Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1884-07-05
Philadelphia Call.

~~-N
| retrace.
II was in 1870, in a farm house of
Champagne on the edge of the forests.
Over the mantlepiece hung three gems
with massive butts and glistening barrels.
Onebelonged to the father, the other to
tbe son and the third to the grandson.
Near the window a woman of vigorous
and rare beauty was spinning on a spin
ung.whael. She was not yet forty. She
was the daughter-in-lsw, the wife, the
mother.
The three men took down their guns
andwcnt out fIrtivel yfrom the house after
having first embraced the woman, who
afterward leaning from the window, sent
them stout-hearted salute.
Where were they going? Is 1t neces-
sary to say? The Germans had just in
ysded the country.
Left alone, Jeanne Bernier, her arms
crossed upon her breast, grazed sadly at
carabine that stretched along the wall
between pewter crucfix and an image
of the Wandering Jew. Ii, with your
finger. YOU could draw aside the Grape
tied around the barrel you would see a
red spot, a stain of blood that flowed for
the country.
But why was it there, that useless cara
bine, at rest while the three guns were
about 10 go to work and make the pow
der talk? What was it waiting for to
make the powder talk also? Was there
not in the neighborhood hand to take
il tdown, finger to load it, French eye
10 aim at German breast along its bar
rel? Where was the owner of that cara
bine? He was dead-he was Jesnne's
brother. One evening when he lad
gone out to hunt Prussians they had
brought him back to the farmhouse
MORALLY wounded by ball. He was
now sleeping under white stone, and
all the noise OF war could not awake him.
That carabine had done its duty; it was
no longer a weapon, it was q family
relic.
|. Meanwhile the Prsssians were ap
,ps hing; every day floods of men and
80. ,stretched out and swelled, invad-
ing -hsmlet, . village, a, town, a wood,
forest, field-a ran, covering our
mouutainsand our cities, reddening with
foam of blood our brooks and rivers
and from every side overhowing upon
the plain.
One night hand raped gently at the
door Of the farm house. that opened to
give admission to a sharpshooter. He
was native of the district, one of Ber-
nier's friends. He informed Jeanne
that her father, her husband and her
son were dead.
SURPRISED and surrounded in the
depths of wood by thirty Prussians,
twelve shar pshooters had resisted their
attack. The Berniers had fought and
fallen like heroes.
The father and the husband fell the
first, almost at the same time, upon five
or six eorpses Of which tl' = had made
rampant.
leaning against tree, Jeanne's son
faced the fury of his assailants. He vas
like an oak backed against an oak. He
seemed invulnerable, and each time he
thrust forward his bayonet there was a
dead man upon its,point
Then young Bavarian officer ap-
preached and, with smile on his lips
stretched him out with revolver shot
between the father and the grandfather.
Thus died the three Berniers; thus
we're extiuSu'shed in an instant three
generations.
After having delivered his message,
the sharpshooter, taking advantage of
the darkness Of the night, said farewell
to the widow and departed to rejoin his
comrades.
An hour later Jeanne took down her
brothers carabine, put on the garments
of the dead man, and in turn quilted
that farm house that her family would
never see again2
She was now no longer either the
daughter, the wife, or the mother; she
|. was ouly French woman. What do /
say? She was only q soldier.
I The three guns were silent, and il was
4 the carabine thai, passing like q heritage
from the hand Of the brother to that Of
his sister, ,was going 10 make the powder
talk.
The6r& wsrbleof the birdshad scarce
" annc0nced the day when Jeanne,
oQuching amid the bushes. saw on the
edge of the forest b Uhlan trotting slow
" dong on bis black horse.
He was slender young man with a
blonde moustache and blue ewes. From
time 10 time he removed his helmet
shaking ont his curly locks 70 the breeze
ofthe wood, breathing with keen enjoy
tnonts the balmy morning air; then he
put spurs to bis horse and murmured a
musical German song, the while admir-
ING the beousiful scenery Of France.
s,ss Jeanne ne x sslled him; he halted. She
! have avenged my fatherp said she,
and disappeared.
And all that day she remained con-
teaied IN the bushy thickets, her eve
open; her ear listening, and her cara
nlne in her hand. Not sound save the
chant Of the cricket or the hoarse cry of
he crow.
But in the evening, at nightfall, the
nelghing of horse made her start.
Jeanne slowly raised her head, gazing
through large fern as if behind q