River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1884-11-06

/ French, he learned from him many
words of his own rude, native tongue,
and communicated with him as much as
possible In that alone, aided by
| gesture, in which, like all French
men, he possessed marvellous facility
| of expression. In the unexplored back
country of Africa the negro had been a
| prince, and Fournier babe him look
| forward to the time when he would re-
| turn and rule He always addressed
him by his African name and title in
4 his own tongue. He took him into the
wards of his hospital and taught him
I to be useful at surgical operations and
to care for the instruments, that he
might become familiar with them and
with the sight of blood; which at first
maddened HIM. Once he gave him a
a drug that made his head throb, and
! then bled him with almost instant re.
| lief He affected an interest III the am
ulets which hung at his neck. and be-
sought him to give him one TO wear.
/ He committed to his care, with express
sions of the greatest solicitude, strong
box, brass bound and carefully locked,
which he told him contained his god, a
most potent and cruel deity, who would.
however, when it pleased him, give
back the life of dead man for blood
| This box contained silver cup, with a
thermometer fixed at its side; glass
syringe holding about third of pint /;
large curved needle perforated in its
length like a tube, sharp at one end, at
the other expanded to fit accurately the
nozzle of the syringe; little strainer
also filing the syringe; and last, a small
| bundle of wires with a handle like an
egg beaten.
For the rest, this savage was crooked,
iIl-shapen and hideous. His skin was
as black as night; his head small, the
face immensely disproportionate to the
Uranium; his jaws massive and armed
with glittering white teeth, filed to the
points his cheeks full, his nose fiat, his
eyes little, deep-set, restless, wicked.
The usage he received from his new
master was so different from his former
experience with white men, and so In
accord with his own undiciplined ma
ture, that it called forth all the sympa-
thies Of his character. He soon loved
the Frenchman with an intensity Of af-
lection almost incomprehensible. 1t is
no exaggeration to say that he would
have willingly laid his life to crafty his
masters slightest wish. The latter's
knowledge was to him so comprehen;
siye, his power so boundless and his will
so imperious and infexible, that he
feared and worshiped him as a god.
Fournier looked upon his monster
with satisfaction, and longed for bat
tie. His wish was at last gratified.
On the Fourth of July, 1864, an engage
ment took place three miles northwest
of Legareyille, near the North Edisto
river. A force of Union soldiers had
been assembled from the Sea islands
and from Florida, massed on Seabrook
island, and pushed thence up into
South Carolina Every movement was
watched and reported by the rebel
scouts; all the troops that could be
spared from Charleston were sent out
to oppose the invaders; roads were OBJ
structed, bridges were destroyed, bat
teries erected in strong positions, every
| thing prepared to impede their progress.
With infinite fatigue and peril they adj
vanced only five or six miles in day
march. There was occasional skirmlsh-
ing; but one actual battle. TO that the
troops gave the name of "the Battle OF
Bloody Bridge"
In this battle heavy as the losses
were, the Confederates took but one
prisoner. At the third charge a tall,
broad captain, who seemed,
like another son of Thetis, almost lnvul-
nerable, darted impetuously ahead of
his men and reached the summit of the
| defense. Useless bravery In an in
slant Il volley point blank swept away
the charging men behind him, and a
gunner's sabre-thrust bore him to the
ground within the works, where he lay
stunned and bleeding beside the gun
he had striven so hard to take. The
man who had captured him. wild with
excitement and maddened with the
powder that blackened him, and the
hot blood which jetted upon him, sprang
down, spat upon HIM, spurned him with
his foot. and would have dashed out his
brains with the heavy hilt of his dubbed
sword had not a strong hand held his
uplifted wrist.
1t was Fourier, who had watched
the battle with an interest as intense as
that of the most ardent southerner in
the battery, though wildly different in
character His interest was that of the
naturlist who stands by eager to see a
rustic entrap some rara avis that he de-
slres to study, to use for his expert
ment
The gunner turned tiercely upon him,
but dropped his arm and sheathed his
sabre at his question, and walked back
to his gun abashed, for he was, after all,
brave and chivalrOus man.
Fourier simply asked: "Do confed-
crate soldiers murder prisoners of war ?"
And added, He is a wounded man
leave him to me-" Then he knelt down
beside him and examined his wound
and though he strove to be calm he
trembled with excitement as he tore
open the blue blouse and felt the warm
blood yelling over his fingers. 1t was
simple wound through the feshy part
of the shoulder; a strand of saddler's
silk and few strips of sticking plaster
would have sufficed to dress it, but the
Frenehman smiled when he wiped away
the clots and saw the blood squirting
from two or three small divided arteries
Then he called his African, and they
carried the wounded man back to the
tent, and lald him on bed of moss and
cypress boughs, and left him there to
bleed, while he went out into the air.
And the prisoner, what of him? Any
one, looking upon him as he lay upon
the cypress boughs, would have known
him to be thoroughbred. Everything
about him proclaimed it. His face
manly but gentle, his figure, great in
stature and strength, yet graceful in
outline like q Grecian god, the very
dress and accoutrements he wore, which
were neat, strong, expensive, but with
out ornament showed him to be gen
tleman. And Robert Shirley was a
gentleman. Probably no man in all
the states could have been found who
would have presented greater contrast
to the man standing guard outside the
tent than this man who lay within it,;
and for that reason none who would
have been so welcome to Fourier. AS
the one was pure savage, the other
was the realization of the most illustri-
Gus enlightenment; the other gentle,
frank, considerable; as the one was hid
eous, Informed and black as night, so
the other was radiant with manly beau
ty, and fair as the morning. Each
among his own people sprang from no.
BILE stock; the one prince, the other
the descendant of the purest Pu-
ritan race, which knew among its own
divines and judges, brave captains. and