Alexandria Gazette & Daily Advertiser

Translated for the New-York Columbian.

EXTRAORDINARY THEFT

On the first day of March a most extraordinary theft was committed in the conventual church of St. Francis d'Assisse, after the celebration of a solemn funeral service for the late Queen of Spain, Isabella de Braganza. The decorations of this occasion are estimated to have cost two millions of Real Vellon (about 100,000 dollars.)—the concourse of people present was immense.—When the officiating bishop had concluded the service, his pontifical robe & ornaments, according to the established custom of Spain, were laid on a massy plateau of silver, and the whole placed on the table called credential by one of the prelate's pages. Immediately a person advanced and made a most profound reverence towards the altar, took the plateau, the rich ornaments of gold and embroidery, the mitre, ornamented with precious stones, and the bleak cope which had been expressly made for this occasion, and carried the whole off! Through the church, and for a considerable distance outside, he had to proceed through a double line of soldiers, who permitted him to pass without interruption, thinking him to be employed in carrying the episcopal robes, &c. to the bishop's house. The prelate's servants, not finding in the sacristy either the plateau or the ornaments, also believed that the man was a servitor of the convent, and that he had carried them to the bishop's.—The allusion soon ceased; and nothing can equal people's astonishment at the cool audacious, calculating habits of this sacrilegious thief, who completely escaped with his prize, and has not since been heard of.