The Red Cloud chief., 1881-10-13

p!oached his master and presented
n'm a letter almost exactly In these
"on my honor. ! answer for the ads,I,v ana
700 conduct OF the coachmsn, Muller, and I
WI ne very much O ligei TO the C0uuf C
existence o Of ts ssen ma TO know ,e me :eore, Of tho
And il I wished to know it?'' said
the General to his coachman.
81 would be forced TO quit -FOUR sery-
Ice, said he. 81 would do il with
great regret. because l esteem myself
happy TO live with you; but | would DO
it Immediately"
The good conduct Of this man, and
the recommendation OF the Austrian
officer. decided the General not To push
his inquiries n further. Muller re-
mained in his stable, and in a few
months this event vas completely for
gotten. Probably it had been entirely
effaced from the Generals memory,
when n terrible accident again called it
to his mind.
One morning when Muller was lead
ing his horses to the watering place he
was upset By one OF them. and carried
TO the hotel with his skull fractured,
and in such a condition "a to leave no
hope of his recovery. In fact, he died
the same day. without having recovered
consciousness.
The mex day. when they were pro-
ceeding with the burial. the General
charged n Of his aides-de camp to ex-
anime Muller's chamber and to take
note OF everything he found there.
Muller was a careful and economical
man, and probably had accumulated
some savings; he possessed, besides, a
gold snuff-boX and a fine gold watch Of
great value, and the General desired all
these objects TO be collected that they
might he delivered TO his family in case
they discovered who he vas. The aide
de-camp proceeded TO Mul,er's chamber
To execute the orders of the General.
but his surprise was great when. on
opening the coachman's trunk. the first
thing he found was au Austrian uni
form, aColoncl's epaulettes. a commits
sion for that rank and diplomas for
other orders. The regalla for these
orders, many of them OrnanIen.ed with
diamonds, were inclosed in this trunk
with tine uniform. The aide-dc-camp.
who was not aware of tie adventure OF
the dinner table, suspected ut once that
these objects were the product of nu-
merous petty thefts on the part of Null
Ter; but when he gave an o OF
what he had discovered to the General,
the latter recalled the event we have
recorded above, and wished to see for
himself the objects found i'm the cham
Der of the coachman. He hoped to find
there some papers which would explain
this mystery; but he found no other i'll
formation than what was contained in
the commission spoken Of, and which
were all issued in the name of the
Count de V. Outside of these there
was no correspondence or previous act
of the coachman which betrayed what
there was in common between the
coachman, Muller, and the Count de
", Colonel in the service of Austria
He was again left to his conlectures,
and many weeks passed without the
General learning anything new con
corning this strange man, when n
day he saw the Austrian officer who
had recognized Muller in such an ex-
traordinary manner enter his apart
mcnt. lie hal not appeared ut Ragusa
since the event of the dinner table. al
though he lived i'm the vicinity.
A chance conversation had appraised
him of the death of the Generals
coachman. and he presented himself To
reclaim the papers which had been
found in Muller $ chamber. The name
of this officer and the consideration he
enjoyed were sufficient To remove any
doubt rs To his right to this heritage
the moment he claimed it: nevertheless,
the General believed il his duty to de-
mand some explanation of him. and
the officer replied immediately:
II will inform you the more willingly
on what you wish To know, 5 nee you
have relied on a simple attestatiOn from
me in keeping this unhappy Muller in
your service Notwithstanding the myS-
terry which surrounded him. This uni
form. these epaulettes, these decora-
tons belonged to him justly; he bravely
earned them as a soldier. A fault
caused him 10 lose them. but he has so
nobly eNpiated it that | think | can bet
ter render homage to his memory by
revealing it TO you, than by leaving
YOU perplexed by doubts which you will
not be able to explain.
MULLER is none other then the Count
de V. nv elder brother. There is
nothing extraordinary i'm his history ex-
cept what YOU know. At an early age
he had gained the grade and the dis
tinctions, the titles of which You have
just discovered. and his military fortune
had been so rapid that he raised hopes
in my fathers mind that he would rise
to the highest offices of honor in the
State. A single event, rs so often hap
pens, destroyed all these hopes. My
brother. wounded in acombat. in which
he had distinguished himself. was forced
TO retire to the waters of Carlsbad in
order TO recover He found there a
large number of his fellow cOuntrymen
possessed of immense fortunes. You
know to what a limit the passion of
play is carried i'm these resorts, where
a person comes oftener TO expose his
wealth than to recover his health. My |
brother. forgetting too easily that he
possessed nothing but his rank as a
Colonel. engaged in these gaming par
ties, where the persons with whom he
PLAYED had much more money than he,
and certainly much less honesty. In a
short time he found himself ruined and
encumbered with that species OF debt
which people are accustomed to call
utUtS Of nO1OT dtlu WHICH,, oil
that, have little that is honorable about
them. If my brother had not been SO
young, he would not have felt as ur-
gentlyas he did the necessity of paying
these debts in a few days, and perhaps,
10 repair q fault, would not have been
driven to commit a crime. In his de-
spair, his reason lost. imagining that
he could no longer appear in public
without having paid the amounts he
had lost. he had recourse to a very dis
honorable e of satisfying his cred
itors; he forged the name of nv father.
who, at that time had great credit in
Germany; he discounted the draft, and
very soon freed himself from his en-
barrassment. But he had scarcely
committed this crime, when he foresaw
all the consequences of it; he lost his
head. and. protiting by 4 certificate of
convalescenee which he had obtained,
haieft Germany.
my father was far from suspecting
all that had happened: and when the