The Lamoille news. (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1877-1881, 1877-05-09

WASH q man 10 De uOne out OF MS
cash in that silly way, and so he
stormed at the rascal; the, in turn,
stormed as furiously in his own lingo
at him, till at last Bills blood got up,
and seizing him by the breast, he
twisted him over his knee, as one
might a boy of ten years or so. The
fellow raised a hideous outcry, as i'll
Bill were robbing and numbering him. !
Two officers, who chanced to be in the
market at the time, came running up
at the noise. One of them was the
scoundrel Turpic; and Bill was laid
hold of. and aa,s. a-ir-a,,slns su"ro "
the camp. Poor fellow, he got scsnt
justice there. Turpic had procured a
man-of-war's-man, who swore, as he
well might, indeed, that Bill was the
smuggler who had swamped the Kirk
cudbright custom-house boat. There
was another brought forward, who
swore that both of us were gipsies,
and told blasted rigmarole story,
without one word Of truth in it, about
the stealing of silver spoon. The
Arab had his story too, in his own
lingo; and they received every word
for my evidence went for nothing. l
was of a race who never spoke the
truth, they said,-as if / wern't as
good as a Mohammedan Arab. To
crown all, in came Turpic's story
about what he called Bills mutinous
spirit in the action of the 21st. You
may guess the rest, master. The
poor fellow was broke that morning,
and told that, were it not in consider
alton of his bravery, he would have
got logging into the bargain.
81 spent the evening of that day
with Bill outside the camp, and we ate
the dates together that in the morning
had cost him so dear. The reporthad
gone abroad-luckily false one--that
our colonel was dead and that put an
end to all hope with the poor fellow of
having his case righted. We spoke
together for, | am sure, two hours
spoke Of Bills early recollections, and
Of the hardship Of his fate all along.
And it was now worse with him, he
said, than it had ever been before. He
tspoke of the esrarga, unoecnnptaIa,.
hostility Of Turpic; and saw his
brow grow dark, and the veins Of his
neck swell almost to bursting. He
trusted they might yet meet, he said,
where there would be none to note
who was the officer and who the pri-
vate soldier. | did my best, master,
to console the poor fellow, and we
, parted. The first thing | saw as !
: opened the tent-door, next morning,
was Captain Turpic, brought into the
, camp by the soldier whose cousin Bill
: and l had assisted to bury. The cap
! tain was leaning on his shoulder, some
, what less than half alive, as it seemed,
with four of his front teeth struck out,
: and stream Of blood all along his
J vest and small clothes. He had been
) met with by Bill, who had attacked
him, he said, and, after breaking his
sword, would have killed him had not
. the soldier come up and interfered.
t But that, master, was the captains
r story. The soldier told me afterwards
} that he saw the captain draw his SWORD
! ere Bill lifted hand at all; and that
4 when the poor fellow did strike, he
gave him only one knock-down blow
j on the mouth that laid him insensibl(
i at his feet and that, when down
+; though he might have killedhim TWEEN
i ty times over, he didn't so much a'
e crook a finger on him. Nay, more
;, Bill offered to deliver himself up t
e the soldier, had not the latter assured
+ him that he would to a certainty b.
s shot, and advised him to make off
There was a party despatched il
a quest of him, master, the momen
: Turpic had told his story but he wa
l. lucky enough, poor fellow, to elud
T. them; and they returned in the even
7, ing just as they had gone out. An
8, | saw no more of Bill in Egypt, mas
q ter.
re After all our fears and regrets, mas
t, ter, our colonel recovered, and on
morning about four months after th
e, action came ashore to see us.
N "'I wish to know he said to mt
L 'all you can tell me about Bill Whyt'
Il You were his chief friend and compal
I'd ion, | have heard, and are acquainte
ld with his. early history. Can you te
ut me aught Of his parentageT
"' Nothingof that, colonel, | sale
Il, 'and yet | have known Bill almo
ne ever since he knew himself
m "And so, master, | told him all th'
he | knew,--how Bill had been first tal
en- en- to us by my mother of the pur
II of crold rha bod hro,1nht With h