HEROISM OF A FRENCH PRIEST.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 309, 21 March 1879, Page 11

HEROISM OF A FRENCH PRIEST.

1 * « c Mirov ' cure of Cuchery, near Rheinis,had just learned that 111s lather and mother had perished in the conflagration of a neighbouring hamlet, burned by the Prussians. A few days afterwards some inhabitants of the village begged their cure to allow several iowjjng pieces to be concealed in the garret of the presbytery. Overwhelmed by grief, or perhaps willing to aid them, the Abbe Mixoy let them do as they wished. The next day the cure was arrested by the 1 russians, earned to Eheims, thrown into a dungeon, judged by a couni9«/ EEfr ai l d P ondemned to d eath. On Sunday morning, February i^m, mi, at six o clock, while the day was scarcely dawning, and sharp cold and silence reigned in the city of Rheims, the measured steps of many men resounded in one part of the principal streets leading to the principal gate, and through half-opened windows the inhabitants of the city could see the gleam of bayonets. " Twelve 1 russian soldiers, armed, and wrapped in their cloaks, were marching m two lines ; between them walked silently a French Catholic priest, dressed in his cassock, his head covered with a black velvet skull cap, bowed slightly on his breast, his hands bound behind his back, so that he could not touch the Rosary which hung round his neck. Ihe end of the cord was held by a corporal. The Abbe Miroy was going to the gate to be shot. Since his arrest he had been kept in a damp prison, and given *>nly black bread and water ; but in spite of bodily weakness his soul remained steadfast. The day before he had refused to sign a petition for pardon, saying :« I desire only to join my tather and mother in a better world." The city clock struck six. A shot was heard— and the body of the Abbe Miroy rolled bleeding on the ground. He died with the resignation, of a martyr and the courage of a soldier. This crime was committed during the armistice, four days after the general elections. Pious hands gave Christian mmal to the martyr ; his grave was covered with immortelles, and on a monumental cross these words are inscribed—" Here rests the Abbe <. narles Miroy. who died the victim of his patriotism."