The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-01-25
A Startling Deliverance.

circumstances of the narrator. All l
know is that she was young woman
of French nationality, and that the
"uncle " of whom she speaks--her
senior by some thirty years-was more
distinguished as philosopher than as
an enthusiast. Whether the conspiracy
against the reigning authorities in
which our heroine and her friends
were implicated happened to be of any
historical importance is also more than
ing the narrative is merely to illustrate
the curious operation through natural
channels of laws which are usually re-
garded as " occult and the activity of
which on the material plane has given
rise to the common notion of mira
cle," do not propose to trouble the
reader or myself with any preamble of
merely local interest. So, without
more introduction, leave the diary of
the writer to recount the adventures
set down therein by her own hand.
/ was concerned in very prominent
way in political struggle for liberty
and the peoples rights. My part in
the struggle was, indeed, the leading
one, but MY uncle had been drawn into
it at my instance and was implicated in
a secondary manner only. The gov
eminent sought our arrest and for
time we evaded all attempts to take us,
but at last we were surprised and
driven under escort in private car
riage to military station, where we
were to be detained for examination.
With us was arrested a man popularity
known as "Fon," a poor weakling
whom / much pitied. When we ar
rived at the station which was our des-
tination I" Fon " gave some trouble to
the officials. | think he tainted, but
at all events his conveyance from the
carriage to the caserne needed the con-
joined efforts of our escort, aud some
commotion was caused by his appear
ance among the crowd assembled to
see us. Clearly the crowd was sympa-
thetic with us and hostile to the mill
tary. particularly noticed one woman
who pressed forward as Fon" was
being carried into the station, and who
loudly called on all present to note his
feeble condition and the barbarity of
arresting a witless creature such as he.
AT that moment my uncle laid his
hand on my arm and whispered: Now
is our time; the guards are all occu-
pied with Fon;' we are left alone for
a minute; let us jump out of the
carriage and rum" AS he said this he
opened the carriage door on the side
opposite to the caserne and alighted in
the street. l instantly followed, and,
the people favoring us, we pressed
through them and fled at the top of our
espied a pathway winding up a hill
side away from the town and cried:
Let us go up there; let US get away
from the streets!" My uncle answered:
No, no; they would see us there
Immediately at that height; the path is
too conspicuous. Our best safety is to
lose ourselves in the town. We may
throw them off our track by winding in
and out of the streets" Just then a
little child, playing in the road, got in
our way and nearly threw us down as
we ran. We had to pause a moment
to recover ourselves. "That child
may have cost us our lives" whispered
my uncle, breathlessly.
A second afterward we reached the
bottom of the street, which branched
off right and left. | hesitated moment
then we both turned to the right. AS
we did so-in the twinkling of an eye
we found ourselves in the midst of a
group of soldiers coming round the
corner. | ran straight into the arms OF
one of them, who the same instant
knew me and seized me by throat and
OF yrit of &c
horrible momentl The iron grasp was
sudden and solid as the grip of wise
the mans arm held my waist like bar
of steel.
81 arrest youl" he cried, and the
soldiers Immediately closed round us.
AT once | realized the hopelessness
of the situation, the utter futility of re-
sistance.
"Vous n'avez pas besoin de me
tenir ainsi," | said to the officer
j'iral tranquillement."
He loosened his hold, and we were
then marched off to another military
station, in different part of the tow
from that whence we had escaped
The man who had arrested me was
sergeant or some other officer in petit,
command.
He took me alone with him into the
guard-room and placed before me on
wooden table some papers which hi
told me to fill in and sign. Then h,
sat down opposite to me and l looked
through the papers. They were forms
with blanks left for descriptions, speci
flying the name, occupation, age, ad
dress, and so forth of arrested persons
Isigned these, and, pushing them acros
the table to the man, asked him wha
was to be done with us.
"You will be shot," he replied
quickly and decisively.
"Both of us?" | asked.
" Both" he replied.
" But" said l, my companion ha
done nothing to deserve death. II
was drawn into this struggle entirely b
me. Consider, too, his advanced age
His hair is white; he stoops, and had
not been for the difficulty with Whic