Mademoiselle Cazotte was the daughter of an aged Frenchman, who, on one occasion, during the Revolution in his country, would have lost his life but for her courage. He was a "counter-revolutionist," and after an imprisonment, during which his daughter chose to be immured with him, on the second day of September, he was about to be slain. An axe was raised over his head, when Elizabeth threw herself upon him, and exclaimed, "Strike, barbarians; you cannot reach my father but through my heart." She did other heroic deeds.
[69] "The hope, however, of attaining the object in view, very speedily subjected the unfortunate Murdoch to new persecution. He was tied up under the very tree where the plate was buried, and threatened with immediate execution unless he would make the discovery required. But although well acquainted with the unrelenting severity of his enemy, and earnestly solicited by his wife, to save his life by a speedy confession of the place of deposit, he persisted resolutely, that a sacred trust was not to be betrayed, and actually succeeded in preserving it."
[70] It is said that this taunt was so keenly felt that Tarleton laid his hand on the hilt of his sword. General Leslie entered the room at the moment, and seeing the agitation of Mrs. Ashe, and learning its cause, said to her, "Say what you please, Mrs. Ashe; Colonel Tarleton knows better than to insult a lady in my presence."
[71] Practical Directory for Young Christian Females.
[72] Mothers of the Wise and Good, p. 142
[73] The late George Beecher.
[74] Laurel mountain.
[75] Afterwards Mrs. Powell. She died in 1840.
[76] Knapp's Female Biography, p. 235.
[77] Walks of Usefulness; or, Reminiscences of Margaret Prior, p. 17.