The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1875-05-23

laughed q long, rafting laugh.
Then the others, those phantoms, spectres,
as if new life had been given them, dashed
over the ruins of the ancient burg, shrieking
DEATH Death to the Germans! Crush
them we did ut Blusfeld."
Never did eye behold n scene more terrible
Wretches at the gates of the tomb-leau, flesh |
less as skeetons--fonnd again their strength |
and their courage They blenched not; each
man seized his fragment of rock, hurled it over
the precipce, and rushed back to find another,
without even waiting to see the effect of the
one he had thrown.
No pen can paint the terror of the Ksiserliks
| as this storm of rocks dashed down upon their
heads. All turned as they heard the crashing
bushes and trees, and at FIRST stood gazing as
if petrfied. Raising their eyes, they saw
Others and still others. rushing down, and
above, figures like spectres appear and disap
pear, hurting missiles Of death into the air;
they saw around them their crushed and man.
gled comrades-lines of fifteen or twenty men
stricken down at once. wild cry echoed
from the depths of the valley to the peak of
Falkenstein, and despite the commands of their
leaders, despite the hail of shot that began to
pour from right and left upon them. the Ger
mans, careless whittier they went, fled any
where to avoid the horrible death that smote
them there.
In the thick of the rout, however, the Aus
trian general succeeded in rafiying battalion
and brought it in good order 10 the village
Calm and collected amid disaster and DEATH
he seemed worthy his high rank. He turned
gloomily from time to time, to gaze on the
falling rocks, which still ploughed bloody
farrows through his colamn.
Jean-Claude observed him, and in spite Of
the intoxicstion of victory, and the Joy OF
having ercaped the horrors of q death by
: famine, the old soldier could not restrain his
admiration.
r Look" be cried to Jerome, she does as We
did on the retreat from Donon and Grossmann
He is the last to retire, aua only yields his
{ ground foot by foot. Truly there are brave
r men of all countries"
Aarc-Dives and Pivrette, witnessing this
o turn of fortune, descended among the fr-trees
f to ont off the enemys retreat; but the effor
# was in vain. The battalion, reduced one-half
+ formed square behind the village of Chsrmes
n and then retreated slowly up the valley of thu
# Sarre, hating at times, like q wounded ant
# hunted wild boar turning upon his tormentors
y whenever the men of Pivrette or from Phals
10 bourg pressed them too closely.
p Thus ended the great battle of Falkenstein
% known among the mountaineers as the battl
p of the Rocks.
e. CHAPTER XVI.
or Scarcely had the fight ceased when, towar
h eight o'clock, Marc.Dives, Gaspard, and som
ID thirty mountaineers, bearing baskets of foot
If reached the peak of Falkenstein. What
~ spectacle awaited them there! The besieget
n stretched on the earth, seemed dead. In val
a they shook the bodies and shouted in the
mn ears; no answer came. Gaspard Lefevre, sc
~, ing his mother and Louise lying motioples
he with teeth fast locked together, told Marc,
az his agony, that unless they recovered he won
.dn blow out his brains with his own muske
IRE Marc replied that every one was free to do
bis he pleased but that for his part he would
ain no such thing on Hexe- BaisePs account.
,be length old Colon placed his basket on a stor
NO Kasper Msterne suddenly sighed, opened
eyes and, seeing the food, began clack ing
era teeth like mished fox.
an They knew what that meant and Ma
or Dives passed his flask under the nose of ea
. of one, which was sufficient to resuscitate the
ost. They wanted to devour all the provisions
lion once but Doctor Lorquin had sense enor
gan remaining to warn Marc not to listen to tn
for the least excess would be sure death. r.
Je- one received, therefore, only small pe6
d do bread, egg and glass of wine, which
The stored their powers singularly. Then t
ing placed Catherine, Louise, and the entire pa
will OF sleds, and descended TO the village.
Who could describe the enthusiasm
the emotion of their friends, when they saw Il
line arrive, more meagre than Lazarus risen f
the his grave! They gazed at, embra
their Rugged, and every new conner from Abre
the willer, Dagsberg, st. Quirin, or anywhere
hair had to repeat the ceremony.
/, and Marc-Dives was obliged twenty times t.
t the late the story of his journey to Phalsbo
the Luck had been against the brave smug
made After having almost by q miracle escaped
de of bullets of the Ksserliks, he fell in the vi
of Spartzprod, into the middle of tro'
3! he Cossacks, who robbed him of every Il
y and Then for two weeks he had to roam about
Russian posts, which surrounded the
, once drawing the fire of their sentries and run