SHOOTING A SPY AT VERSAILLES.

Grey River Argus, Volume X, Issue 839, 5 April 1871, Page 2

SHOOTING A SPY AT VERSAILLES.

The dulness of life at Versailles was somewhat varied by the capture of a man and woman as spies, who were brought into Versailles almost in triumph. Some Jagers were out patrolling the banks of the Seine, in front of Bellevue, when they espied a happy pair leisurely walk-^ ing along. They were stopped by the corporal of the patrol, who demanded to see the man's papers. He immediately, with the utmost politeness, drew out his pocket-book, and produced a passport, stating he was a native of Tours. He was asked what he was doing there, and he replied that he had come out with niadame, who was his wife, to witness the bombardment, and he had no idea that: he was so close to the outposts. On being requested to follow the. corporal's guard to the officer in command of that outpost service, lie obeyed with the greatest seeming alacrity, giving his arm to the lady, and chattiug with one of the men who spoke French. Hardly, however, had the. party gone more than 200 yards, when the man remembered suddenly that he had lost his knife, a present made him by a brother then de«> ' and gone, and which, he said, he hot lose for all the world.. He /ou "id his pockets in vain ; no kv ;r searched find; and, moved by his M could he the corporal permitted . ppare nt trouble the spot where ' him to return to Sit V knife he declared he oomp^ dropped, when pulling arr papers. The man was ac.uied by only one sentry, and, on xving at the place where he had produced his papers he began to hunt about for his knife, turning up the snow with, his feet and gazing closely -at the ground; So zealous seemed his efforts to discover the missing article that his keen Prussian guard»watched him closely, and saw him pull a small bottle out of his breast-pocket, drop it out on the ground, cover it with, the snow he had brushed up into a heap, shrug his shoulders, saying hi 3 knife was irretrievably lost, and demanding to be led back to raadame. The sentry made no remark about the manoeuvres he had just witnessed, but reconducted the Frenchman to the corporal, who inquired if the knife had been found, when the sentry remarked that he did not think the gentleman had tried to find anything, but on the contrary, had seemed most anxious to lose a small bottle. The Frenchman's countenance had betrayed his guilt, and the whole party returned to find the bottle, which was an easy task. The bottle was filled with papers closely ■written in cipher, and, I am told, was to have been cast into the Seine, and it •would have floated down the stream and Into the nets which have been extended across the river to catch these bottles, which form a safe means of communication for valuable information. The: many who was neither more nor less than a spy, seemed to take the matter very coolly, but declared to the men present that the lady knew' nothing about the matter. Both of thetn were conveyed under v< ry strong escort to Versailles, arid handed over to the tender mercies of a courtmartial. Two people were examined separately. The woman seemed'toknow nothing, save .that the maa, hex lover, was incapable of any mean or.dishonorable action. The man, on the othe.rhand, made a full confession, but would ri-ot disclose the name of the person who • had given him the bottle. It appears tha t the man is well off, but a most rabid pat Hot, and, knowing his weakness, some one .had given him the bottle to throw into ihe river. He declared that the woman. wYW not his wife, and was totally ignorant oS the nature of his promenade, and begged earnestly that she might be allowed to' go free. Sentence of death was passed upon the man, but he was offered commutation of the sentence if he would furnish the key of the cipher in which the correspondence was written ; but this he eithe* could not or would not do. He begged, however, that he might see his mistress before his death, and that she might be kept ignorant of his fate, as he would tell her that his sentence was merely imprisonment, during the war in a German for- ; tress. This request was granted, and a last and painful interview tookplace; the woman cheering the'man up, as she said after the war they would meet again. The man, I hear, was shot this morning, and died with a firmness worthy of a better cause. ■ The woman, was set at liberty a few hours after the execution.