Massachusetts Spy And Worcester Advertiser

The disguised Convict. On the 26th of September, a gang of convicts was brought to Rochefort, and among the number was one described as a foundling, named Joseph, and aged 23 years. This convict had been sentenced by the Assize Court of the department of Lot, to hard labour for life, for the crime of aiding in a highway robbery, and was in consequence branded with the mark T. P. (Travaux Perpetuels.). It is customary, before placing the convict's dress upon the condemned criminals, to make them strip, to ascertain whether they are subject to any cutaneous disorder. This convict was, like the rest ordered to undress; but Joseph exhibited great reluctance to comply with the order, and at length finding resistance useless, claimed the privileges of the fair sex. The convict proved in fact to be a woman who resigned the name of Joseph for that of Maria. On this discovery she was placed at the disposal of the Procureur of the King. This woman states, that she was brought up at the hospital of Figeac, upon leaving which she adopted the male dress and worked as a journeyman tailor. In this character she was compromised in the highway robbery for which she was condemned, but in which she declared she was not an accomplice. She remained 13 months in prison, with many other prisoners, and during that time her sex was never discovered. In a female dress, Maria does not appear a very pretty woman; but she has blue eyes and a very fair skin. It appears that when she was branded, she prevented the discovery -of her sex by the precautions which she adopted.

French Papers.