Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1884-07-05
TALLULAH MADISON PARISH, LA, SATURDAY, JULY 1884

Cupids that, upon the smoky panels o.
the Munich breweries, pour out beer fol
King Gambrinus to drink.
He seemed soldered to his saddle as
his pipe seemed riveted to his lips
Through his spectacles sparkled shrewd
glance that sounded bhe vicinity, exam
ined the bushes and the bitches, the
stones, the briars and the tufts of grass
One might have believed him mounted
on q horse fabricated at Nuremberg.
One might have thought that one bride
rein guided that automatic cavalcade.
Jeanne brought her carabine to her
shoulder, ball Missed, and the Lieuten-
ant, staggering in his saddle like a
drunken man, suddenly bent toward the
head of the frightened horse that started
off at gallop. bearing away dead man.
~ have avenged my husband" cried
the widow, while the dragons, thinking
themselves about to be hemmed in, van
ished at the top oftheir horses speed.
Rapidly as deer Jeanne fled across
the forest. Her gourd was empty and
she had not a mouthfuh of bread left.
But she had bullets! A streamlet gave
her water to drink "a filbert tree bore
her supper at the tip of it's boughs.
On emerging from thick copse she
saw cottage at q turn of the road.
There, without doubt, she would find
bread and rest /; perhaps a shelter for the
night that was approaching; she ad-
vanced, she suddenly halted, stopped and
disappeared. At the door of the cottage
stood German sentinel. At the win
g., of 60
reading letter from the banks Of the
Spree or the borders of the Rhine, a
family or love letter that he caressed
with his eyes and read over and over
again.
Jeanne slipped along and approached
without stirring single branch. without
making grain of sand cry out.
Suddenly the report of weapon rang
through the wood and from every tree
fed bird. Captain, what did your be-
trothed say to you? You will never
again see the girl who loves you!
Now there was only a corpse at the
window. All the soldiers rushed from
the cottage, their guns in their hands,
ready to repulse the enemy. But the
enemy had fed afar, shouting:
81 have avenged my sonp
Jeanne Bernier quilted the forest that
patrols furrowed in every direction. 1t
was elsewhere she took her carabine.
Were not Prussians to be found every
where? But what did she want further?
Had she not avenged her father, her hus-
band and her son?
Five days had elapsed since the death
of the Captain, but she was still Drawing
the heroic but wretched life of the woods.
One day she dined en- cup of milk CIV
en- her by a goatherd another time she,
the rich farm owner, shared with an
old mendicant the bread of beggary.
Lying one morning amid the heath
and broom that bordered the highway,
Jeanne b. rnier perceived mass of SOL
diers waving about on the sunlighted
road. Wac il a company, regiment, an
army? They were more than five hun
dred, more than thousand strong, and
behind these foot soldiers the cavalry
pressed onward in cloud of dust.
AT the head of that formidable COL
umn rode, stern and impossible, an old
chief with long white moustache and
a scared visage. He was enormously
stout, and at each movement of his
horse his huge body swayed like d bar
rel but his vigorous hand firmly held
naked sword that shone in the sun.
Jeanne raised her carabine, and the
Prussian General lifting both his hands
toward heaven, rolled like mass be-
meath his horses hoofs.
But Instantly, struck full in the breast
by bullet, the handsome Jeanne Ber-
nier fell in her turn upon the golden
broom, murmuring:
81 have avenged my country p