The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1884-12-18
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A CRUST OF BREAD.

Lie young Duhe Vi IldTulInOHL udu
gone to AK in Savoy to let his famous
mare Pcriohole take a course of the wa
tiers. She had turned roarer since that
cold she caught at the Derby. The
Duke was finishing his breakfast one
morning and glancing absently over his
newspaper, when he read the news of
the disaster at Reichshoflen. He emp
tied his glass of Chartreuse, laid his
newspaper down on the restaurant Ia
BILE, ordered his valet to pack his
trunks, and two hours later took the
express for Paris, and hurried TO the re-
cruting Office to enlist in a foot regi-
ment.
A man may have led the enervating
life of petit creue Gas they called them)
from nineteen to twenty-fve-he may
have done his best to dull his brains in
racing stables and in the boudoirs of
opera singers. In spite of it all, there
are moments when he cannot forget
that Enguerrand de Hardimont died of
the plague at Tunis the same day as
Saint Louis; that Jean de Hardimont
commanded the Grand Companies with
Du Guesclin, and that Francois Henri
de Hardimont was killed with Mason
Rouge in the charge of Fonteno. De-
graded as he might be by his foolish
and scandalous passion for Lucy Vio-
let, the prima donna Of the Nudites
Parsiennes, when the young man
learned that a battle had been lost by
Frenchmen on French ground, the
blood rushed to his face, and he had the
horrible sensation OF blow.
So it came about in the early DAYS OF
November, 1870, Henri de Hardmont,
of the Third Fusiliers, and member of
the Jockey Club, having returned to
Paris with his regiment, which formed
part of Vinoy's Corps, was on guard
with his company before the rcdoubt OF
Hautes-Bruyeres, a position which had
heen hastily fortified and protected by
the cannons of the Fort of Bicetre.
1t was a dreary place; a road planted
on either side with rows of stunted,
leailess trees and plowcd up with deep
cart-ruts, stretched across the waste
fields of the suburb. On one side OF
the road was deserted inn, a roadside
inn with arbors in the garden, where
the soldiers had taken up their quar-
tiers. There had been fighting there O
few days before. The shots from the
mitraillcuses had shattered some of the
trees along the road, and all bore or
their bark the white scars of the bull
lets. The house itself was simply ap
palling; the roof had been smashed b,
bomb, and the walls with their dull
red paint looked as if they had been be-
spattered with blood. There was {
grim irony in the dsmantled arbor.
with the black trelis work; in tn,
swings that creaked upon the wet ropes
In the damp wind, and in the shot-rid
died signpost--a dead rabbit surmount
ed by two billiard cues tied together b.
aribbon, and framed around with tn
inscriptions: Cabinets de Societe-
Absinthe-Vermouth--Win twelve sou
the quart"-all recalling the popula
Sunday revels Of former times. Over
head was a sad, gray, winter sky, wit
great leaden clouds-a lowering
gloomy, angry, cruel sky.
The young man stood at the door O
the inn, with his rifle slung behind him
his cap over his eyes, his hands in thu
pockets OF his red trousers, shiverin,
with cold under his sheepskin. lie sanl
into sad reverie, this soldier of de
feated army, as, with mournful eyes, h
watched the line Of mist-covered hill
from which every moment there rose
pun OF white smoke, followed by tn
roar OF Krupp cannon.
>, All at once he began to feel hungry
ne knelt down on one knee and drew
Slarge piece OF bread out Of his khan
SACK, leaning against the wall nea
MIN; then, as he had lost his knife. h
began to bite the bread with his teeth
eating slowly.
However, he had enough OF that a,
ter few mouthfuls; the bread wa
hard and had bitter taste. And /
think that he could not get any NOR
till the rations were served out mex
day, and even then only II the commi.
sariat chose TO give II. Fighting was
hard trade sometimes; and he mu,
choose such moment as this to r,
member his former "det luncheons.
- be used to call them, after too col
icus banquet over night. lie remem
bsrsd how no used 10 nit BY one Of Oh