The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1886-01-15

o. fair m~uStaChes, and the muZzle OF u
cun that was almost touching me;
and then | felt such q blow on my lett
shoulder that | thought my arm had
been torn off; and | turned glddy,
dropped my rifle, rolled over on my
side by q wheel of one Of the gun-car-
riages, and tainted away.
When | opened my eyes again there
| was only q faint sound OF musketry
in the distance. The ZOuaves We're
there, standing in a sort of disOrderly
half-circle, shouting, Long live the
emperor" and waving their rifles at
arms length in the air,
An old general with his aid-de-camp
came gaIloping up; he stopped his
| horse, took off his goId-striped cap,
! and waved it joyfully, shouting:
''WelI done, Zouaves. You are the
finest soldiers in the world"
sat up, leaning against the wheel
| of the gun-carriage, holding my brok'
| en- paw, dismally, in my right hand,
and | began to remember Thirsty's
| horrible Crime-shOoting his captain
from behind, on the battlefield.
All at once he left the ranks and
| came forward toward the general.
| The very man himself, Thirsty, the
castain's murderer! He had lost his
fez in the fray, and his close shaven
head was bare, with a wound across
it, from which a narrow stream OF
blood trickled over his forehead and
| down his cheek. He was leaning or
his gun with one hand, and in the 9th
| er he held an Austrian flag, all torn
! and blood-stained, a flag hehad taken
from the enemy.
The general looked at him with the
greatest admiration.
Gust look at that, Bricourt;' said
he, turning to one of his aids-de-camp.
"There's q man for you! He'll have
the cross" And repeating, "Fine fell
low! fine fellow" he turned to his aid.
de,camp again and said something
did not understand-you know / am
only an ignorant man-but that | re-
member all the same.
"Isn't that worthy OF Plutarch, Bri-
court?"
And hen the pain in my arm was
so great that l tainted away again, and
heard nothing more.
You know what followed. ] have
often told yo u how they hacked about
my shoulder, and how / lay in the am
balances for two months with fever
and delirium. And in my restless,
wakeful hours, / was always wonder
ing what l ought to do apout Thirsty.
Ought to denounce him? / thought
l ought. But then, what proofs
had / to show? And after
all, if he vas a scoundrel, he was a
brave soldier. He had killed Captain
Gentle, but he had taken a flag from
the enemy! / could not make up my
mind what to do. When at length /
began to get better, / learned that,
as a reward for his brilliant conduct,
Thirsty had been promoted into the
regiment of Zouaves of the Guard, and
that they had given him the cross of
the Legion of Honor. For the first
moment it made mefeel disgusted with
my own cross, that the colonel had
brought me in the hospital. And yet
after all, Thirsty deserved his as well
as / did mine; but he deserved, too,
that his ribbon should serve as q tar
get for a file of men told off to shoot
him. All that happened long ago, and
| have never seen the sergeant since,
he is still In the service, while / have
turned civilian. But justnow looking
at that tunic which it's bullet-hole-
and God knows how it ever got there!
hanging there in the shop, with the
barracks where the murderer is quar-
tered only a few yards off, / ramem-
bered that crime that had gone unpun-
ished, and it seemed as if the captains
ghost cried out for justice.
/ Quoted Pere Vidal as best / could,
for his storr had put him in a great
state of excitement. / assured him
that he acted for the best, and that
the heroic conduct of the sergeant OF
Zouaves had fully balanced his crime.
But a few days after, when / went to
the Office, Vidal handed me a newspa-
per, folded so that | could only see
one paragraph, and remarked, sol
"What did tell youYn
took the newspaper, and this is
what / read:
"ANorHER VIcTM OF INTEMPERANcE.-
Yesterday afternoon, on the Boulevard de
Grenelle, a man named Mallet, commonly
called Thirsty, a sergeant in the Zouaves OF
the Imperial Guard, who had been drink
ing deeply in all the public houses oil the
neighborhood, with two OF his companions,
was suddenly seized with an attack OF de-
lirium tremens, while he was locking al
some old uniforms hanging in the window
OF a secondhand clothes shop. He ran
down the street, blandishing his sword and
spreading terror before him. The two
soldiers who accompanied him had the
greatest difficulty in mastering the mad.
man, who kept shouting with fury: 81 an
not a murderer / took q flag from the
Austrians at Melegnanoi'' We are inform
ed that Mallet really was decorated for the
gallant act, and that nothing but his in
veterate drunkenness has prevented hil
being promoted to the rank OF an officer
Mallet was taken to the military hospital
the Gros-Caillou, whence he will shortly b.