The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1895-07-01

up Darcy and O'Cleary and q them
that the guards meant m and
urged upon them the neccrslt. keep.
ing cool and quiet under rcum.
stances. Darcy replied thar fought
he could keep his temper, bu at the
same he went down to his ca. took a
revolver out Of his satchel ~ .upt it
in his hand in the outer peck, a sack
coat which he was wearing ut n time.
We were walking up and dow uc deck
when party Of the guards ca mp aud
marched us before the drunkc cant,
surrounded by his men. The rspnt
ordered Darcy to stand up be- him,
and then the petty tyrant anc IFS Off
GERS commenced abusing us .Iast as
things were getting squallyl B, boat
with some zouayes coming nd us
from the shore, and | shoulDo them
to go back for the captain Of Il. yards
because his men We're threaten D'A
cy with bodily injury.
"All this time the sergeant Is d..
ing his best to tantalize D'Al.5 INFO
some sort of retaliation. He cllAd Us
all the vile names he could tlira and
said if he had the pope there ia would
dip him iii the sea heels III. most
Through all this TRADE Of insuG DAT.
CIV stood erect, cool and cain, with
cigar III his mouth and his ri@A- hand
on his trusty revolver in his co.. iockct
Ii was Il moment Of terrible suspense
for me. knew darcy like a hndher.
He was a man of fiery Temperament, as
brave as Il lion and in fact did Not InOw
what fear was. He was Il great LIVER Of
the pope, and when the miserable ser,
geaut uttered his insults against the
pontiff | thought Darcy would lose
control Of himself and use his revolver
At this moment / caught his eye md
put my fingers to my lips as signal Of
encouragement to him to keep himself
well in hand. 1t was one Of the finest
examples of self control under difficult
circumstances that | have ever seen. Ap-
parently he was as composed and thor
oughly self assessed as if standing III a
drawing room. Finally he asked If he
might light his cigar, and the sergeant
roughly told him No.
Meanwhile the sergeant and his
guards continued drinking and getting
tipsier and tipsier. At length the ser
peant turned to the others and sad,
I've a mind to shoot the dogs. This
suggestion was greeted with drunken
cheers, and things began to look pretty
serious for us Load Your guns, boys,
commanded the sergeant. The men load
ed their carbines with savage glee
meanwhile making coarse jokes about
our speedy departure INTO the mex
world. The sergeant lined his men III
facing US and then turned and said Il
them
"'Now then, boys, when l say Fire!
Won fire. I'm in charge here, and
ruess | can do what like with thes'
beggars
II don't think l will ever forget tina
moment" continued General Tracey
1.-The scene is Us wildly before my eye
at this moment as it was at that time
The men We're simply waiting for TIL
word to fire, and considering the dies
peratc character and drunken condition
of the sergeant we all expected tina
word to be uttered at any moment.
would not have given 80 confines 10
my life.
Just then IS luck would have 1t
the boat which | had hailed and told Il
go back for the captain of the guard
e,xtripl, Of thn p.i,,
in the water was music i'll our ears,
can tell You. In II second more the cap
tain S head appeared above the rail, anr
l was never before or since so glad t
see a living man. My heart had tol
some minutes been up i'll my throat
but when the captain jumped on decl
with his sword drawn and his eye
flashing fire that organ of mine dropped
back into its accustomed place. To thl:
day l occasionally wake up in the night
imagining that | have seen in my
dreams the ugly features and wicked
eyes of that drunken sergeant and hi.
tipsy comrades. Well, the captain soon
put stop to the high handed proceed
ings of his men. He placed the sergeant
under arrest, roundly scolded the pri
Yates and apologized to US. He then
said, Now .you shall go ashore and
have no further trouble with these fel
lows. The gallant fellow embarked il
the boat with us himself for fear thu
soldiers rsight shoot at us if we went
alone
"Just us we were embarking in the
boat | noticed one of the stewards who
had reported D'Arcy's conversation t
the guards reach i'll closet ON decl
for his hat, though l paid no particular
attention to the incident at the time
When we got ashore, they kept us talk
ing in the custom house for little
while until the captain of the guard,
could explain where we came from and
whittier we We're going. A carriage ws
then called to take US to the railway
station, and | was just getting into the
vehicle when l heard scuffle behind
us. Turning quickly, | saw that steward
with a long dirk knife in his hand and
his arm raised to strike at Dare
back. At that instant one of the Gust II
house officials grasped the villain by he
throat and threw him to the sidewa X
We jumped into the carriage as quic y
as possible and drove to the station. Ii
ten minutes we Were aboard the train
and ON our way to Switzerland. AMI !
confess that was heartily glad to get
out of Italy with whole skin. y