HORRIBLE MASSACRE OF PRINCE LYCHNOWSKI AND GENERAL AUERSWALDT.

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 287, 28 February 1849, Page 3

HORRIBLE MASSACRE OF PRINCE LYCHNOWSKI AND GENERAL AUERSWALDT.

In our Mebsemrer of last w ek we mention d the fact that the above named distinguished individuals were cruelly murdered by the Frankfort mob during tlie late disturbances in that city. We are now in possession of full particulars of the circumstancrs under whioh the murders were committed. Anything more horrible, if we except the conduct of the Meisinese cannibals, which we recorded last week, we have scarcely ever heard of. The Frankfoit conespondent of the Morning Post thu» writes: — "The conduct of Catherine de Medicus, gloating over the horrors of St. Bartholomew's night, the death of the Princess de Lombrtlle, and all the other horrors of the French revolution of 1792, do not equal the batb.irous cruelly of the wretches who assassinated this unfortunate nobleman and his friend, Geneial Ane> swuvildt. Both gentlemen had, upon leaving the National Assembly, rode out of the town foi an airing ; at a short distance from the Boclunhei-mer-gftte several shots were fired at them ; they turned their horses immediately to ride back to the town, but found that they were Surrounded on all sides. They iseparated for the purpose of .making their escape by some footpaths ncm, s the fields, but General Auerswaldt w«s Mopped and dragged from his horse before ho could reacd tlie field he intended. The assassins, after having thrown him on the ground, coolly deliber* a'ed where wounds would cause the greatest pain, and then deliberately fired into different parts of his body. Obieivinjr that life was not qu.teejtinct, theyjeeringly said, it was all the better, because he would have to suffer the ouoie, and upon leaving the ipot a wretched old woman called after thorn that she would finish their work, and batteied the unhappy gentleman'i brains out wi h a stone she picked up on the road. This rela« tiun is couftrmed upon oath by two respectable eye witnesses. Prince Lychnowski got into the iield lie intended and after in vain galloping about to find an outlet, he returned to a part of the beautiful promenade J he was immediately surrounded by a number of men armed with scythes, pitchlorks, &«., who pulled him from his horse } the prince, being a powerful and strong man, and seeing that his life was at stake* attempted to lesist, but of course only to prolong his torturei. They literally slashed, slit, and scraped the flesh from his arms, and pat t of his legs, and then coolly declared ' thc\t thiswus enough for the present, aud that he might afford them more sport when he hadrecoveied a httle.* They then left him, and the Prince with the utm ist difficulty crawJcd to a neighhouung cottage, whtre he was kindly received ; he had scarcely been there an hour, whan the same men, but considerably mci eased in numbers, and armed with fire arms, made their «pptiiirance, and demanded his immediate fturreuder, which the hospitable people of the coVa^c refused ; tne wietcheo then ihade pVeparations to set fiie to the house, and as soon as the pmco heard this, no persua hioii no force could detain him ; he boldly stepped out to meet his fate. He was leceived with shouts of deri- | sion and laughter, and one of the leaders, dressed a-> a common Uhuuivr, declared that as the prince had been [ a kind of Don Quixote, he oaglit to die so, and they | immediately pul.ed off his clothes, and bedecked him with n suit of drapery to imitate the engravings of CVrvan'eVs beautiful tale in onll of the night Bcenes. They then formed a circle round him, and, by constantly piicking him wiih bnyonets and knives, com peiled the unhappy m,m to be in constant motion ; at last, tired of this sport, they fastened him to a wall, aud at a distance of only ten yards fired more than 2 ) balls in the direction, most of them intentionally m a. sing, in order to piotract his pain ; Imt after three had mortally wounied him, they laughingly dcelared it was enough, but he might suffer a little longer, and left biin. In this state the prince was soon aftei wards found bv a patrol of Hessi..n cavalry, who took him with all possible care to the villa of iidron Bethman : but as soon as he recovered lii« «pr ech he insiitcd upon being taken jo the hospital of Al Saints, where the other wounded in the streets had been received. After the surgeons had examined the sufferer he asked them firmly whether any hope was left ? They declared that amputu tion ot both arms nnd the right leg might possibly pro~ lo ig his life, but that the operation itself mi?ht result in death. The prince then declined to tubmit to the opeiatiun, sont for two magistrate!, and dictated a minute relation of these horutt scenes, of which document the above is an adiidgment, giving at the same time a full description of his assassins ; af er ihie he dictated hial«st will, and signed both document* with his shattered arm i» a fiim and legible handwriting. Notnithstanding the unexampled agonies which, according to the opinions of the Burgeons, he must have suffered, not a sigh, not a groan escaped him till he expired, about nti hour after midnight," Where did this occur ? In central Africa under some horrid despotism ? No, in the very centre of < hristcudom, in the metropolis of the new German Empiie, or Confederation, or whatever the thing is to be called, in Frankfort, for centuries a free city, governed by a democratic constitution. It is not despotism, then, that bru(ali«e« mankind — we must look for some other agency, and we have not far to look. It is the absence of true religion, expelled as in Sicily, by the usuipation of Popery ; or as in Paris and Frankfort, by the* ascendency of a liberalism which never fails to utterly exclude true religion wherever it prevails.