The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1869-02-10

had, and you are very wicked to treat good
brown loaf so. My mother made it, and
God Furnishes people who fling bread on the
ground.
The rude French soldiers might have made
him suffer for his plain speaking, had not
the officer, looking ashamed, marched them
on to other houses, searching for white
bread, better suited to their dainty appe-
tites.
The incident had been witnessed by a
crowd of people, who, shocked and indig
nant, all prophesed humiliation and misfor'
tune to the uncourteous strangers. After
few hours, the French troops marched off,
and the old town, whose inhabitants they had
bullied and robbed, returned to its quiet,
steady going ways. They marched on with
splendid visions and magnificent plans of
conquest, glory, dominion, spoils and revels-
TO disaster, defeat-to unutterable horrors
Of tempest, cold and death. The dread ele-
ments the awful forces of nature, were ar
rayed against them-the blind, avenging
fures of frost, and fire, and food. In the
cold BISON of strange land, unseen graves,
like icy pitfalls, awaited them; and in the
! clouds Of an alien sky were even then being
prepared for them, slowly and silently, from
| tba s,cr aVbola+;ons of tba oupomar Garth
vast wndingsheets of snow. Many green
valley, III which they gaily bivouacked on
the daisy turf, with murmurous leaves and
sweet bird chirpings overhead, was a few
months later to receive them in white silence
to invite them to beds of treacherous soft
ness and fatal repose, overhung by leafess
branches sheathed in ice-a spot seemingly
abandoned by nature, forsaken of life, a
ghostly valley of the shadow of death.
When the people of Oschatz heard of the
fearful reverses of that grand army, they
said: cit is little wonder, if they all flung
good bread on the ground, and kicked it
about, after the manner of the heaven-defy-
ing soldiers who marched through our town"
At last, the remnants of that proud in
vading host came struggling back through
Germany, A miserable set of men were
they-sickly, ragged, MANNED, frost bitten
humiiated and amazed to see the world slip.
ping from the grasp of their deity,.the great
Emperor-that the laws of nature did not
come under the Code of Napoleon that,
in his magnificent plans of conquest, he had
left out the mighty disturbing elemental
forces, had left out chances, accidents, provi-
dences, God.
So it happened that the town of Oschatz
was again visited by the French, and,
strangely enough, it happened that to that
very town came the sad remnants of that
very company thathad called down upon their
heads the bread curse Again they halted
before the ministers house, and again little
Constantine ran to his mother for bread.
This time there was white bread, and he
took it out and offered it to that very young
officer he remembered well, though now he
saw him pale and emaciated, his brave uni
form soiled and dilapidated, and one sleeve
of his braided coat hanging empty. To the
lads surprise, the officer recognized him at
once; to his greater surprise, he burst into
~oe..ol - &o1ro h.
white loaf, saying;
"No, my good little friend, cannot take
this, though 1 am very hungry, as are my
men. Bring US black bread, such as we
trampled under foot in the summer-that is
better than we deserve. God has indeed
punished us for our arrogance"
Then little Constantine wentin the house
and got brown loaf from his mother, and
all the charitable neighbors contributed from
their stores, far more willingly than they
had once done, feeding the poor, crest-fallen
fellows, and refreshing them with good beer,
without addressing to them one reproachful
word-without as much as saying to them,
"We told you so-you profane frog-eaters
and bread-despisers!
This was the way in which the good peo
pie of Oschatz obeyed the command of their
Lord, eff thine enemy hunger, feed him
if he thirst, give him drink"
One poor farmer, who had actually come
to town that day to purchase farm wagon
and horses to replace those of which these
same French soldiers had robbed him, now
filed the new vehicle with sick and wounded
men, and so conveyed them several miles on
their homeward way, walking most of the
distance himself to make room for poor
straggler. That unlettered German boor"
had probably never heard of triumphal
chariot, yet his rude chariot was one-only
that the conqueror walked, while the captives
rode. He had all unconsciously achieved
Christian victory.
AS for little Constantine H, he grew
up to be profound scholar and great ply
stefan, and what is better still, a good, brave,
true-hearted man and best of all, he is living
yet; and though keeping pace with the CEN
fury, year for year, and day by day, he does
not seem old, for his heart is stepped in the
dews of immortal youth-bene6cent chart
ties and generous humanities, the enthusiasm
of the philosopher and the faith of the Chris
.;aD A J,0,oo