News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-04-04
MARIE'S MISSION.


One bright morning in the first week
OF March, 1862, Marie IatOur, a girl of
sixteen years, was standing before the
Provost Marshal of Rattleyille. She de-
sired pass, good for fifteen days, to
cross tue Mississippi River and return.
s'Have you taken the oath 2" asked
the officer, turning his full-bearded face
and keen gray eyes upon the timid ap-
phcant.
Il have not, monsieur, was the low
spoken response. Marie was an Ameri-
canized Creole. who spoke French aud
English with equal fluency.
''Then you are willing to takeit now3'
decisively
'.No, monsieur. That is, II have
reasons for not"
Here speech failed her, and she glanc-
ed appealingly at her martial interloclt-
tor.
''YOu must know, surely, that without
taking the oath you cannot pass out of
the lines, said he, cOolly
She was painfully aware of that in
flexible military law, but how could she
bind herself ''to give no aid or comfort"
to her own brother, who, at that very
moment, was lying in a spualid swamp
of food and care She was still mourn
ing-in heart as well as in attire-for
two brothers sleeping in soldiers graves.
To save this only remaining one, should
she periure herself? or, for truths sake,
must she renounce her mission, and
leave him to slow starvation and the bit
ter agony of feeling himself forsaken
Then, too, her gentle invalid mother,
whose heart was breaking for her boy
Heaven help the distracted girl What
should she do2
She stood with hands tightly elasped,
looking down, for few seconds Then,
with her clear brown eyes meeting the
keen gray ones, she said, Monsieur,
if / could break it, | would take it. -
''Be as good as to explain yourself,
was the sharp rejoinde-.
81 mean that if my conscience would
let me violate solemn oath, 1 would
not mind taking that one, she answer
ed gently. 81 would not, could not,
refuse to relieve the suffering" she
went on, her lips quivering and eyes
filling, whether your enemy or mine;
whether black or white, Federal or Con-
federate, monsieur.
Such candor was surprising, perhaps
impolite, but it did not seem to dis
please the Provost Marshal. Marie
caught her breath with half-sob.
''But this I can do, she resumed.
earnestly. 81 can give you my word
and no oath could be more sacred than
/ will hold ito give no information |
whatever regarding his post or bearing 1
In any way upon military affairs to any
one, monsieur.
The attention of all present, citizens,
guards and officers, was centered on the
4 q
mourning dress and pathetic repression
OF strong emotion excited their respect
full sympathy. The Provost Marshal
scanned the fair, truthful face, and sud
IDENTIFY inquired her name and place of
residence. Both were promptly given.
Another quick, scrutinizing look into
the depths of her unfiinching eyes, and
he seized blank, swiftly filled it out,
signed it, and handed it to her.
''How will that do!" said he, pleas
antly. She read it, her anxious heart .
futtering up to her throat. The prec-
iOus pass was hers; the conditions /
named were in the exact words of her
voluntary pledge.
1t was noon when Marie Iatour cross .
ed the river ON the ferry of the Federal /
post. A spawned mule and rickety /
buggy We're procured hard by, with q lad !
y
on her mission. At dusk she reached !
the mouth OF the bayou along whose
course the rest of her route lay. Here,
from the occupant of a solitary house,
she learned that the roads beyond were
passable, but that all the horses and
mules of the neighborhoo1 had been /
CLEANED ont" by the cOntending armies !
and the iayhawkers. while ON the bayou, /
as ON the river itself, the Federals had /
destroyed everything in the shape of
boat, /
''Do you know the old Frenchman .
who lives IN the swamp on Coulee Noir, /
some fifteen miles up the bayou :" Marie .
inquired.
f'Know ole Baphste Bonzon = the
man exclaimed. ''Reckon So Some .
folks lows he's crazy, ?, he went ON, on
if bein' ther cutest raskil goin' is that,
it's bout time ole Bouzy wIIr shut up.
Marie pushed on In the moonlight
three miles farther, to one Jules Gull
beau's, where she had been told she
''mought git holp." Here she stayed
the rest of the night. Guilbeau and his
wife listened to her story with mingled
wonder and pity, and the man at once
agreed to GO on with her, and bring the
sick boy back in his ox-cart, if only he
could find his oxen, which had been
driven far into the forest for safety.
Earle, to be sure, still indul9ed hope
that Oscar might be sufficiently strong
to return in the buggy. And even
while she was bargaining for the oxen,
her mind, all alert as it was, caught
eagerly at new possibility. For Bou-
zon had a boat hidden somewhere,
Guilbeau said
90 Ma FIJI! Eet stay hide, too, he
added, nodding emphatically. "Not to
sew the life of your brothare-no, not
for one hundared brothare-he Feesk
the Yankee to brek hees boat
- But for money!" Marie ventured.
90 You hev monee, he2 TEX care he
know not of that, ma m 'sella - was the
quick reply.
Heeding this friendly warrington
the simple honesty of man and wife
were past suspicion-she left all but
ten dollars of her store in Madame
Guilbeau's keeping, and by daybreak
was again on her journey. For time
her course hay between small farms on
the one hand, and the bayou ON the
other. Then for miles not dwelling
was to be seen. Forest trees encroached
ON the road Itself.
Suddenly, as she rounded q curve,
Jules Guilbeau's tail figure loomed up
directly before her. He had been ont
IN search OF his oxen, but knowing that
at tins point the young travellers would (
require guide, he had made sure of f;
being here IN season to intercept them. [
Bidding Marie o'lJw, he struck at !
once into the forest, winding his way
through the dense undergrowth, and
around the huge, PROSTATE trunks, until (
finally a small hut nearly hidden by {
overarching trees, stood revealed. At [
last ! Aud now what awaited them in
miserable shelter! Life or death Marie [
sank back limp and faint
The shanty, made of pjeue, was Just 1
what the roof of rude building set
squarely on the ground might be. A !
narrow opening in the near gable end !
was the door. The space before it was
strewn with old shoes, rags and other
litter. A lean, NANCY dog sprang from
the bushes and dolefully bayed them.
Jules Guilbeau went in alone, but
soon reappeared.
cal right" he said, in low voice.
"Come cen, ma II 'sclle.
Thank God, Oscar still lived New
Lte came to the devoted sister, and when