Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-03-14

AS they passed by the chamber where
Mile. Lys sat alone, sobbing. with her face
sstween her hands, the able entered.
81 have defended you from tears, my
child" he said "Your father died fighting
this shameless enemy-you ought then to be
strong" And then with the utmost tender
ness: Embrace me, my little onep'
The girl threw her arms around the abbe's
neck, who pressed her to his heart and then,
disengaging himself, said
"Remain upon your knees, my child, and
pray for him who is to die'
The three men descended, traversed the
vestry and the wings of the church, drowned
in shadow, where the lantern of the sacristan
scintillated like a little golden star.
The able passed behind the great altar,
made sign before the cross, and pushed the
creaking bolts of low door, which opening
permitted him to pass out into the wet and
cold night air. The stranger in passing the
threshold struck his foot upon stone, which
made him slip.
''Be careful, MONSIEUR" said the able.
"We are in the field of rest and that stone is
grave"
They passed on under the great yew trees
and the willows, where the grass reached
almost to the knees, and halted behind a
wing of the church. Looking around, the
able said:
"We shall be very well here. Jean, hang
the lantern on branch of that cross"
The sacristan obeyed. The lantern, swung
by the wind, cast a shifting glimmer, which
revealed the gloomy silhouette of the priest
and the pale face of the officer against the
great shadows dancing on the wall of the
apse. The able made with his manned right
hand the sign of the cross and grasped in his
RI 1LJ-- 1 ~ e L.
'Come on, monsieur" he said calmly.
The officer wiped his forehead, drenched
with sweat, and slowly drew his sword. The
two great blades touched and then, amid the
surrounding silence, their flashes met in ring
ing blows
Meanwhile Jean Bigorne, on his knees in the
grass, and with his hands clasped, fervently
repeated the prayers for the dying:
"Suscipe, Domino, servum Tuum'-
81 am HIT" said the able, parrying blow.
The sacristan sprang to his side. The blade
of the Cossack officer in passing over the
abbe's wrist guard had traversed his arm and
made a wound.
"You cannot continue my commander"
said Jean.
Then the officer stepped forward and said:
81 cannot fight with defenseless man, mon
sieur. You cannot hold your sword with that
hand and the other is MANNED"
''To your placed" said the Able Chanteloup,
selling his sword with his mutilated right
hand. ''The crime you have committed ought
to be obliterated and l will kill the memory
of it with you. Jean, take your handkerchief
and tie this hand firmly to this hilt. The
sword will never fall but with the arm. Now
we will proceed, monsieur"
And then the fight recommended, and with
it the voice of Jean Bigorne, intoning the
funeral verse:
"Libera, domino, amman servi tut"
Closer, without breathing time, hand to
hand the furious fight went on, and the as
saults Of the officer, more agile, upon the
able. Slowly the old soldier parried that
blade, which fell like club But he parried
it, and at last he passed under the strangers
arm, raised for a terrible blow, and thrust
his own blade into his throat
HE has it, my commander"
And Jean Bigorne seized the lantern, drip
ping tearfully with rain, and held it near the
face of the man stretched upon the ground.
A red froth bordered the lips between the
clenched teeth.
May God give you mercy as pardon
you," said the Able Chanteloup, ''nor leave
you to suffer in soul OF bodyl'
And abSOlved the COSSack expired.
Fossil Evidence of a Terrible Fight
Professor Murchison, OF the Kansas Scien-
tific association, has been for months explor-
ing this region for fossil remains in which
the country is rich, being the ancient bed Of
the cretaceous ocean of the west. The pro-
fessors search has been rewarded by several
valuable discoveries of the remains of ex-
tnct animals, among them the entire verte-
bral column, over thirty feet in length of
the Ornithorinchus and the bones of the pad
die of giant turtle OF tortoise, which must
have been at least eighteen feet long.
The richest find of all, however, was made
in a ravine some six miles west of town,
which had been filed by the heavy rain to
overlooking. This water passing off washed
away the loose earth and sediment of lime
stone on the sides, thus revealing an almost
entire skeleton of the Liodon dyspelor, the
longest of the antediluyian reptiles, and a
head of the Portheus molossus, a shark like
fish of formidable power. The dyspelor meas
ured yearly sixty feet in length from the tip
of the blunt muzzle to the end of the long
serpent like tail, and the head of the molos-
sus some inches longer than that of a full
grown grizzly bear and much heavier and
broader.
To add to the interest of the discovery, it
could be easily seen that the gigantic mon
sters had died in combat for the great jaws
of the molossus, with their terrible cylindric
fangs were closed in a death grip upon the
hind leg of the dyspelor, crushing it between
them, while from the position of the other
giant it could be plainly seen that it had used
its flexible though massive tail in beating to
death its foe, which, with bulldog tenacity,
had still retained its hold. The capacious
mouth of the dyspelor, with its glistening
teeth, was wide open, the head thrown near
ly back on the vertebre, and the whole car
cass convulsed into half coil.-Fort Riley
Cor Philadelphia Times.