The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1879-01-01
MISCELLANY.
TIE COLONIES SENTENCE.
AN ALGERIAN STORY.

time, said Paul dupont, French sous-lieu-
tenant in the --th of the line, as he sat SIP
ping his coffee in front of the Hotel de la Re-
gence at Algiers, +" but by far the cleverest
man ever met was our old Colonel, Henri dc
Malet People said he ought to have been an
agocat, but that was giving him but half his
due, for I'll be bound be could have outfank-
ed any lawyer that ever wore a gown. In his
| latter days he always went by the name of
Solomon the Second and if you care to
hear how he came by it III tell you.
/" Before be came to us De Malet was mill
| tary commandment at Gran, and it was there
that he did one of his best strokes-outgen-
eraling camel driver from Tangier, one of
those thorough paced Moorish rascals of whom
the saying goes, Two Maltese to Jew, and
three Jews to Moor Now this Tangerine,
when pulled up for some offense OF other,
swore that he wasn't Muley, the camel driver.
at all, but quite another man and as his
friends all swore the same, and he had man
aged to alter his appearance bit before he
was arrested he seemed safe to get Oft. But
our Colonel wasn't to be outdone in that way.
He pretended to dismiss the case, and allow
ed the fellow to get right out into the street
as if all was over; and then he suddenly
shouted after him, Muley, the camel.driver,
want to speak to YOU. The old rogue, hear
ing his own name, turned and came back be-
fore he could reeoect himself ; and so he was
caught in spite of all his cunning.
1.-THE fame OF this exploit went abroad like
wildfire, and it got to be- saying amongst us,
whenever we heard of any very clever trick,
that it was one of Colonel de Maet's judy
ments and SO, when he was transferred
from Oran to Algiers, it was just as if we all
knew him already, although none of us had
ever seen him before. But it wasn't long be-
fore we got a much better story than that
about him fer one night man dined at our
mess who had known the Colonel out in India
and told MS grand tale of how he had aston
ished them all at Pondeberry 1t seems that
some things had been stolen from the officers
quarters, and nobody could tell who had done
it. The first thing next morning the Colonel
went along the line at early parade, giving
each of the native soldiers small strip of
bamboo and he said, very solemnly, My
children, there is a guilty man among us, and
it has been revealed to me by Brahma himself
how his guilt is to be made clear. Let every
man of you come forwaidin his turn and give
me his piece of bamboo and the thief, let
him do what he may, will have the longest
piece
Now, You know what superstitious
dc Aota f,,1t 4
when they heard this announcement they all
looked at each other like children going TO be
whipped The Colonel took the bamboos one
after another, as solemnly as if he were on
court-martial, but when about dozen men
had gone past he suddenly sprang forward
and seized one of them by the throat, shout
ing at the full pitch of his voice, You are
the man =
Down went the fellow on his knees and
yelled for mercy, confessing that he aeas the
man, sure enough AS for the rest, they look
ed as frightened as If all the gods in the cav
ems of Elephanta bad come flying down a
mong them at once and from that day forth
they salaamed to the very ground at the mere
sight of the Colonel half mile off
"' How on earth did you manage that,
Colonel?' asked the senior Major, great fat
fellow, as stupid as a carp.
SO Nothing simpler, my dear fellow, ans
wered De Malet, laughing. The strips were
all exactly the same length, and the thief
fearing to get the longest piece, betrayed him
self by biting or The end
"This, as you may think, added good
deal 10 the Coloneps reputation and when
we had that affair with the Bedouins at Lagh-
ouat we saw that he could fight as well as
maneuvre. In the thick of the skirmish one
of the rogues, seeing De Malet left alone,
flew at him with drawn yataghan, but the
Colonel just dropped on his horses neck and
let the blow pass over him, and then gave
point and ran the fellow right through the
body, as neatly as any fencing master could
have done it.. You may be sure that we
thought none the less of him after that but
all this was nothing to what was coming.
Wen, De Malet had been with us about a
year when the railway was begun from AL
giers to Bidah, and the directing engineer
happened to be one of the greatest friends,
Eugene Latour, as good a fellow as ever met
1t was quite fete with us whenever he dined
at mess, for his jokes and good stories kept
every one brisk and then to hear him sing !
ma fol, it was wonderful One minute some
rafting refrain that seemed to set the very
chairs dancing, and then suddenly low, sad
air that fairly brought the tears into your
eyes. They were in mine, I know, every
time heard him sing those last two verses of
The Conscript's Farewell: =
/ thought to gain rich spoils--Tve gained
/ OF bullets half a score
/ thought TO come back Corporal
shall come back no more.
Feed my poor dog. pray thee, Rose,
And with him gentle be
He'll miss his master for while,
Adieu remember me
"Well, as was saying, Eugene had been
put over the work, and don't know where
they could have found a better man for it,
Whether it poured with rain or came on hot
enough to cook outlet without fire, it was
all one to him there he was at his post, look
ing after everything, with his eyesin ten plac
es at once. You may think that under sucl