Evening Star Newspaper, May 18, 1895, Page 14

(Copyright, 1895, by Bacheller, Johnson & Bacheller.) Murat was undoubtedly an excellent cav- alry officer, but he had too much swagger, which spoils many a good soldier. Lasalle, too, was a very dashing leader, but he ruined himself with wine and folly. Now I, Etienne Gerard, was always totally de- void of swagger, and at the same time I was very abstemious, except, maybe, at the end of a campaign, or when I met an old comrade-in-arms. For these reasons I might, perhaps, had it rot been for a cer- tain diffidence, have claimed to be the most valuable officer in my own branch of the service, It is true that I never rose to be more than a chief of brigade, but, then, as every one knows, no one had a chance of rising to the top unless he had‘the good fortuns to be with the emperor in his early campaigns. Except Lasalle and Lobau and Drouet, I can hardly remember any one of the generals who had not already made his name before the Egyptian business. Even I, with all my brilliant qualities, could only attain the head of my brigade, and also the special medal of honor, which I re- ceived from the emperor himself, and which I kept at home in a leather pouch. But though I never rcse higher than this, ny qualities were very well known-hy those d served with me, and also by the ish. After they had captured me in ay which I described to you the other t, they kept a very good guard over Not a Very Promising Point of Escape. me at Oporto, and I promise you that they did not give such a formidable opponent a | chance of slipping through their fingers. | it was on the lwih of August that I w: escor‘ed on board the transport which was | to take us io England, and behold me be- | fore the end of the month in the great prison which had been built for us at Dart- moor! “L'hotel Fran et Pension,” we used to call it, for you understand that we were all brave men there, and that we did cur spirits because we were in ad- | s only those officers who refused to | give their parole who were contined at | Dartnioor, and most of the prisoners were or from the ranks. You ask me, | , why it was that I did not give this parole, and so enjoy the same treat s most of my brother officers. Weil, 1 had two reasons, and both of them were sufficiently strong. In the first place, I had so much confi- dence in myself that I was quite convinced | that I could escape. In the second, my | family, though of good repute, has never | been wealthy, and I could not bring my- self to take anything from the small in- | come of mother. On the other hand, it would ne do for a man like me to be outshone by the bourgeois society of an English country town, or to be without the means of showing cour: and attentions to those ladies whom 1 should attract. It was for th sons that L preferred to be buried in the dreadful prison of Dart- Aico ea ER etACiRiiG wl COR CEIER OUR ORMRTIGLET ventures in England, and of how far Milor Wellington's words were true when he said that his king would hold me. And, first of all, I may say that if it were | not that I have set off to tell you about what befell myself, I could keep you here until morning with my stories about Dart- moor itself, and about the singular things which occurred there. It was one of the very strangest places in the whole world, for there, in the middle of that great deso- late waste, were herded together seven or eight thousand men—warriors, you under- stand, men of experience and courage. Around there were a double wall, and a dite and warders and soldiers, but, my faith! you could not coop men like that up like rabbits in a hutch! They would es- cape by twos and tens and twenties, and then the cannon would boom, and the search parties run, and we, who were left behind, weuld laugh and dance and shout “Vive l'Empereur,” uatil the warders would turn their muskets upon us in their pas- sion. And then we would have our little mutinies, too, and up would come the in- fantry and the guns from Plymouth, and that would set us yelling “Vive I'Emper- eur” once more, as though we wished them to hear us in Paris. We had lively mo- ments at Dartmoor, and we contrived that se who were about us should be lively SO. You must know that the prisoners there ad their owr courts of justice, in which they tried their own cases, and inflicted their own punishment: Stealing and quarreling were punished—but most of all treachery. When I came there first there fas a man, Meunier, from Rheims, who had given information of some plot to es cape. Well, that night, owing to some form or other whic had to be gone throuzh, they did not take him out from among the other prisoners, and though he nd screamed, and groveled upon the left him there among the n he had betrayes That $a trial with a whis; whispered defe: ner, and a judge whom none It Came Off in My Hana. 1see. In the morning when they came for their man with pa) for hi was not as much of him left could put upon your thumb nai ngen 5 people i their own vy how t ar group of people t us our uniforms, lly a corps which or Massen. or p there, and from the time when ey which w some had bee! raten at niera. We had their green tunics, and hus- elf, and blue-coa¢ed dragoons, and white-fronted lanc and voltigeurs, | to’ and grenudiers, and men of the artillery and engineers. But the greater part were naval officers, for the English had had the better of us upon the seas. I could never understand this until I journeyed myself OF OF +4 GERARD. Oporto to Plymouth, when I lay for seven days upon my back, and could not have stirred had I seen the eagle of the regiment carried before my eyes. It was in perfidious weather like this that Nelson took advantage of us. I had no sooner got into Dartmoor than I began to plan to get out again, and you can readily believe that with wits sharpen- ed by twelve years of warfare it was not very long before I saw my way. You must know, in the first place, that I had a very great advantage in having some knowledge of the English language. I learned it during the months that I spent before Danzig, from Adjutant Obri- ant of the regiment Irlandais, who was sprung from the ancient kings of the coun- try. I was quickly able to speak it with #me facility, for-I do not take long to ‘naster anything to which I set my mind. In three months I could not only express my meaning, but I could use the idioms of the people. It was Obriant who taught me to say “Be jabers,” t as we might say “Ma foi;" and also he curse of Crum- mle!” which means “Ventre blue! Many a time I have seen the English smile with pleastre when they have heard me speak so much like one of themselves. We officers were put two in a cell, which was very little to my taste, for my room- mate was a tall, silent man named Beau- mont of the flying art who had been taken by the English y at Astorga. It is seldom I meet a man of whom I cannot make a friend, for my disposition and manners are—as you know them. But this fellow had never a smile for my jests, nor an ear for my sorrows, but would sit looking at me with his suilen eyes, until sometimes I thought that his two’ years of captivity had driven him crazy. Ah, how I longed that eld Bouvet, or any of my comrades of the hussars, was there, instead of this mummy of 2 man. But such as he was I had to make the best of him, anc it was very evident that no es- cape could be made unless he were my partner in it, for what could 1 possibly do without his observing ? ~ hinted at it, therefore, and then by di 1 spoke more plainly, until it seemed to me that I had prevailed upon him to share my lot. 1 the wails, and J tried the floc the ceiling, but though L tappe i, they all appeared to be very pro’ and solid. ‘The door was of iron, shutting with a spring lock, and pi led w a smell grating, thi which a 7 looked twice in eve Were t two , two washstands It was enough for my ; had i had as much dur elve years in car 2 I to get out? > ht of my five hund eadful nightmare. nat the whole regiment ne horses were ail b! or that th bogland, or that six bed in the pre 1 would awak werl: ing and tapping night. Within th i shoein d with ndered fe emperor. rold s and more; for I kn very well that there is | ne difficulty which can y | a ready bré ! There gie window in our cell, all to admit a child. It by a thick iron bar y promising allow, but I ced that our point of escape, as you wii became more and more ¢ efforts must be directed toward it. ‘To | make matters worse, it only led out into the exercise yard, which was surrounded by two high walls. Stull, as I said to my | sullen cemrade, it is time to talk of the | Vistula when you are over the Rkine. I . therefore, from I set to work to top and the bot- urs I would work, bed upon the sound of the warder’s Then another three hours, and then very often another yet, for I found that Beaumont was so slow 2nd clumsy at it that it was on myself only got a smali piece of the fittings of my he: leesen the plaster a of the bar. Tt and then leap into My Companion Seized Me by the Knees. that I could rely. I pictured to myself my third of. hussars waiting just outside that witdow, with kettledrums and standards and leopardskin shabraques all complete. Then I would work and work like a mad- man, until my iron was crusted with my blcod, as if with rust. And so, night by night, I loosened that stony plaster, and hid it away in the stuffing of my pillow, until the hour came when the iron shook; and then with one good wrench it came off in my hand, and my first step had been made toward freedom. You will ask me what better off I was, since, as I have said, a child could not have fitted through the opening. I will tell you. I had gained two things—a tool and a weepon. With the one I might loosen the stene which flanked the window. With the other I might defend myscif scrambled through. So now attention to that stone, and I picked and picked with the sharpened end of my bar until 1 had worked eut the mortar all round. You understand, of course, that during the day I repla rything in its position, and that the warder was never permitted to See a speck upon the floor. At the end of three i had separated the stcne, and had the rapture of drawing it rough, = a hole stars shining through it, been but four befoi now, and I replaced of it round with so as to hide the cracks where the mor should have been. In three nights the moon would be gone, and that seemed the best time for our attempt. Il. I had now no doubt at all about getting into the yard, but I had very considerable misgivings as to how I was to get out again. It would be too humiliating, after trying here and trying there, to have to go back to my hole again in despair, or to be arrested by the guards outside, and thrown into those damp underground cells which are reserved for prisoners who are caught in escaping. I set to work, therefore, to plan what I should do. I have never, as left with ten ere there had you know, had the chance of showing what I could do as a gen eral. Sometimes, after und m; self capable of thinking out surprising com- binatiot felt that if poleon with an army corps e@ gone differently with , however that may be, there is that in the sm stratagems of in that quick of invention one ry for an officer of i hold my own ag: It was now that I had neec I felt sure that it would not fail m he inner wall I had to was built of bric twelve feet high, with a row of spikes, three inc apart, upon the top. The outer I had only caught a glimpse of once or twice, the gate of the exercise yard was . It appe ed to be about the same height, and was also spiked at the top. The space be- tween the walls was over twen-y feet, and I had reason to believe tnat there were no sentries there, except at the gates. On the other hand, I knew that there was a line of soldiers outside. Beholfl the litrle nut, my friends, which I nad to open with no crackers save these two hands, | » is deep in th | “Courage, my tr I cried, s iB: upon the shoulder. “You your guns before another month be pi THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, MAY 18, 1895—-TWENTY PAGES, One thing upon which I relied was the height of my comrade, Beaumont. I have already said that he was a very tall man, six feet at least, and it seemed to me that if I could mount upon his shoulders and get my hands upon the spikes I could easi- ly scale the wall. Could I pull my big companion up after me? That was the question, for when I set forth with a comrade, even though it he one for whom I bear no affection, nothing on earth would make me abandon him. If I climbed the wall and he could not follow me, I should be compelled to return to him. He did not seem to concern himself much anout it, however, so I hoped that he had contidence in_his own activity. Then another very important matter was the choice of the sentry who should be on duty in front of my window at the time of our attempt. They were changed every two hours to insure their vigilance, but I, who watched them closely each night out of my window, knew that there was a great difference between them. There were some who were so keen that a rat could not cross the yard unseen, while others thought only of their own ease, and could sleep as soundly leaning upon a mus- ket as if they were at home upon a feather bed. There was one especially, a fat, heavy man, who would retire into the shadow of the wall and doze so comforta- A Desperate Man Was Within a Few Feet of Him. bly during his two hours that I hav! ped pieces of plaster fram my window his ‘y feet without his ob: ing sxocd luck, this fellow's watch from upon the night it. was which } we had fixed upon for our enterprise. due s the I was so filled with nervou! I could not control my lessly about my cell © a mouse in a cage. Every at’ I thought that the warder would the looseness of the bar or that the would observe the unmortared which I could not conceal outside, 1 within. As for my companion, brooding upon the end of his bed, leoking at me in a tong fashion from me to time, and bit ils like one “That is all very ther vi “To the for a brave man, for my regiment. “You are mi likely to make st for the underground cells or for the Port Ww said he. a akes his chances,” I remark- is only the roon who reckons upon the w h in his saliow of it, for each of of s in him. For out toward h would have hurled it at m rugged his ulde ‘e more, biting his down upon the floor I co . as I looked at him, that perha vas doing the Fiying Artillery a vi an even- Toward nd a: harder yer in my life have known blew” pran it nul a terrible gal the moor. As I I d out w I could not catcir a gl nd the black clouds Ss the heavy and w deénened over St ac down, pourin De hear the step not hear them, ly that the n hear t impat until the or should have come round for hi nightly peep th zh our grat having peered thro’ the da nothing of t sentr srouching in some corner out of the rain, f felt that the mora Was come. I removed the ba led out the stone motioned to my companion to pass through. said he. Vill you not go first?” I asked. had rather you showed me the wa: ‘ome after me, then, but come silent! you value your life.” In the darkness I could hear the fellow's teeth chattering, and I wondered whethe man ever had such a partner in a d enterprise. I seized the bar, however, and mounting upon my stool, I thrust my head and shoulders into the hole. I had wriggied through as far as my waist, when my coin- panio:: seized me suddenly by tHe knees, and yelled at the top of his voice: “Help! Help! A pi Ah, my friends, what did I not feel at that moment! Of course, I saw in an in- stant the game of this vile creature. Why should he risk his skin in climbing walls when he might be sure of a free pardon from the English for having prevented the escape of one so much more distinguished than himself? I had recognized him as a poltroon and a sneak, but I had not un- derstood the depth of baseness to which he could descend. One who has spent his life among gentlemen and men of honor does not think of such things until they happen. The blockhead did not seem to under- stand that he was lost more certainly than L_I writhed back into the darkness, and, seizing him by the throat, I struck him twice with my iron bar. At the first blow as ner is escaping!” “Perhaps I can be of so to you, e assistance m.? he yelped as a little cur does when you tread upon its paw. At the second, down he fell with a groan upon the floor. Then I eated myself upon my bed, and waited resignedly for whatever punishment my jailers might inflict upon me. But a minute passed and yet another, with no sound save the heavy, snoring, breathing of the senseless wretch upon the floor. Was it possible, then, that amid the fury of the storm his warning cries had passed unheeded? At first it was but a tiny hope, another minute and it was probable, another and it was certain. There was no sound in the corridor, none in the cour I wiped the cold sweat fr my and asked myself what I should do next. One thing seemed certain. The man on the floor must die. If I left him I could not tell how short a time it might be before he gave the alarm. I dare not strike a ligh! so I felt about in the darkness until m hand came upon something wet, which I knew to be his head. I raised my iron bar, something, my friends, which from bringing it down. In prevented mi the heat of fight I have slain many men— men of honor, too, who had done me no injury. Yet here was this wretch, a crea- ture too foul to live, who had tried to work me so great a mischief, and yet I could not bring myself to crush his skull in. Such deeds are very well for a Spanish partida— or, for that matter, a sans-culotte of the Faubourg St. Antoine—but not for a soldier and a gentleman like me. bed service by bringing him back to them. | dT wait. | a} perate | However, the Heavy breathing of the fel- low made me hope that it might be a very long time before, he recovered his senses. I gagged him,‘‘therefore, and bound him with strips of blanket to the bed, so that in his weakened ¢ondition there was good reason to think that, in any case, he might not get free before the next visit of the warder. But now’ again I was faced with new difficulties, for you will remember that I had relied upon his height to help me over the walls. T'could have sat down and shed tears of despair had not the thought of my mother and of the emperor come to sustain me. “‘Coutage!”’ said I. “If it were any one but Etienne Gerard he would be in a bad fix now; that is a young man who is not so easily caught.” I set to work, therefore, upon Beaumont’s sheet as well as my own, and by tearing them into strips and then placing them together I made! a very excellent rope. This I tied securely to the center of my iron bar, which was a little over a foot in length. Then I slipped out into the yard, where the rain was pouring and the wind screaming louder than ever. I kept in the shadow of the prison wall, but it was as black as the ace of spades, and I could not see my own hand in front of me. Unless I walked into the sentinel I had nothing to fear from him. When I had come under the wall I threw up my bar, and to my joy it stuck the very first time between the spikes at the top. I climbed up my rope, pulled it after me, and dropped down on the other side. Then I scaled the second wall, and was sitting astride among the spikes upon the top, when I saw something twinkle in the darkness beneath me. It was the bayonet of the sentinel below, and so close was it (the second wall being rather lower than the first) that I could easily, by leaning over, have unscrewed it from its socket. There he was, humming a tune to himself, and cuddling up against the wall to keep himself warm, little think- ing that a desperate man within a few feet of him was within an ace of stabbing hin to the heart with his own weapon. I was already bracing myself for the spring, when the fellow, with an oath, shouldered his musket, and I heard his steps squelch- ing through the mud as he resumed his beat. I slipped down my rope, and, leaving it hanging, I ran at the top of my speed across the moor. Heavens, how I ran! The wind buffeted my face and buzzed in my nostrils. The rain pringled upon my skin and hissed past my ears. I stumbled into holes. I tripped over bushes. I fell among brambles. I was torn and breathless and bleeding. My tongue was like leather, my feet like lead and my heart beating like a kettle drum. Still I ran, and I ran, and I ran. But I had not lost my head, my friends. Everything was done with a purpo: Our fugitives always made for the coast. 1 determined to go inland, and the more so as I had told Beaumont the opposite. 1 would fly to the north and they would ek me¢ in the south. Perhaps you will ask me how I could tell which was which on such a ht. TI answer that it was by e wind. I had observed in prison that it from the ncrth, and so, $ my fa to it L was going in ca L kept right dd‘ Well, I was When, suddenly, n. rushing along in t 1 two shining out of the dar! ix !I paused for a moment, unce should do. I was still in my form, you understand, and it s e very firs n at I s s to get some dress 5 betray me. If these lights came cottage it was probable enough that I t find what I wanted there. I sorry t I had left my tron bar behind; for I was determined 00 jight to the death before I} should be retakea. oon | found that there was 1 > two lamp E ge, and by w that a broad road lay in w hould not from a ap- ng upon eac their glare [Es front of me. I observed tha uipage at their heads and that one of the ing in the road beside him. ; the we ee them new, my fri ing creature: hands to hining with the r nd ba! anced’ upon its three wheel: $I looked the window was lowered, and a pretty Hitule | | face under a bonnet peep ! | “What shall I do?” th postboy in a voice of de: “Perhaps I can be of Some as madame, I, scram’ | among bushes into the lamps. an in distr was 1 t forget that, although I wa e'ght-and-twer he screamed, and ho You will unde: dirt, and m: with brambles, I was not ent of gentieman whom one would choc meet in the middle of a lon ™ ter the first surpr she si stood that I was her very humble ser and I could even read in her pretty eyes | that my manner and bearing had not fail- | ed to produce {ts impression upon her. “I am_ sorry to have startled madame,” said I. ‘I ckanced to overt your remark, and I could not refrain from ing ycu my assista I bowed as its effect was upon the lady “am much indebted to you, sir, she. “We have had a since we left Tavistock. Finally, one of our wheels came off, and here we are help- less in the middle of a moor. My hushand, Sir Charles, has gone on to get help, but I much fear that he must have lost his way.” I was about to attempt some consolation when I saw beside the lady ‘a black trav. eling coat, faced with astrakhan, which her companion must have left behind him. It was exactly what I needed to conceal my uniform. It is true that I felt very much, like a highway robber, but then, what would you have? Necessity has no law, and I was in an enemy’s camp. “J presume, madame, that this is your husband's coat,” I remarked. “You will, I am sure, forgive me, if I am compelled to”—I pulled it through the window as I spoke. I could not bear to see the look of surprise and fear and disgust which came over her face. “Oh, I have been mistaken in you,” she cried.” “You came to rob me, then, and not to help me. You have the bearing of a gen- tleman, and yet you steal my husband's coat.” “Madame,” said beg that you will not condemn me until you know everything. it is quite necessary that I should e this coat, but if you will have the goodness to tell me who it is who is fortunate enough to be your husband I shall see that the coat fs sent back to him.” Her face softened a said terrible journey ttle, though she still tried to .ook severe. “My husband,” she answere is Sir Charles Meredith, and he is traveling to Dartmoor prison upon i portant government business. I only ask you, sir, to go vpon your way, and to take nothing which belongs to him is only one thing which belongs to you have taken it from the car- she cried. I answered, “‘it still remains there.” She laughed in ‘her frank English way. “If, instead of paying me compliments, you were to retuPn my husband's coat——” she began. « “Madame,” I answered, ‘what you ask is quite impdssible! ‘If you will allow me to come into the catfiage I will explain to you how neceskary this coat is to me.” Heaven ‘knows‘into what foolishness I might have plurged myself had we not, at this instant, heard a faint hallo in the dis- tance, whith was answered by a shout from the little ‘post boy. In the rain and the darkness I saw @ lantern some distance from us, put approaching rapidly. “I am sorry, médame, that I am forced to leave you,” saidT. “You can assure your husband that I shall take every care of his ecat.” Hurried as I was, I ventured to pause a moment to salute the lady’s hand, which she snatched through the window with an admirable pretense of being of- fended at my presumption. Then, as the lantern was quite close to me, and the post boy seemed inclined to interfere with my flicht, I tucked my presious overcoat under my arm and dashed off into the darkness. And now I set myself to the task of put- ting as broad a stretch of moor between the prison and myself as the remaining hours of darkness would allow. Setting my face to the wind once more, I ran until I fell from exhaustion. Then, after five minutes _of panting among the heather, I made an- other start, until again my knees gave way beneath me. I was young and hard, with muscles of steel, and a frame which had been toughened by twelve years of camp and field. Thus, I was able to keep up this wild flight for another three hours, during which I still guided myself, you understand, by keeping the wind in my face. At the end of that time I calculated that I had put nearly twenty miles Sea! she peeom and myself. Day was about reak, so I crouched down among the heather upon the top of one of those small hills which abound in that country, with the intention of hiding myself until nightfall. It was no new thing for me to sleep in the wind and the rain, so, wrapping myself up in my thick, warm cloak, I soon sank into a doze. But it was not a refreshing slumber. I tossed and tumbled amid a series of vile dreams, in which everything seemed to go wrong with me. At last, I remembei, I was charging an unshaken square of Hungarian Grenadiers, with a single squadron upon spent horses, just as I did at Elchingen. I stood in my stirrups to shout ‘Vive I’Empe- reur!” and as I did so, there came the an- swering roar from my hussars, ‘‘Vive l'Em- pereur!” I sprang from my rough bed, with the words still ringing in my ears, and then, as I rubbed my eyes, and wondered if I were mad, the same cry came again, five thousand voices in one long-drawn yell. I looked out from my screen of brambles, and saw in the clear light of the morning the very last thing that I should have either ex- pected or chosen. It was Dartmoor prison! There it stretched, grim and hideous, within a fur- long of me. Had I run on for a few more minutes in the dark I would have butted my busby against the wall. I was so taken aback at the sight that I could scarcely realize what had happened. Then it all be- came clear to me, and I struck my head with my hands in my deepair. The wind had veered from north to south during the night, and J, keeping my face always to- ward it, had run ten miles out and ten miles in, winding up where I had started. When I thought of my hurry, my falls, my mad rushing and jumping, all ending in this, It seemed so absurd that my grief changed suddenly to amusement,-and I fell among the brambles and laughed and laughed, until my sides were sore. Then I rolled myself up in my cloak and considered seriously what I should do. a One lesson which I have learned in my roaming life, my friends, is never to call anything a misfortune until you have seen the end of it. Is not every hour a fresh point of view? In this case I soon per- ay a . - It Was the Last Thing. ived that accident had done for me as muh as the. most profound cunning. My guards naturally commenced their search from the place from which I had taken Si Charles Meredith's coat, and from my hid z ing place I could see them hurrying along the road to that point. Not one of them ever dreamed that I could have doubied back from there, and I lay oaite undis- turbed in the hitle bush-covered cup at the summit of my knoll. The prisoners had, of course, le of my escape, and all day exultant yells like that had ne in the morning resounded over bearing a welcome message of sympath: nionship to my ears. How litt! y dream that on t of that very mound, which they from their windo whose e. Ww cele! for me— down upon this poor herd of as they paced about the ard or gathered in lit- ue iculating joyfully ever my Onee I heard a howl! of execration, w vered Beaumont, his head all es, gs led I with bands two of the eke cross the yard by ot tell you the pleasure whieh t ight gave me, for it proved that I had not killed him, and also that the others knew the true story of t had passed. They had all known me 29 weil to think that I could have aban- doned him, All that long day I lay behind m of bushes, listening to the bells struck the hours below. were filled with 1 out of my horrow re: which bread which | allowance, and on d overcoat I came full of excellent brandy water, sp that I was able to get rourh the day without hardship. The other things in the pockets were a kere a a tortois blue e velope with a red seal, | the governcr of Dartmouth lirst two, I determined ack W ovld return The jet sed me more the governor had a e every courtesy, it offend of honor that I s interfere his correspondence. ad aimost made up my mind to leave it ler a stone upon the roadway within musket shot of the gate. This would guide them in their search for me, however, and £0, on the whole, I saw no bettgr way than just to carry the letter with"fne, in the hope that I might find some means of sending it back to him. Meanwhile I packed it safely away in my innermost pocket. 2 ‘There was a warm sun to dry my clothes, and when night fell I was ready for my journey. I promise you that there was no mistake this time. I took the stars for my guides, as every hussar should be taught to do, and I put eight good leagues between myself and the prison. My plan now was to obtain a complete suit of clothes from the first person whom I could waylay, and I should then find my way to the north coast, where there were many smugglers and fishermen who would be ready to earn the reward which was paid by the emperor to those who brought escaping prisoners across the channel. I had taken the pan ache from my by and had crushed it in, so that it might pass as a fur cap, but even with my fine overcoat I feared that sooner or later my uniform would betray me. My first care must be to provide my- self with a complete disguise. When day broke I saw a river upon my right and a small town upon my left—the blue smoke reeking above moor. I should have liked well to enter because it would have interested me_to see some- ing of the customs of the English, which very much from those of other na- Much as -I wished, however, to see eat their raw meat and sell their them I Came Upon a Silver Flask. wives, it would have been dangerous untif’ I had got rid of my uniform. My cap, my mustache and my speech would all help to betray me. I continued to travel toward the north, therefore, looking about me con- tinually, but never catching a glimpse of my pursuers. About midday I came to where, in a se- cluded valley, there stood a single small cottage, without any other building in sight. It was a neat little house, with a rustic porch and a small garden in front of it, with a swarm of cocks and hens. I lay down upon the ferns and watched it, for it seemed to be exactly the kind of place where I might obtain what I wanted. My bread was finished and I was exceed- ingly hungry after my long journey. I de- termined, therefore, to make a short re- connaissance, and then to march up to this cottage, summon it to surrender, and help myself to all I needed. It could, at least, provide me with a chicken and with an omelette. My mouth watered at the thought. As I lay there wondering who could live in this lonely place, a brisk little fellow came out through the porch, accompanied by another older man, who carried two large clubs in his hands. These he handed to his young companion, who swung them up and down, and round and round, with Highest of all in Leavening Power.—Latest U.S. Gov't Report Ro AN| VES ABSOLUTELY PURE Baking Powder extraordinary swiftness. The other, stand- ing beside him, appeared to watch him with great attention, and occasionally to advise him. Finally he took a rope and be- gan skipping like a girl, the other still gravely observing him. As you may think, I was utterly puzzled as to what these people could be, and could only surmise that one was a doctor and the other a pa- He Threw Off His Heavy Great Coat. tient, who had submitted himself to some singular method of treatment. Well, as I lay watching and wondering, the older man brought out a greet coat and held it while the other put it on and buttoned it to his chin. The day was a warmish one, so tl this proceeding amaz- ed me even more than the other. “At least,” thought I, “it is evident that his exercise is over;” but, far from this being so, the man began to run, in spite of his heavy coat, and as it chanced, he came right over the moor in my direction. His companion had re-entered the house, so that this arrangement suited me admirably. I would take the small man’s clothing and hurry on to some village where I could buy provisions. The chickens were certainly tempting, but still there were at least two men in the house, so perhaps it would be iser for me, since I had no arms, to keep from it. I Jay quietly then among the ferns. Pres- entiy I heard the steps of the runner, and there he was quite close to me, with his huge coat, and the perspiration running down his face. He seemed to be a very solid man—but small—so small that I fear- ed that his clothes might be of little use to me. When I jumped out upon him he stopped running and looked at me in the atest astonishment. Blow my dickey,” said he, “give it a name, guv‘nor! Is it a cireus, or what?” ‘That was how he talked, though I cannot pretend to tell you what he meant by it. “You will excuse me, sir,” said I, “but Tam under the necessity of asking you to give me your clothi “Give you what “Your clothes” “Well, if this doesn’t lick cockfighting!” said he. “What am I to give you my clothes for?” “Because I need them. “And suppose I won't “Be jabers,” said I, “I shall have no choice to take them.” He stcod with his hands in the pockets of his greatcoat, and a most amused smile upon his squarejawed, clean-shaven face. You'll take them, will you?” said he. ‘ou're a very leery cove, by the look of you, but I can tell you that you've got the wrong sow by the ear this time. T know who you are. You're a runaway Frenchy from the prison yonder, as any one could tell with half an eye. But you don’t know who I am, else you wouldn't try such a nt as that. Why, man, I'm the Bristol tler, nine-stone champion, and them’s ing quarters down yonder.” announcement © to the earth, t I smiled at him in my turn, and look- ed him up and down, with a twirl of my he cried. ry brave man, sir,” said you that you are op- Etienne ard of the H s, you will see the nec ic hers re, mounseer, drop it!” he cried; Wend by your gett our clothes, sir, this in: ed, advancing fleresly upon him. Fer answer he threw off his heavy great- coat, and stood in a singular attitude, with one arm out and the other across his chest, looking at me with a curious smile. For myself, I knew nothing of the methods of ishting which these people have, but on herse or on foot, with arms or without Sia “I mever thought he’a ha’ kicked.” them, I am always ready to take my own part. You understand that a soldier can- not always choose his own methods, and that it is time to howl when you are living among wolves. I rushed at him, therefore, with a warlike shout, and kicked him with both my feet. At the same moment my heels flew into the air, I saw as many flashes as at Austerlitz, and the back of my head came down with a crash upon 2 stone. After that I can remember nothing more, v. When I came to myself I was lying upon a truckle bed, in a bare, half-furnished rcom. My head was ringing like a bell, and when I prt up my hand there was a lump like a walnut over one of my eyes. My nose was full of a pungent smell, and I soon found that a strip of paper soaked in vinegar was fastened across my brow. At the other end of the room this terrible little man was sitting with his knee bare, and his elderly companion was rubbing it with some liniment. The latter seemed to be in the worst of tempers, and he kept up a continual scolding, which the other listened to with a gloomy face. “Never heard tell of such a thing in my life,” he was saying. ‘In training for a month, with all the weight of it on my shoulders, and then, when I get you as fit as a trout, and within two days of fighting the likeliest man on the list, you let yourself into a bye-battle with a for- eigner.” “There, there! Stow your gab!” said the other, sulkil; You're a very good trainer, Jim, but you'd be better with less jaw. “I should think it was time to jaw,” the elderly man answered. “If this knee don’t get well before Wednesday, they'll have it that you fought a cross, and a pretty job you'll have next time you look for a backer.” “Fought a cross!” growled the other. “I've won nineteen battles, and no man ever so much as dared to say the word ‘crors’ In my hearin’. How the deuce was I to get out of it when the cove wanted the very clothes off my back?” “Tut, man, you knew that the beak and the guards were within a mile of you. You could have set them on to him as well then as now. You'd have got your clothes back again all right.” “Well, strike me!’ said the Bustler, “I don’t often break my trainin’, but when it comes to givin’ up my clothes to a Frenchy who couldn’t hit a dint in a pat o’ butter, why, it’s more than I can swaller.” “Pooh, man, what are the clothes worth? D'you know that Lord Rufton alone has £5,000 on you? When you jump the ropes on Wednesday, you'll carry every penny of £50,000 into the ring. A pretty thing to turn up with a swollen knee and a story about a Frenchman!” | poleaxed. “I_never thought he'd ha’ kicked,” said the Bustler. “I suppose you expected he'd fight Broughton’s rules, and strict P. R.? Why, you silly, they don’t know what fighting is in France.” “My friends,” said I, sitting up on my bed, “I do not understand very much of what you say, but when you speak like that it is foolishness. We know so much about fighting in France that we have paid our little visit to nearly every capital in Europe, and very soon we are coming to London. But we fight like soldiers, you understand, and not like gamins in the gutter, You strike me on-the head, I kick you on the knee—it is child’s play, But if you will give me a sword, and take another one, I will show you how we fight over the water.” They both stared at me in their solid, English way. “Well, I'm glad you’re not dead, moun- scer,” said the elder one at last. “There wasn’t much sign of life in you when the Bustler and me carried you down. That head of yours ain’t thick enough to stop the crook of the hardest hitter in Bristol.” “He’s a game cove, too, and he came for me like a bantam,” said the other, still rubbing his knee. “I got my old left-right in, and he went over, as if he had been It wasn’t my fault, mounseer, I told you you’d get pepper if you went on,” “Well, it’s something to say all your life that you've been handled by the finest lightweight in Englan: said the older man, looking at m3 with an expression of congratulation upon his face. “You've had him at his best, too—in the pink of condi- tion, and trained by Jim Hunter.” “I am used to hard knocks,” said I, un- buttoning my tunic, and showing my two musket wounds. Then I bared my ankle aiso, and showed the place in my eye where the guerrilla had stabbed me. “He can take his gruel,” said the Bustler. “What a glutton he’d have made for the middieweights,” remarked the trainer; “with six months’ coaching he'd astonish the fency. It’s a pity he’s got to go back to prjson.”” I did not like that last remark at all. I Le oe up my coat, and rose from the ed. “I must ask you journey,” said I. “There's no help for it, mounseer,” the trainer answered. “It’s a hard thing to send such a man as you back to such a piace, but business is business, and there’s a twenty-pound reward. They were here this morning, looking for you, and I expect they'll be round again.” His words turned my heart to lead. urely uu would not betray me,” I ill send you twice twenty pounds to let me continue my I Saw a Curious Expression Come Over His Face. on the day that I set foot upon France. I swear it upon the honor of a French gen- tleman.” But I only got headshakes for a_reply. | I pleaded, I argued, 1 spoke of the English | hcspitatity, and the fellowship of brave men, but I might as well have been ad- | dressing the two great wooden clubs which | stood balanced upon the floor in front of | me. There was no sign of sympathy upon their bull faces. Business is business, mounseer,” the old tramer repeated. “Besides, how am I to put the Bustler into the ring on Wednesday | if ne’s jugged by the beak for aidin’ and abettin’ a prisoner of war? I’ve got to look aiter the Bustler, and I take no risks.” This, then, was the end of all my strug- gles and strivings. I was to be led back again like a poor, silly sheep which has broken through the hurdles. They little | knew m> who could fancy that 1 should submit to such a fate. I had heard enough to tell me where the weak point of these two men was, and I showed, as I have often showed before, that Etienne Gerard is never so terrible as when all hope seems to have deserted him. With a single spring I seized one of the clubs and swung it over the head of the Bustler. “Come what may,” I cried, “you shall be spoiled for Wednesday. The fellow growled out an oath, and would have sprung at me, but the other flung his arms round him and pinned him to the chair. “Not if I know ft, Bustler,” he screamed. “None of your games while I am by. Get away out of this, Frenchy. We only want to see your back. Run away, run away, or he'll get loose!” It was good advice, I thought, and I ran to the door, but as I came out into the open air my head swam round, and I had to lean against the porch to save myself from falling. Consider all that I had been through, the anxiety of my escape,the long, useless flight in the storm, the day spent amid wet ferns, with only bread for food, the second journey by night, and now tha injuries I had received in attempting to de- prive the little man of his clothes. Was it wonderful that even I should reach the limits of my endurance? I stood there ih my heavy coat and my poor, battered bus- by, my chin upon my chest, and my eyelids over my eyes. I had done my best, and I could do no more. It was the sound of horses’ hoofs which made me at last raise my head, and there was the gray-mustach_ ed governor of Dartmoor prison not ten paces in front of me, with six mounted warders behind him. x ‘So, colonel,” said he, with a bit “we have found you once more.’ When a brave man has done his utmost, and has failed, he shows his breeding by the manner in which he accepts his defeat. For me, I took the letter which I had in my pocket, and, stepping forward, I handed it with such grace of manner as I could sum- mon to the governor. “It has been my misfortune, sir, to detain one of your letters,” said I. He looked at me in amazement, and beck- oned to the warders to arrest me. Then he broke the seal of the letter. I saw a cu- i ion come over his face as he must be the letter which Sir Charles Meredith lost,” said he. “It was in the pocket of his coat.” “You have carried it for two days?” “Since the night before last.” ‘And never looked at the contents?” I showed him by my manner that he had committed an indiscretion in asking a ques- tion which one gentleman should not have put to another. To my surprise he burst out into a roar of laughter. Ld “Colonel,” said he, wiping the tears from his eyes, ‘you have really given both your- self and us a great deal of unnecessary trouble. Allow me to read the letter which you carried with you in your flight.” And this is what I heard: “On receipt of this you are directed to re- lease Col. Etienne Gerard of the third hussars, who has been exchanged against Col. Mason of the horse artillery, now in Verdun.” And as he read it he laughed again, and the warders laughed, and the two men from the cottage laughed, and then, as I heard this universal merriment and thought of all my hopes and fears, and my struggles and dangers, what could a debonair soldier do but lean against the porch once more and laugh as heartily as any of them? And of them all was it not I who had the best reason to laugh, since in front of me I could see my dear France, and my mother, and the emperor, and my horsemen; whilo behind me lay the gloomy prison and the heavy hand of the English king? — >. No Compensation Expected. From Truth. Nervous employer—“I don’t pay you for whistling.’ New office boy—“That's all right, sir. I can’t whistle well enough yet to charge ex- tra for it.” ter smile,