The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1874-06-11
THE SISTER OF CHARITY.

THE SISTER Of CHARITY.
"Tell me how all these sorrows came
to pass" said !, taking her hand caress-
ingly in mine.
"My story may be compressed into
few sentences, said she. 81 am now
twenty-four years of age. When in my.
mere girlhood, became happy wife;
Oh, can it be that but six years have
passed since then---six years that seem as
ages now and since l had little boy
who called me mother, cherub with
ROSY cheeks and golden curls, who was
Just beginning to lisp and prattle, when
my second great sorrow came "a child
sent me to replace the loss of my first
little Rene, whose hair was SO faxen and
silky.
ooh, mon Dieu! can see them both
yet--the last more plainly than the first,
more vividly even as when / held him
up to receive his fathers kiss--the fare
well kiss of my Louis, so handsome, brave
and tender, as he marched in haste with
his regiment from Avignon to Paris,
where there was soon to be enacted that
terrible coup d detat; for the 10th Chasseurs
Pied proved to be one of those corps on
whom the Emperor, then Prince Presi-
dent of the Republic, mainly relied for
support against the citizens.
"For two years we had lived in hap
piness at Avignon, and then time softened
to me the blow / had suffered in the loss
of nv first little baby. We were not in
the barracks at the Papal Palace, but
though our means were limited-rented a
pretty cottage on green slope, at the
- oh, hafx xyIn
rose-gardens, flowed the Rhone.
"in memory l can see it yet-that
secluded abode, half buried amid honey
suckle and jasmine, with its charming
little hower-garden, where Louis COM
rades, who had served with him under
Canrobert in Africa, often came to smoke,
play chess or dominoes, accompany me
at the piano, or play with my little boy |,
for the Chasseurs were as kind-hearted
and happy fellows as they were brave;
and in fancy, too, can see dear, quaint
old Avignon, with all its embattled walls
and towers, and the belfry of the Cor
deliers where Petrarch first saw Laura !;
the sterile rocks of Vaucluse, Mont Ven
toux, ever beautiful with vegetation,
though its head is veiled in snow, and
the undulating hills all green with vine
yards and groves of oil and mulberry
trees-a scene on which my eyes shall
never look again; nor should desire to
do so, now that all whom l loved are
gone.
"My heart seemed to go with the
Chasseurs, as the echoes of their drums
died away on the Paris road. The regi-
ment, l have said, marched hurriedly
and in haste and / was left alone with
nv child, and full of keen anxiety, for
whispers came of terrible things that
were expected in Paris; but no sure
tidings reached me. No letters came |;
the telegraph wires were cut in many
places: in others the rails were torn up I;
the newspapers dared not print much
intelligence; the mails were most uncer-
tain; so we, in that remote province,
knew little or nothing OF what was being
done elsewhere till long after it was
passed and over.
GAS the days stole slowly on and be-
came weeks, how anxiously l reckoned
them, and longed for my dear Louis |!
and how missed his happy comrades
merry Jules Perreau, who won his epau-
lettes when fighting with the Gath against
Abou Maza in Africa; Emile de Castel-
lain, who had the deadly encounter with
two sheikhs in the terrible Djerma Pass,
and slew them both; and who, though a
great brawny and bearded captain, was
the slave of a pretty wife, whose little
white feet he would have worshipped,
had she commanded him to do so; and
then there was handsome Francois
Guerin, who led his company 80 bravely
at Narah, where the fierce Arabs had
their nests like eagles among the rocks,
and who died of fever in the Vale of
Aladdyn, raving alternately in prayer to
the Blessed Virgin, and in fancied love
speeches to Mademoiselle Pompan, the
dancer at the Porte st. Martin. Alas,
how sad it was!
"Inursed and laid them all in their
graves at Varna-horrible Varna.
"Time, / have said, passed on, but
there came no tidings from Paris nc
letters from my husband but one night
oh, / shall never forget It'll! heard
the sounds of shrieks, of malediction'
and musketry, near my cottage, where
covering 1 lay abed, with little Louis
nesting in my breast. After a time these
terrible noises passed away, and all be
came ominously still; but / had heard
that the people were full Of wrath agains'
the troops of the Republic, and that the
troops hated and despised the citizens
and that hence many fugitives and de
serters were tracked and murdered OF
the highways.
al feared that something dreadful mus
have taken place in my vicinity; tina
my husband might have been returning
to me, and-but no--nol l thrust TIT
idea aside, as not to be dwelt upon.
"Peeping forth fearfully in the earl!
morning, while all Avignon lay sunk II
purple shadow, and the Rhone looked 81
deep and blue, saw at the bottom o
our little garden the body of a man In
uniform.
cit was not the light green and gold O
the Chasseurs, but dark blue embroidered
with oak leaves, the costume of French
General. He was not, as at first feared
dead, but sorely exhausted from wounds
bruises and toll. He had, no doubt, beer
assailed by some of the turbulent peas
antry, and would be again If discovered
by them. reused him, and, assisting
him with my little strength, laid him OF