On the outskirts of Paris in October 1917, a beautiful woman with a wide-brimmed hat and bright red dancing shoes on her feet looked at the 11 executioners on the other side: "This is the first time that someone is willing to pay 11 'francs' to possess me!" ”
In French, bullet and franc are the same word, a pun intended. Facing the more than a dozen muzzles of the black hole hole, the woman had no fear, laughed at the exit, and even smiled and gave a flying kiss to the executioner.
"Snap-snap-snap-snap-" The gunshot sounded, the woman fell to the ground in response, and a generation of "double-faced female spies" ended her magnificent and legendary life.
The woman who laughed and "embraced death" was named Marta Harley. During the First World War, she traveled between France and Germany with her beauty and wisdom, and was one of the famous "Top Ten Super Spies" in the history of world espionage warfare.
But France's most beautiful spy ended up miserable. She was eventually convicted of espionage by the French, dead and her head in a museum.
She is the daughter of an unknown businessman in the Netherlands, a stripper, a socialite who moved all over Europe, and a "double-sided spy" who wandered on a "tightrope".
Marta Harley's short and turbulent life is still talked about by many historians. And the speculation of many opinions has put a veil of mystery over this legendary woman.
Happy childhood, bitter youth
This Marta Harley is neither German nor French, she is actually Dutch, born in 1876 in a small town in the northern Dutch province of Friesland. Her original name was Margareza Giltruida Zeli.
In Marta's memory, her childhood was very happy. Not only did my father own a large farm, he also ran a coatshop and made a successful investment in oil. These make their family's life quite rich.
The rich life and harmonious family atmosphere brought Marta not only good upbringing, but also excellent education. In the process, the family discovered that little Marta could sing and dance and seemed to have a great artistic talent.
It is said that because her mother has oriental ancestry, Marta has both the tall height of the Caucasian race, smooth and smooth skin, as well as black eyes and long hair.
She became a girl who combined the beauty of Both East and West.
Unbeknownst to this beautiful little girl, bad luck was creeping in, thus breaking the happiness of their family.
On this day, Marta, as usual, played carefree in the garden of her home. Suddenly, the father returned home with a miserable face and announced that everyone had packed their bags quickly and that they were moving.
After moving into the slum with her family, little Marta learned that her father had gone bankrupt because of a failed investment in stocks. At this time, Marta was 13 years old. Although she is sad, the family is still together, and the days are always going on.
But fate seems to prefer to tease people who are in distress.
Not long after, his father, who was not willing to be poor and silent, decided to leave his hometown and find another way to make a comeback. Since then, however, my father has not been seen again.
What is even more unfortunate is that when she was 15 years old, her mother also died of depression because of successive changes. At this point, Marta and several of her siblings were completely orphaned.
Her father disappeared and her mother died, and on this day, Marta could only say goodbye to her brothers and sisters with tears in her eyes. They will be adopted by different relatives and churches. Most likely, we will never see each other again in this lifetime.
Marta was eventually adopted by a relative, and her adolescence was spent under the fence of family upheaval.
Adopted and sent to the fence, Marta, who has grown into a big girl, is eager to jump out of the "cage". But at that time, a young girl who had just come of age wanted to go to society and do a career alone, which was almost impossible.
But that era also gave girls another answer, and that was to get married and thus become attached to men.
Marta chose this path. On this day, a marriage advertisement in the newspaper caught her attention, which was a marriage notice for a divorced Dutch officer. The former Dutch naval officer was a full 22 years older than Marta.
Even so, Marta seemed to grasp the straw of life, and married the man who even had a white beard. At the beginning, the admiral was very satisfied to see that Marta was tall and plump, with the beauty of both East and West, and the two also gave birth to a man and a woman and two children.
But it turns out that the decision to jump out of one "fire pit" and make desperate decisions often puts you in another "fire pit".
The good times did not last long, and the husband soon got tired of Marta, not only became addicted to alcohol, but also often abused Marta. The son died of a disease because of her husband's misconduct. After the two divorced, the husband not only did not pay alimony, but also secretly took away Marta's only daughter.
Therefore, the desperate Marta came to the famous metropolis of Paris at that time to "beg for life". This trip to France became a major turning point in her life's destiny.
Famous "social flowers" that shocked Europe, playing with the "female spies" of the two countries
At that time, Paris, France, gathered performers and artists from all over Europe. It is not so easy to "make a living" here. In order to be able to "make a C-bit debut", the clever Marta has a bold idea - "mysterious person design" plus "bold performance".
At that time, Europe had an inexplicable favor for the "mysterious oriental atmosphere". Therefore, Marta, who has both the beauty of the East and the West, used her "advantages" to mold herself into an Indian monk, a descendant of the Brahmin class, and even claimed to have learned the sacred "dance" of India from an early age to create momentum for subsequent performances.
As a result, this housewife, who had once failed in marriage, was transformed into a "holy woman" from the East. And her so-called "striptease" with a mysterious oriental atmosphere has made her famous. Because in that year, people were still relatively conservative, and there were few performances that were so "bold and out of line". Her performance made the people of Paris at that time "refreshed".
Soon, her fame grew, and it was at this time that she really used the name Marta Harley, also to match her identity, because the name in Sanskrit means "Mother of God".
It didn't take long for Marta to become the most popular dance star of the time. In 1905, the Paris newspaper once commented on her, saying that as soon as she appeared, she would make all the audience in the audience intoxicated and crazy.
Gradually, this bohemian "dance artist" got to know a lot of upper-class people, she wandered among many rich and political leaders, and heard a lot of "secret news" that the outside world did not know.
Marta was sought after by more and more people, and her beauty and mystery made countless men in Europe flock to her at that time.
But in times of war, beautiful women are dangerous, not only for others, but also for themselves.
In 1941, on the eve of the outbreak of World War I, Marta was performing in Germany. On this day, Mirbach, an officer of the German high command, accidentally saw Marta's performance and was overwhelmed. Such a special thing is a good seedling cultivated into a "female spy"! After some investigation, Mühlbach was even more satisfied with Marta.
So Mühlbach threatened Marta and lured him with a huge reward of $2 million. Marta thought about it for a few moments and finally agreed to Millbach's request. She wandered among the top french, she knew a lot of "information" consciously or unconsciously, originally listened to it as a pleasure, but did not expect to make money now, why not enjoy it?
So Marta worked diligently as a German spy. With the pressure of "serious work", coupled with the help of Germany, Marta became more and more at ease in the French hierarchy. Through her, much of France's intelligence also flowed to Germany. At the Battle of the Marne, it was Marta who revealed the location of the French army to the Germans.
Because of Marta's excellent performance, she was also more and more trusted on the German side, and thus knew a lot of German intelligence. And as the war unfolded, she began to think carefully again.
Marta thought that since she could get news from both sides, why not make "two pieces of money"? Moreover, in case Germany fails, it may not be able to catch "good fruit" to eat. But how do you show favor to the Allies?
Just when Marta had a headache, the French government "found the door" itself. It turned out that the British Military Intelligence Service had long found that Marta was wrong and immediately reported Marta's matter to the French intelligence agencies. The French intelligence agency looked at it, Oh, this is a talent, very potential to be a "double-sided spy".
In this way, Marta became a "double-sided spy" under the "recruitment" of France, and she used her identity as a German spy as a "protective color" to provide a steady stream of German intelligence to the French intelligence agencies.
But Marta did not know that her behavior was undoubtedly "walking a tightrope" on the cliff, as long as she was not careful, she would be crushed to pieces and ruined.
She could not have imagined that one day, when she was useless, she would be ruthlessly abandoned as a "scapegoat". And this day is not far away.
The female spy who was "abandoned", the eternal mystery of history
In January 1917, Marta toured Europe as usual, this time in Spain. As before, Marta's performance is still crowded with people and tickets are hard to find. While performing, she also did her other job as usual, "spy work".
However, behind the prosperity, danger is creeping in.
On this day, the German intelligence agency in Spain suddenly sent a telegram to the German headquarters, which read:
"Quickly inform H21 to return to Paris immediately and pay an additional fee of 15,000 francs." As if in conjunction with the telegram, Marta suddenly and hastily interrupted her performance in Spain and rushed to France in a hurry.
Through investigation, combined with intelligence information previously given by the British, the French intelligence agencies quickly locked down Marta. As a result, Marta had just arrived in Paris when she was arrested by the French government. It wasn't long before he was taken to court.
In court, Marta argued that she was serving the French government, claiming that she had been arrested because Germany had learned of her identity and had done the bureau.
But regardless of the truth, at this time, the French intelligence agencies saw that Marta had been exposed and had no use for it. She immediately denied Marta's claims, and instead of that, she attributed much of the leak of intelligence to Marta on the grounds that she had been in contact with many senior French officers.
What is even more unexpected is that the presiding judge, who has always been known for his impartiality and strictness, still vigorously defied the public opinion under the obvious circumstances of doubts, and insisted on convicting Marta of treason and executing her by shooting on the grounds of "causing 50,000 casualties to the French army".
In this way, this beautiful "double-faced female spy" was shot and killed on the outskirts of Paris in the autumn of 1917.
France's most beautiful female spy is dead, but the controversy over her hasn't stopped. Historians have found a lot of evidence to speculate on the veracity of Marta's testimony in court.
Historians have found that the telegram that led to Marta's arrest was actually used by Germany in a code that had been deciphered by the Allies before, and many speculated that it was deliberately done by Germany. Because the Germans discovered Marta's identity as a "double-faced spy", they set up this bureau to "kill people with a knife" and retaliate against Marta to vent their hatred.
At that time, France refused to recognize Marta's identity as a "double-sided spy", which was speculated to be related to the course of the war at that time. At that time, France was losing one after another on the battlefield, and the French military at this time urgently needed a scapegoat to divert people's attention and boost morale. Marta, on the other hand, is the best "choice.".
She was famous and was inextricably linked to many of France's "eroded" aristocrats who only knew pleasure. At this time, letting Marta die as a German spy not only shocked the upper -class "nobles" who "did not care about things, but added to the chaos", but also gave the anger of the people and soldiers a catharsis, so as not to "sprinkle" this anger on the French government.
As for whether Marta was framed by Germany or not, whether she worked for France or not, it does not matter, she exposed her identity as a spy, died in the way of "scapegoat", which is the best ending for all parties.
The beauty is gone, and no one knows what the truth is.
After Marta's death, because there were no relatives to help her collect the body, and because of her legendary experience, her head was made into a specimen and sent to the museum. It is said that this particular "exhibit" was brought to life until it was eventually stolen and never known.
According to those who witnessed Marta's execution, she ended up smiling and facing death. Maybe for her, death was a relief. Throughout her life, she was constantly "abandoned" by others, abandoned by her father, abandoned by her husband, and finally abandoned by the state.
Later generations will talk about this legendary "double-faced female spy", will relish her scandals, her means of conquering men, and may also sigh for her legendary but tragic life, but how many people have thought about what caused marta's tragedy.
"Zai Yao destroyed the Wu kingdom, and Xi Shi fell into notoriety." The most beautiful spy in France, why not another "Xi Shi"?