It will not invalidate the force of the foregoing extract to state, that Selim II. did not become sultan until 1566, and that it must have been his father Suleyman (whom he succeeded) who came to the rescue of France in 1543. The same Turkish fleet was afterwards nearly annihilated by the Venetians in 1571, at the battle of Lepanto.
Geo. Dymond.
Queries.
A FEMALE AIDE-MAJOR.
The following is an extract from the letter of the French general, Custine, to the National Convention, June 14, 1793:
"My morality is attacked; it is found out that I have a woman for my aide-de-camp. Without pretending to be a Joseph, I know too well how to respect myself, and the laws of public decency, ever to render myself guilty of such an absurdity. I found in the army a woman under the uniform of a volunteer bombardier, who, in fulfilling that duty at the siege of Liege, had received a musket-ball in the leg. She presented herself to the National Convention, desired to continue her military service, and was admitted to the honours of the sitting. She was afterwards sent by you, Representatives, to the Minister of War, who gave her the rank of aide-major to the army. On my arrival here, the representatives of the people, commissioners with this army, had dismissed her. Her grief was extreme; and the phrenzy of her imagination, and her love for glory, would have carried her to the last extremity. I solicited the representatives of the people to leave her that rank which her merit and wounds had procured her; and they consented to it. This is the truth. She is not my aide-de-camp, but attached to the staff as aide-major. Since that time I have never had any public or private conversation with her."—From the Political State of Europe, 1793, p. 164.
Can any of your readers furnish me with the name and history of this French heroine?
James.
Philadelphia.