Connecticut western news., 1872-12-13

science has not yet discovered tue usc oi it. l believe in the nervous system also, and the hallucinations of the brain."
 "Ah! need not have asked you; ] know what materialist you are, and am not clever enough to argue with you. Yet, say what you will, am convinced that my time has come. do not care 1 am an outcast, and my life is of no value let it go. Yet I should like my people to know that I thought of them will you take my message, Anatole ? We have been fast friends for years"
 ''Of course I will, even if I have to brave the fogs of your England. But as for your life being of no value, I'll wager that there is some little blue-eyed mess over the Channel, who holds a diff ferent opinion. What Pardon my fl1end see that have touched lightly on some painful memory. How should I know :? I have never seen you in this mood before.'
 "Nor am I much subject to low spirits" replied the Englishman " but tonight is Christmas Eve, and it has always been the custom of my family to meet together to-day. This is the first year that one has missed, and am that one: what is worse, I should not be welcome if I were there."
 {" Bah Is your mother liying?"
 "Yes."
 "Then she would welcome you, my word for it"
 "But my father would not, he is a hard man. Look here, Anatole, have been fool. might be in a good posi- tion rich, comfortable. with the choice of my own career. was loved by the dearest girl-only of that my parents knew nothing they would not have ap- proved, for she was poor-a governess. Still, that might have beef got over. Well, I threw all away, and for nothing; out of sheer stupidity and heedlessness, thinking only of the fun of the moment. And tonight I think and feel as never did before. What am doing here? l love your cause-your nation, Anatole, but the quarrel is none of mine. If you fall, you die in the path of duty; you are hero but am meddliug intru- der, and deserve my fate. You have often called me rattlepated, but my head is quite clear tonight; that is what makes me sure l am going to die. You will laugh at me, for you Frenchmen be- lieve in nothing, reverence nothing; but tell you that have been praying; aye, repeating the prayers learned years ago at my mothers knee. But enough of egot'sm; if do fall, and you have time, there is @ packet addressed in my knap- sack; and inside my shirt I wear 8 locket-"
 A shot interrupted the speaker-a se- cond-a volley-a volley. All were at their post in moment. The English man had no time for further speech or thought. Memories, regrets, hopes, were all swallowed up in the one absorbing interest of the present moment the in stinct of preservation the intoxica- 1 tion of strife. It was prosaic fighting, with none of the battle gliding about it.: no plumes, no flash of steel, no pranc- ing steeds, no blare of trumpets, no emulation no gloly-ia fight ill the dark, where the craven could not be distin- euised from the hero where Bayard had Ho more chance of winning laurels than Falstaff. Yet men fought stoutly on both sides widely, vaguely indeed at first, without much execution, though with fierce ardor to infict it. But ac- curacy of aim was impossible; they fred principally at the flash of their enemies rifles, and the struggle threat ened to be long and undecisive. This did not suit the officer iD command of the attaching party. The ruins were wanted by the engineers suddenly, for some operation connected with their purpose, and had been told 10 see If they were held, and if so to clear them. This was not to be done by skirmishing vaguely till the main body of the ene- mics outpost came up, so he soon cried, "Cease firing, fix bayonets, and push them out of that"
 Hand-to-hand contests are very rare in modern warfare but in cases of sur prise, or night attacks by small bodies of D,en, they will occur. The attacking party advanced slowly, keeping as much as possible together, for if they were once scattered it would have been diff fcult to distinguish friend from foe, and slowly but surely they drove the defend CTS before them. These were posted be- hind broken masses of wall; ill door ways, CT wherever cover was attainable. When the serried rank came upon them, there was 8 shot or two, a thrusting, shouting, cursins; and the wave rolled onwards.
 The Englishman and his friend were still unWounded; they had 1etreated, fighting desperately, from post to post, and were now driven with the last de- lenders, to the further end of the street. There was nothing for it but to retire in- to the darkness; they had done their duty, and were outnumbered. Suddenly the voice of Anatole cried, GA moi!' The English lad turned round again, and running to the spot, found his friend down, and clinging to the legs of man who sought to brain him with the butt end of his rife. A shot from the hip at two paces' distance blew the German over and allowed Anatole to rise, but at the same moment his dellverer received pistol bullet through the thigh and a heavy blow on the shoulder. It was i'm possible for either to retreat now. Ana tole was seized and made prisoner. The Englishman, more powerfully built, turned at bay. For full minute he stood alone, exchanging thrust fol thrust with his foes. Then down he went, heavy foot was placed on his breast, his brain reeled, he lost for a second the consciousness of where he was; he saw well-known room, bril- liant room, brilliant with light and hap. py faces he saw his father, his mother, his brothers and sisters, and one pale face so dear-oh, so dear Then there came pang so horrible, so excrucia, ting, that the pen carrot describe it, ol the imagination conceive it. And al was dark.
 Dead? No. The tie which binds soul and body together is so strong, anc yet so weak A fish-bone in the throat Il spoonful of poison: full backwards from bar-the slightest thing serves tc frame may be cru he'd, burned, man , gled out of recognition, yet the life vii not leave it.
 Tom Promfret was pierced thro71cl