The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 13, No. 371, May 23, 1829 — John Shaqi
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 13, No. 371, May 23, 1829Various
History
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 13, No. 371, May 23, 1829
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
Marianne Schoeffer was the first avowed mistress of Schinderhannes.
She was a young girl of fourteen, of ravishing beauty, and always
"se mettait avec une élégance extreme." Blacken Klos, one of the band,
an unsuccessful suitor of the lady, one day, after meeting with a
repulse, out of revenge carried off her clothes. When the outrage was
communicated to Schinderhannes, he followed the ruffian to a cave where
he had concealed himself, and slew him. It was Julia Blaesius, however,
who became the permanent companion of the young chief. The account
given by her of the manner in which she was united to the destiny of the
robber is altogether improbable. A person came to her, she said, and
mentioned that somebody wished to speak to her in the forest of Dolbach;
she kept the assignation, and found there a handsome young man who told
her that she must follow him--an invitation which she was obliged at
length by threats to accede to. It appears sufficiently evident,
however, that the personal attractions of Schinderhannes, who was then
not twenty-two, had been sufficient of themselves to tempt poor Julia
to her fate, and that of her own accord
"She fled to the forest to hear a love tale."
It may be, indeed, as she affirmed, that she was at first ignorant of
the profession of her mysterious lover, who might address her somewhat
in the words of the Scottish free-booter--
"A lightsome eye, a soldier's mien--
A bonnet of the blue,
A doublet of the Lincoln green,
'Twas all of me you knew."
But it is known that afterwards she even accompanied him personally in
some of his adventures dressed in men's clothes.
The robberies of this noted chief became more audacious and extensive
every day, and at last he established a kind of "black mail" among the
Jews, at their own request. Accompanied one day by only two of his
comrades, he did not hesitate to attack a cavalcade of forty-five Jews
and five Christian peasants. The booty taken was only two bundles of
tobacco, the robbers returning some provisions on a remonstrance from
one of the Jews, who pleaded poverty. Schinderhannes then ordered them
to take off their shoes and stockings, which he threw into a heap,
leaving to every one the care of finding his own property. The affray
that ensued was tremendous; the forty-five Jews who had patiently
allowed themselves to be robbed by three men, fought furiously with each
other about their old shoes; and the robber, in contempt of their
cowardice, gave his carbine to one of them to hold while he looked on.
His daring career at length drew to a close, and he and his companions
were arrested by the French authorities, and brought to trial. The
chief, with nineteen others, were condemned to death in November, 1803,
and Julia Blaesius to two years' imprisonment. The former met his fate
with characteristic intrepidity, occupied to the last moment with his
cares about Julia and his father.--_From the Foreign Quarterly
Review.--An excellent work_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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