The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1877-06-07

touch him. The marquis had no weapon 1
but his light rapier, and he wouldn't 4
even condescend to draw that, but he /
wrenched Simon's own gun from him, /
and beat out his brains with the butt .
end. 1t would take me till midnight If
| were to tell YOU all the horrible stories
heard about him As we crouched round
our little spark of fire at night, squeez-
ing close to each other to try and get
WARMTH at last hardly dared stir out
of the house.
1t was in the spring of 1889 that judg-
ment first began to oyertake him. He
had been away at court for two years,
his steward kept squeezing more and
more money out of us every month, to
pay for his masters fine doings at Yer
sailles- when all of sudden word got
about he was coming; and, sure enough,
a few days later he came, and with him
a whole crowd of grand folks that fairly
filled the chateau. And then, for some
weeks together, there was nothing but
feasting and drinking, and card playing,
and making love, all day long. Now, it
happened that among the ladies was one
who had been beauty at court, Mad
emoiselle Claire de Montalbert, they
called her, who had shown much favor
to our young lord, Monsieur Henri,
when they were at Versailles together;
but when she came down here, she SEEM
ed to have grown tired of him, and be-
gan to smile upon his great friend Albert
de St. Florent; till at last, as young
blood is always hot Especially when
/ there is a lady in the easel, she bred a
deadly quarrel between. One evening
/ in May, my cousin Pierre, a soldier, who
was at the chateau attending upon his
/ colonel, came down to Us and told a ter
rible story. That very morning the two
young gentlemen, and two more to sec
ond them, had come out of the chateau
I before any one else was stirring, and
away to 4 little open place in corner of
! wood and there they fell to. Henri
/ was a good blade, but this time he was
/ too hot to be prudent, and at the fifth
! pass he was run through the body. But
/ he came of race that died hard; and
+ the moment he felt steel pierce him,
threw himself forward upon the sword,
and shortening his own, ran it into NJ
/ Albert's side so fiercely the blade snap
ped right across. Then he fell back and
died where he stood. But NJ. Albert
I had little to boast of, for his wound was
mortal, and two days later, he died also.
And so the lives of two brave men were
thrown away for the caprice of a woman,
one Of those great ladies without heart
and conscience, whom God has created
/ t. avenge the sins of the mobiles upon
1 themselves
When the news of all this got abroad,
. 4. -
/ rejoice, and to say that now the aristo-
Gratis were beginning to deyour each 9th
er, and that he who had robbed SO many
of their children knew not what it was
to lose a child himself But, as we after
ward learned, the old Marquis, however
/ he might grieve, was not one to let his
! grief be known. When he heard the
news, he never sighed or trembled, but
only asked how it Jared with Nj. de st.
! Florent; and when they told him that
/ the wound was mortal, he smiled his
own cruel smile, and muttered to himself;
Good! The De Quesnoys always strike
homel And after that, he never NEIL
toned his sons name again.
! Well, Monsieur, few months later
came the news of the fall of the Bastille;
and then the peasants began to lift up
their heads, and talk of doing something;
! but no one dared to speak openly, for
/ there were troops quartered i'll BesancOn,
and nobody. knew yet whether they
void join us or not. Ct heard after
wards that they were ready enough to
/ side with us, but, having no leaders and
each man doubling whether his COM
4 rades would stand by him, they did not
'eti ~ e 10,
/ go, the soldiers in all the garrison towns
! had communicated with each other, and
were all on the side of the people; so,
one day in March, the two Besancon
regiments rose as one man, deposed their
officers, shot their colonel, and elected
Sergeant Roussel III his stead (the same
Roussel who afterwards commanded
brigade under the great emperor).
4 Then our peasants began to think that it
was time to- square accounts with the
Marquis de Quesnoy, especially as all his
/ grand friends had gone away, and there
were only few lackeys left to defend
\ him. But somebody most have
/ told him what was going on;
for just as the peasants were
all gathered in the village yonder, with
hatchets and pitchforks and what not
ready to 90 up to the chateau, there
came rattle of hoofs along the road, and
into the market place broke the old Mar
quis himself, on his great black horse,
with his gay dress glittering in the sun
shine, and his face quiet and smooth as if
he were going in Il drawing-room but his
lips We're set together like the Jaws of
wolf-trap. When | saw him coming, |
shrank away, fearing that he would
seize and devour me even among them
all; but | could see how he reigned up
his horse (the crowd parting before him
To right and left, leaped from the saddle,
and stood facing us, with his arms folded
on his breast. | think | see him now,
drawn up to his full height, with his lip
curling defiance, and his eye looking
through lis like flash OF a sword, rs he
said i'll his clear, scornful voice: 81 am
! told that you have something to say to
me. Here | am. What do YOU want?"
But there was no answer. At the sight
of his face, and the sound of his voice.
coming among Us in this way like an all
powerful master, the old fear of him and
his, branded, into Us by ages of oppres-
sion, rose up again stronger than ever;
and the whole crowd of furious men
hung their heads like rated school-boys,
and melted away before him. Tyrant
and servant of the devil though he was,
he did deed that day worthy of Twelve
Paladins; and perhaps the good God may
yet have mercy upon him, for he was Il
i brave man,
But although the Marquis escaped for
that time, his day was near at hand; for
now came news that the people had
marched upon Versailles that the king
and queen had been brought to Paris,
and that the assembly had decreed the
abolition of taxation, monopoly, aristo-
cratic oppression, and had pronounced
all men free and equal forevermore.
Every fresh bit of news worked like fire
in our blood, and at last the people of
Besancon got up rs one man, and swore
that, come what might, they would
have the Chateau de OueSn0y down. and