc seems to have animated the bosoms of the French women more than in any other country. " One day," says Marshal Masaena, "being at Brezenghen, I perceived a young soldier-, belonging to the light artillery, whose horse had just been wounded by a lance. The young nian, "who appeared quite a child, defended himself desperately, as several dead bodies of the enemy could testify! I immediately despatched an officer with some men to his assistance, but they were too late. Although this action had taken place on the borders of a wood, and in front of a bridge., this artilleryman alone had withstood the attack of the small troops of Cossacks and Bavarians, whom the officer and men I had despatched put to flight. His body was covered with wounds, iiu flicted by shots, lances, and swords. There! were at least thirty. It was discovered, that this brave warrior was a handsome young womau, who had followed her lover to the army. He was a captain of artillery, and was killed, his fair heroine accompanying him in all his engagements in the rie.d. Her name was Louise Belletz, a native of Paris, and the daughter of a fringe-maker in t;je Rue du Petit Li«p." Among the most remarkable of .' J French female soldiers was who died at Paris in 1861, at the age of

_ - _ - j' eighty-four. In 1733 she enlisted in tho 1 Legion Alt< ihr< >gte one, employed at th» : siege of TottUm, anil there drrrttngnbhed : lusrself for bravery, llor exc-Wtve free- : dORI of ftpvech gave her thtr jo m-fitrt of •. fs i: nlat d fc ; iafc £•'»•: Fir*: ' Consul rvtU'"i;l'Vi' >i well an attack made upon hirik with her tongne when fi-s was ! colonel of artillery. Aft r t->e of , Toulon, Tuerese entered the Kicoeath j&ragoons, ami took part in the camp iign in CataTogne. At that tune appeared the dacreo of the Committee of Public Safety banishing women from the armies of t u Republic ; bnt tins FetnaL* dragoon had distinguished heruc If by so many daring exploits that an exception was made in her favor. Sue- was in the Isalian tasitpuign, anil in after five ye irs'a^r-, vico, received a pension of two hun tved ■ francs, wit'* which she rotir.-d to Jlontelimar. lint the monotonous life of a country village soon became too irksome for tier, and Btin entered the Ninth t>r agoons. At that time the Ihu press [ Josephine expressed a desire to see her, anil Therese rod* out to St. Cloud in nnitorm. J*apoteoa at once r» cognised Sansgorr l , who had a<> apostrophised him at Toulon. Tue Empress offered En r a place at St. Cloud ; but The res* so.m tired of it, anil longed to resnme her adventurous life. She went through the campaigns of t8()>, 18.XJ,, an I lylO. in Spain, where she was captured by guerrillas. Shu was 9 *nt to Lisbon, and tuettca mailt) her way fowls to France by wr»y #>f England. Sie arrived in 1311, an.l entered the Sorvicu immediately. It was not until after VV'aterlo* that she decided to rettrt*. In the course of her exploits she had fo.se n once wounded by tin-arms, and four times win!i the sabre ; she had live horses killed under her ; and, single-handed, she « attacked a patrol of cavalry which had captured General liogm-y. and released her commander. After Waterloo, who had married a M. Sutter, entered the hospital of Enghien. where she lived on her modest pension nntil it was largely augmented by SSapoleori 111. In 1873, there diet! at lasay. near Parts, another r. markabta- female sohlter. in the person of Vhr.rinie Ches<puer.:s. Ste had aluioss attain jd her hundredth year, and behaved witli remarkable htruia.w tlurinj the war of the First Umpire, at whicU period she fought a» a soldier in the Twenr.y-sjvcnr.h lle,'imeivc. She went the Peninsular campaign, and gained the rank of sergeant, for gad.vntry anili good cotiduet ; and on one occtston she carried o.t' the tlead body of htr colonel, ti.i !er tire. Wuito t'-yi'' i 6"-» lift tip the corpse ot' her eouimand.T, two of tUe enemy approached, upon w.oc i a i» _ made signs, pretending to bo w.»uud..d. . Tney hurried forward to secure their prisoner ; but when they were n.'ar. t'.ve s.rgeanc. slioil otu oi' them, d h:s horse, tliing the dead body over the sa ldLbrow. and rode back to t.ie .French lines. The ot ler tied o.t seeing his eotura le fad. Xae Sergeant, however* had been wounded, and blood was il >wing from the breus*. "Tills tod to the d'scovtry when the snr,o« examined the s.ndier v.-ottuds. T.tere are i:-any ins"ames of hero'c bravery irt tle I»t o-f uiiUtary women oc Fr;;.uee. but wo shall add only that ot D\> Sj w .o, for forty-o'e years h s ttet'Ct a on eigh". liuuvir'd francs ay> »r, and no: U'titil recently was uer s., X kuo-vii. Compelled to enter 'he Uospital iieek-. r, the fact was discovered, and she related her history. She was fourteen years ut.l when her father, Cotouet Von Segkeisett, died, and her grandfather, who eoiuuiaudtd a ' Bavarian corps hi the Fretiu.t service, from some inexphcabte caprice, compelled her to enter oue of tlie regiments of his his divis on. She served in Uutni-Wand : in Spaiti, and at Waterloo received tww severe wounds. In li&S she became a nasuratiJed FrencliMta/n, and obtained a retiring pension. S\it> h«s congratulatory letU'V.a'troui Marsha's i>.r:...tjr, Angur&att, and Suciiet, and from treiieial i>.:ptuiC, testifying to lur bravery and tjowd aerviee.