ADVENTURES OF A SPY

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 168, 27 April 1871, Page 7

ADVENTURES OF A SPY

An occasional correspondent o!'t'\e "Times" relates one of the iraqi" in, cidents of the war — the slo.-y oi' tho spy, Nicholas Sehull. Nobly born, he had received a scientific education, was distinguished in his profession of engineering, and the luckless Maximilian of Mexico had conferred upon him the Guadaloupe. But his youth had been irregular; he was restless, ambitious, and had an adventurous, intriguing, and audacious temperament On the 19th of last July, Sehull presented himself to General Duerot at Strasbourg, avowed a deep hatred of Prussia, and offered to act as a spy ; a bargain was struck, and he went away with lOOOf. in his pocket. lie again ventured on the 2Gth, brought some trifling reports, received more money, and recrossed the Rhino. Between ;his time and the llth of August, when he was arrested at Metz in the guise of an American, Sehull is accused of having sold himself a second time, and by betraying the French to have brought on them the disasters of Weisaenburg and ReichskofFen. Upon him were found a German safe-conduct, a gold medal of King William, and a passport signed by General Loczinski, the chffde T etat major of General Boyer. This settled his doom ; he appealed for mercy " in the name of his little children," but it was rejected. He was shot in the fosse of the citadel, behaving wit!) great for-

titude to the last, but strenuously denying the charge of treasou. The writer belie\es Sehull was covetous of the money and of self-importance rather than a traitor, designing to levy black mail on both, but not to betray seriously either, and that he perished unhappily, unlike many double-dealers who make a great figure in history, both in French and English annals, and who died peacefully in their beds, full of honours and in odour of respectability.