A REMARKABLE WOMAN.

Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 179, 27 December 1876, Page 2

A REMARKABLE WOMAN.

Tine Parisian correspondent of the Melbourne “ Argus” lias an interesting account of.a lady wiio is at present taking a prominent part in the war of Provinces of Turkey, lie says of her;— Miss Marcus, who has been snrnamod the Joan of Arc of Herzegovina, is a Dutch woman, but of French origin. She belongs to an excellent family, and one of her brothers is an admiral in the Dutch service. Of about 80 years of age, and of somewhat diminutive stature, she lias adopted the masculine attire, which has ended by taking from her gait and gestures a great portion of the feminine graces. She wears her black hair cut short, her forehead is high, and her eyes, of a light blue, sparkle with malice, She is a pale complexion, with a most charming sweetness of smile. She cannot be said to bo pretty, but seems to you some strange apparition when you see her scale on horseback the goat tracks of the mountain, with her hand resting on the stock of her revolver. In a moral point of view, Miss Marcus is a kind of iUutuinata. Her first idea was to erect at Jerusalem a Protestant temple over the tomb of Christ. The temple exists, and is maintained at her expense ; it has cost her about 85U,000f. Although she has in her adventures scattered abroad a great part of her fortune, she has still left 1,800,000f. Her ideas of liberalism, her theories of independence, have brought her gradually and almost insensibly to the limits of insanity. Although placed under large interdiction at the request of her family, she does not the less continue her pranks, now iu one insurrection, now in another. It has ever been said, though I am unable to verify the fact, that she had a hand in the affairs of our commune. She spends her life iu seeking adventures in whatever country war may be going on, and making these adventures agreeable to herself, at least so it is said, by all sorts of amorous freaks, somewhat in contradiction with the name that has been given her. At one time she was in close intimacy with Ljnbibratitch, oho of the duels of the Herzegovinian insurrection ; at the present moment she pretends to be madly in love with the Servian Minister of War. Extravagant as all such passions are, she is at certain times capable of the strongest energy. Last winter, in Herzegovina, it was proposed to blow up by means of dynamite a Turkish fortress situated between Kagnla and Trchiniel. When they arrived before the fortress in the night, there was a moment’s hesitation among the men charged with the dynamite, and when the time came to go and place it beneath the fire of the fortress they refused. Miss Marcus was present. Snatching up the cartridges of dynamite, she pressed them against her bosom, exclaiming, “ Yon are all cowards ; since not one of you dares to do it, I will show you the way,” and she bounded forward. Two or throe men stopped her half way, and constraining her to put down her burden, took upon themselves the perilous duty. Miss Marcus, pale, and quivering with anger, let them go on without saying a word. Tbc dynamite was frozen, and therefore did not explode, so that a few Bengal flames alone lighted up the triumph of the heroine.