Thursday, July 14, 2011

A Mother Forgives

A mother forgives the Revolutionary who killed her son.
When the Chouans first took up arms, there lived as portress in the chateau of Thuré a poor widow woman named Madame Huneau. She was known to all the country round for her works of mercy. Having acquired some practical knowledge of medicine, she was a constant attendant upon the sick-beds of the poor; and when her skill was insufficient to effect a cure, she soothed and comforted the dying with the consolations of religion, for she was of an exemplary devotion.

She had an only son, too young to take any part in the insurrection; but he contrived to be useful to the Chouans by carrying their correspondence and watching the movements of the Blues. The partisans of the Republic in the neighborhood, suspecting the cause of his frequent absence from home, laid wait for him; and as he was returning one evening from one of his expeditions, he was shot in the avenue of the chateau, and within a few paces of his mother. At the same time a man rushed through the bushes, and made his escape. Her skill, poor woman, was useless, for he was mortally wounded; but, in resignation to the will of God, she gave herself up with greater diligence to her works of charity. (Read entire article.)
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1 comment:

lara77 said...

What an amazing and heart breaking story. How many of us could ever do what that woman did for the killer of her only son? I am thinking of all the innocent lives taken too soon beginning on that fateful day of July 14, 1789. I will never view that day as a celebration but the beginning of death and heartbreak for thousands in France and eventually across Europe.