Extraordinary Escapes from Death.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 131, 14 May 1872, Page 7

Extraordinary Escapes from Death.

A porkbutcher 1 s man, named Breche, justtried before one of the French court-martials for participation in the insurrection, related in his defence an extraordinary series of escapes from hanging, drowning, and shooting. He was taken by force from the shop in which he was employed during the Commune, and enrolled in a battalion of the National Guards serving at Neuilly. As he had formerly been in the army, the insurgents offered to make him captain, but he declin a\ the honour, and so incurred the ill-will of his comrades. A few days afterwards he attempted to escape, but was I'ecaptured, and a drum-head court-martial condemned him to death. Instead, however, of shooting him, the insurgents resolved to hang him, and a rope having been put round liis neck, he was suspended to the bars of a first-storey window. When his executioners saw that he had ceased to move, they left him. But bo had supported himself by his fingers on so iu; projection of the wall, and at his ems so.ire other National Guards came up. v.t him down, and took him to their batfcab i, which was encamped farther on. He ren .-..nod with them two days, and then made another attempt to getaway, but was pursued, and in order to escape threw himself into the river. After a severe struggle, he succeeded in reaching the other side, but was received by the Versailles troops with a shower of bullets, one of which wounded him in the leg. He told his story to the officer, who refused to believe him, and sent him before another court-martial, which ordered him to be shot with some other Federates. These men were placed against a wall, and the tiring party discharged a volley at them. Breche was not mortally wounded, although struck in two places, and having been found and taken in by an inhabitant of Puteaux, soon recovered ; but on his attempting to re-enter Paris was arrested as an insurgent, and sent to Versailles, where he was brought up for trial. His story, as told by him, proved to be true on every point, and the court, of course, acquitted him.