Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1894-01-19

every one OF them. shot down like
pheasants i'm battue, this afternoon, yon-
der In the Avenue d'ltalie," pointing Ear
away to the south. There Is nothing lels
of the nest or of the magpies cheyenne"
She casped her hands before her face,
and reelcd against the parapet OF the bridge.
Nobody noticed her, or cared for her. The
roof Of the theatre was falling ina shower
OF burning fragments was blown across the
dark water like fiery rain. On the other
side Of the river the glare, the smoke, the
stencil Of burning were intensifying with
every moment.
"Will there be anything left Of Paris but
dust and ashes when the sun rises% asked
one OF the bystanders.
Kathleen leant against the bridge, motion
less, speechless, para'ysed by fear. She
tried to think. But for come moments
thought was impossible; her brain was
clouded, benumbed, frozen, TAcn came TO-
Election. CASTOR had said that he would die
to save them, fight for them to the death,
these good fathers; and they had all been
murdered, and CASTOR was missing. lie
who had given her such faithful love had
abandoned her to leSolation and despair
Was it likely that he would 50 abandon
her, unless a higher duty claimed him?
Was it likely that he would leave TER for
space of four days in Ignorance Of his fate,
unless he were prisoner-or unless he
were dead? Paris reeked with blood, every
street was the scene Of murder, and h3 was
gone from her-gOne with the rest OF those
victims of whom the crowd spoke with such
seeming lightness, while it looked Oh q;
the burning Of The city as az The fireworks
which conclude some grand fete.
They were waiting for the conflagratiDn
TO burst from yOnder mighty pile from
painted window, and tower and battlement,
from nave and transept, from clerestory
and roof: Notre Dame was to be the bou-
1uet.
Tell me, sir" SAID Kathleen, in a hoarse
half-s,rangled voice, was there any one
else killed in the Avenue d'I,a.ie-any one
besides the Dominicans- any one WHO was
in company with the good fathers"
"Yes, there were few understrappers,
believe, servants of the school"
'No one e'se?'
"What DO know? The news has passed
from mouth TO mouth. There is no ofiic
bulletin, cheyenne. The Commune keeps
these things quiet. 1t is only hearsay."
Only hearsay! a ray Of hope lit up the
blackness of her soul. Oaly hearsay! And
Row many wild stoIi,s had been 10 q in
Paris within tie las. week, how horrors
had been bruitcd about which HAL been out
bubbles OF foul imaginingl The story Of
the bodies found In the church of Saint
Laurent, for instance. The descclated
corpses exposed at the church-door the sup
posed victims Of prestly crime; foul lictions
invent ID 10 stimulate the populaoe to car
mage and spoiiatiOn.
rs it far to the Avenue d'I;alie?" she
asked.
The bystardars answered carelessly, one
saying one thing, one another, each and all
absorbed in tbs awful rapture OF the scene,
and caring not at al for individual needs
and feelings
One o'c,ooS s'rIck from the clock-tower
of Notrc Dame Kathleen was foOtSOre,
faint her eyes burning with fever, her
mouth parched with thirst. She looked
down at the river, but the stream seemed to
TO running with liquid fire, not water. Thers
was no fountain near. She must get on
somehow, without the longed-for refresh.
ment OF a cup of cold water. There was no
use in asking for information here, where
the news was only hearSay, where people
answered her carelessiy. In the Avenue
dItaie, on the scene Of this hideous crime,
if the thing were trsc, she must more easily
learn the actual facts-who had fallen, how
many. There she might learn the worst.