The Mineral argus., 1885-01-08

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-shouldered captain, who seemed,
like another son Of Thetis, almost invul-
ncrable, darted impetuously ahead OF
his men and reached the summit OF the
defense. Useless bravery! In an in
slant q volley point blank swept away
the charging men behind him, and
gunner's sabre thrust bore him to the
ground within the works, where he lay
stunned and bleeding beside the gun
he had striven 80 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 hmm. spurned him with
his foot. anil would have dashed ont his
brains with the heavy hilt of his dubbed
sword bad not . strong hand held his
uplifted wrist.
Il WAS Fournier, whe had watched
the battle with an interest ~ 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 .
rustic entrap some rara avis that he de-
sires to study, 10 use for his expert
ment.
The gunner turned hercely upon him,
bat 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.
Fournier simply asked: do confed-
crate soldiers murder prisoners Of WARP"
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 rs he tore
open the blue blouse and felt the warm
blood yelling over his fingers. 1t was
a simple wound through the feshy part
of the shoulder; a strand of saddler's
silk and few strips of sticking plaster
would have sulliced 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, AMI land 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 he thoroughbred. Everything
about him proclaimed it. His face
manly but gentle, his figure, great in
stature and strength. yet graceful in
outline like a Grecian god, the very
dress and accOutrements he wore, which
were neat, strong, expensive, but with
ont ornament, showed him to he gen.
tleman. And Robert Shirley was n
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 FOurnier. As
the one was pure savage. the other
was the realization of the most illustri-
ous enlightenment; the other gentle,
frank, considerable; as the one was hid
eous, ill formed 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 a prince, the other
the descendant of tho purest Pu-
ritan race. which knew among its own
divines and judges. brave captains. and
farther back governor of the colony.
But the guard and his people were at
the foot of the scale, the guarded at the
top. The blood flowing out upon the
cypress bed was the best blood of
America. Generation after generation
it had flowed in the veins Of fair won.
en- and noble men, and had never known
dishonor. Yet Fourier let it flow
More, he was delighted that it continued
to flow.
Presently, however, he sobered
down, and began to prepare for his
work. He placed large cauldron of
water over a fire; he brought basins.
towels. and his ease of surgical instru-
meits, and placed them in the tent, and
with them the case with which he had
Taught the African to believe contained
his god. While thus busted he did not
neglect the subject of his experiment
His watchful eye noted everything-the
mass of clots growing like a great fun
gus under the wounded shoulder, the
deadly pallor, the dark circles forming
around the sunken eyes, and blanched
lips, the transparent rostrils, the slow,
deep respiration. From time to
time he felt the wounded mans
pulse and counted it carefully.
Ninety-he went out again into the
open air; 1OO-"The loss of blood tells, I"
he muttered, and began to rearrange
his appliances and busy himself uneasi-
1v with t1ov, 1.l0 1,aata u, tha ,,;,, 80 a,