SILHOUETTES OF STRANGE WOMEN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17029, 1 May 1923, Page 6

SILHOUETTES OF STRANGE WOMEN.

“ THEROIGNE DE MERICOURT.” is The “ Star ” has made arrangement* for the publication of a series of articles entitled “ Silhouettes of Strange Women.” The articles give authentic and entertaining aocount.s of the careers of oertain women who earned more than temporary or local celebrity. (Written for the “Star” by V. METHLEY). On August 13, in the year 1762, there was bom a.t the village of Marcourt, in Luxembourg, a little girl, with a red glint like flame in her brown hair and brown eyes. There was something of the same flame in her nature too—something of fire in her outburst of fury, from her very babyhood, revealing what would in time burn her up body and mind. Anne Josephe Theroigne, or Terwagne, had for father one Peter Theroigne, a prosperous farmer on the bunks of the Ourtbe. He was well-to-do. able to send his motherless little girl t-o be eduoated at the expensive Convent of Robermont, where she learnt far more than was thought necessary for the average farmer’s daughter of those days. Ayne Josephe grew up exceedingly handsome, exceedingly quick-witted, exceedingly passionate, with a fiery eloquence of speech when her temper or her sympathies were aroused. Such a nature could not possibly be long content in a. quiet, country village like Marcourt. It is certain that in any case she would have broken loose, but matters were precipitated when 6he came home from her convent and found that her father had. taken, to himself a second wife. After a stupendous quarrel with her stepmother, Anne Josephe ran away, climbing down from her window at night. Anne Josephe Theroigne de Me-ricourt (as she presently called herself), came to Paris, the masrnet of all young France in those days, the gay, thoughtless Paris of 1780, with only dull occasional rumblings to tell of the coming storm. Theroigne always displayed herseif beautifully dressed and wearing valuable jewels. She was witty and amusing, as well as handsome, and the touch of Luxembourg dialect, which remained in her speech always, was rather piquant than otherwise. Her voice was fine, and hod been well trained at the convent in hymns and offices; she sang often at concerts in England and Switzerland. She was in (Geneva in 1788 but she hastened hack to Paris when the Revolution broke out, for she was intensely advanced in her politics, an ardent Socialist, and had many friends amongst those new men who were re-making France—Dan ton, Desmoulins, Mirabeau and the rest. We find her in 1790 holding a sort of political salon, where the most advanced politicians talked and argued. They listened, with some measure of deference, to the rather wild outbursts of their beautiful hostess. Theroigne, like most women, was inclined to go even further than the men. In February, 1790, we find her mentioned in the newspaper of Camille Desmoulins, the famous Revolutionary journalists. He tells us how. at one of the sittings of the Jacobin Club in this month, a “beautiful young lady” begged to be admitted to the hall. The Belle Liegoise *’ then appeared and proposed that a Temple of the National Assembly should be erected in the site of- the Bastille. The idea was very favourably received, and the impressionable Camille writes enthusiastically of the beauty of Mademoiselle Theroigne. “ It is the Queen of Sheba,” he cries, “come to visit the Solomon of the Districts.” Later in this same year of 1790 Theroigne went to pay a visit to her native village,— where one can fancy that she caused amazement and some scandal. From Marcourt, she went on to Liege, and she was here seized by order of tho Austrian Government, and carried by force first into Tyrol and then to Vienna, where she was imprisoned for some months, on the charge of plotting, against the life of the Queen of France, Marie Antoinette. Very likely it was true. Theroigne was always full of a most bitter hostility towards the unfortunate Queen, a feeling which was both fierce and personal. But, in any case, her accusers could apparently prove nothing definite against her. She managed to obtain an interview with the Emperor Leopold, brother of Marie Antoinette, and one can only imagine that she ex erted all the charm and persuasiveness or which she was undoubtedly capable —for the ended in her im mediate release! She returned to France, in a perfect fury of rage and humiliation ab her arrest, and from this time she appeared. to have lost her head. She began to appeal directly to the mob —to urge them on to excesses, to harangue the people in public places. Dressed in a riding-habit, with high boots, a plumed hat, and a sword and pistol in her tri ooloured sash, she soon became a prominent figure in Parjs, a veritable Bury of the Revolution, using all the power oV her beauty and eloquence on the side of anarchy a.nd murder. After the luckless attempt of the Royal Family to escape in dune, 1791. Theroigne’s fury against the King and Queen increased, and she was amongst the- foremost to cry out, in plain terms, for a Republic. Dressed in that picturesque, mannish gear of hers, she commanded, in person, the Third Corps of the Army of the Fauxbourgs on June 21, 1792. when the mob invaded the Tuileries and humiliated the Royal Family. But her great opportunity, her great chance for revenge on the hated aristocrats, came on August 10, 1792, on that torrid summer day when the kingdom of France went down in ruins. All through the night, before the great attack on the Tuileries, Theroigne was abroad, going to and fro and. haranguing Die mob. In the early morning hours she found herself in tho Place Vendome. and there caught sight \ of a young Royalist writer, one Suleau, the editor of a paper known as the “ Actes des Aootres.” Suleau was a -fearless man, much liked- even by such ultra-advanced writers as Camille Desmoulins —but he had incurred the hatred of Theroigne by an ill-advised statement in his paper. With eyes blazing, cheeks crimson, and chestnut hair loose, she flung herself through the crowd, a beautiful fury, pointing out Suleau, calling on the mob to.kill him. The young man defended himself bravely, but he was borne down, and is said that Theroigne herself cut off ,liis head with a sabre. That terrible day of August 10 marked the height of Theroigne’* popularity ; after that it declined. The people began to look askance at her —to whisper vaguely of plots and

bribes, in the fashion of the day. At last, one morning in May, 1793, th ■ market women seized. stripped and flogged her in the Tuileries gardens. Her fury at the indignity literally maddened Theroigne. A few months later she was a dangerous lunatic, confined at first in a private asylum, and later in the Salpetriere. She never recovered. Until 1817 she lived on. in one asylum after another, hopelessly insane, treated as a show by curious visitors, who came to peer ar this haggard, unkempt creature, who had once been the beautiful, eloquon* Theroigne de Mericourt. And in 1817 she died at last-w—burnt out. Next Tuesday will be published th story of Madame Roland, the lead-’ "f the Gerotidins in the French Revolution-