M. DEGUERRY, OF THE MADELEINE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2323, 8 September 1898, Page 56

M. DEGUERRY, OF THE MADELEINE.

A figure rises before me as I look back on those long-past days, a figure Avhich was familiar to all who were much in Paris during the Second Empire — that of M. Deguerry, the cure of the Madeleine, a man whose saintly life- and whose tragic death have won for him a place apart in the history of our time. Tall, erect, his head firmly set on massive shoulders, and crowned with an abundance of brown curly hair, which was long, very long, ere it turned grey, with a quick, firm step, abrupt speech, and decided manner, he was the vei'v tvrje of

the church militant. I first kneAV him as ] cure of St. Eustache, a handsome late Gothic church sadly disfigured by Renaissance im- ' provements, in a squalid district near the Halles. No one would ha\ r e frequented it had not M. Deguerry been a musical enthusiast, and under his direction the services Avere the finest in Paris. After he was ap- ; pointed to the Madeleine the A r espers there Avere the musical event of the Aveek. ... I All through th dark days of the German ' War, the siege, and the Commune, M. Deguerry remained at his post, doing his Avork ' bravely in- danger and ri;*Hculty. When the troops from Versailles lutd surrounded Paris, the leaders of the Coinimmc fceizeel him and other Avell-knoAvn priests, together with the Archbishop and the President Bon jean, and held them as hostages for the GoA r ernment ' outside the Avails. They Avere imprisoned for three Aveeks at Mazas. On May 22, Avhe;i the Commune, at its last gasp, set fire to the Hotel de Ville, and fell back upon its stronghold in the Faubourg St. Antoine, • the prisoners Avere remoA'ed to the Roquette, ' at the foot of the hill of Pere la Chase. They ' Avere taken through the streets in an open j cart, insulted and threatened by the in- j furiated populace, and finally locked up in I separate cells in the corridor set apart for ! criminals condemned to death. On the ' evening of the 24th the troops from Versailles had made good their entrance into ' the town, and an order AA r as sent for the. instant execution of the Archbishop, tlie President, and four others, the choice of the ' victims being left to the self-constituted ! gaolers of the prison. They filled in the- 1 four names that first occurred to them, M. ■ Deguerry being among them. The cells Avere unlocked, and the captives marched betAveen two files of armed ruffians to the small gar- ; den of the gaol. Here they knelt in silent ' prayer, Avhile their captors quarrelled about the best place for their execution. They J finally decided on another spot, opened a n?rroAv door, and ordered their victims 1o '■ descend a short flight of steps into a narrow > road betAveen the tAvo high walls Avhich sur- ' round the prison. The Archbishop passed out first, and, turning when he reached the foot of the staiis, raised his right hand and gave his companions the last absolution for the dying. They were placed in a roAv Avith ' their backs to the cater Avail, and the un- I skilled marksmen fired seA r eral volleys ere ' all Aras over. The bodies Avere stripped of anything that seemed of any Avorth, Avere ' throAvn upon a handcart, and taken up the ; hill to be huddled into one common graA T e in the cemetery. And all the while the sky j was lurid Avith smoke and flame, the boom- j ing of the cannon never ceased, and the sharp fire of musketry came nearer and ' nearer to the heart of the doomed city. — Ex- j tract from " Fifty Years Ago," in Temple '; Bar for July. . \