Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1895-02-09
THE ROSEMONDE.

AS IL he had been a veritable king,
the Lord Of Pomerolles possessed in his
feudal castle all the necessary Deepen
denotes servants innumerable, men
alarms and retainers of noble birth.
The battlements of his high, square
towers were visible afar over the plain,
telling of steel and fire and causing
terror alike to timid peasants and war
like foe.
In front of the lordly dwelling ex-
tended the mall, bordered with lime
trees, century old; then the falconry at
the entrance of the acacia wood, and
the smithy and foundry where the steel
for making cuirasses was hammered
and where gun metal was melted for
the founding of the bombards, which
for fifty years had replaced the old
time catapu1ts.
The Lord of Pomerolles was prepar-
ing for war, but he hoped for the pro-
lection of heaven, and, to gain it, had
taken pious counsel of the venerable
able, whose famous monastery stood
upon the summit of neighboring hill.
The able had promised to put up
prayers for the Lord of Pomerolles,
who had vowed, on the cruciform pun
mel of his sword, to give to the church
a bell as large as the bourbon of the
Cathedral of ST. Hilaire. And, as a lit
tie daughter had just been born to him
and had been named RoSemonde, 1t
was agreed that the work of the bell
founder should bear the name of the in
FAINT
Then the Lord of Pomerolles re-
turned to his castle and gave rigorous
orders that the work of fabricating
arms should be suspended and nothing
thought of but the casting of the prom
iSed bell.
But for the due accomplishment of
such an undertaking the ordinary
workmen of the castle were not suf-
ficiently skilled. An artisan was need
ed who was experienced in all the diff
fculties of this particular kind of work,
capable of combining the proportions
of copper and tin best calculated to pro-
duce the greatest volume of sound, and
to put in practice the thousand details
furnished by experience and trans
mitted by the corporations from gener-
alton to generation.
So the Lord of PomerolleS sent to the
great city for two famous workmen
Jehan and Matthias went to the castle
of Pomerolles Both were young and
strong, accustomed to the fabrication
of fine swords, bare chested, in front of
flaming fore fires. to strike in cadence
the glowing blades, keeping faithfully
the secrets of the old master founders,
and knowing well how to guide the
flowing of the terrible liquid metal
from the cauldronS to the casting pit
By order of the castelar, Jehan was
made master of the foundry, with
Matthias for his first assistant and the
old workmen under his command.
The preparatory work was begun,
but an incident occurred to disturb the
harmonious relations of the two chiefs,
which had been perfectly maintained
TO that time.
A woman came between them.
II was Annette. the daughter of the
head butler, a maiden pure and calm,
who In the porch Of her parents home
piled her spinning wheel. while singing
an old refrain:
Alas! alas! a-don-don-dell
Why may not a maiden tell
A-dondon-dell, a-don-don-dell?
Why may not alden tell
When soft sigh r bosom swell?
Alas! alasI a-don- don-dellr'
Jehan and Matthias both had learned
this song, listening to 1t in the inter
walls in the clash of hammers beating
the sparkling iron upon the anvil tops
Jehan, tall and muscular, opened his
big black somber eyes, surmounted by
heavy and almost meeting eyebrows.
He looked at Matthias weighing ingots
of copper in the scales-looked at him
hatefully. without daring to show his
IL latred.
He hated him because he had seen
him speak to Annette, who had laughed
while listening to him and shown her
range of ivory teeth. Would ne win
her love-this comrade with the blue
eyes and blonde beard falling upon his
chest like a sheaf of ripened oats?
He, Jehan, had spoken to Annette
and she had greeted him with pleas
ant smile. But perhaps she had only
turned ON him a simple glance of scru
tiny, as q stranger from that distant
city about which she had heard vague
~, as one of the wonders Of the world
GlIed with gigantic palaces AND