The San Francisco call., 1896-04-26

of men posted alongside to the right and
| the left of the machine; then he himself
went to the head of the column, calling
out first something in German and then in
French for Jacques, Forward march!' /
The machine painted and snorted and tug
ged with all It's might; the cannon jerked
off with clash OF iron, and between the
two rows of soldiers who accom- panied it,
it all proceeded slowly along the level
high way.
Eve had run on to the village to an
nounce the approach of the wonderful
machine. and all our folk, men, women
| and children, were out in the road to see
! it pass by. Soon were heard cries of 1T is
| coming! It's comingp and there it an
| reared, clearly outlined against the skv.
all black and smoking. Lean this way
little, sir; you can see the place from here
| 1t was about ten feet from our house. You
can see, Just where the cobblestones stop
and the paving begins. That's where the
| incline begins; there's little slope before
| the big one.
"At that moment the commandant, who
was prancing along on horseback, turned
round to Jacques and called out, 'Atten-
| toni
"Don't be alarmed sings out Jacques
'I'm going to put the brake on.
"Ah, sir, if live to be hundred, shall
never forget what happened then; no, nor
w ill any one who was there and saw it all.
| Then L understood why JdCqueS Hdu sent
| off is wife and the little one.
"Instead Of slowing down, he put on all
possible speed, jumped at the lieutenant,
| twisted his arms so that the revolver fell
| out of his hands, and kept him fastened to
the spot. shouting all the time, 'Vlve la
France' And the machine began to rush
on down, leaping over the paving-stones;
and the gun rushed after it, gun-carriage
! and all. making very deuce OF noise.
| The comm andant only just got out OF the
way in time to escape being crushed. lie
was yelling like a madman, and shouting
| out orders to his Prnssans; which expect
meant: Stop him! Kill himP But all the
same they stood still, stupid with aston
ishment and terror. They might as we'll
have tried to stop an express at full speed.
! The machine sped straight on ike hash
of lightning. The houses shook, the paw
! ing stones were crushed under 1t and sent
| out showers of sparks; it was whlrlwlnd
crashing down the street with thunder and
lightning. Jacques, clinging to his Prus-
| sian, looked a regular demon. Once more
| we heard him shout, 'Viye la France !
Then, at the turn of the road, in single
bound through the hedge. everything
rolled over into the ravine below. 1t was
an awful crash. To have any idea of it you
must imagine thunderbolt falling into
the midst of this room. And then i'm
| mediately there came great silence.
No one could speak; the women covered
their heads with their aprons; we felt sick
at heart.
.sCan you believe it, sir? 1 can't think
of it even yet without creeping all over.
And yet it's fifteen years now since then.
l expect you'll despise me, but | can't
help it.
well, to cut a long story short, the
Prussians were more than six weeks over
fishing up their big gun. At the bottom
of the ravine was a horrible mess of
twisted iron work, dislocated wheels,
| plowed-up soil, broken trees and shattered
| stones. When at last it was all got up out
of the debris it was too late to be of any
use in the bombardment-the siege of Paris
was raised.
Good old Jacques That was what he
had wished, ard to think that we could
never even give him hero's funeral.
'He had been SO completely crushed
that nothing of him was found but few
mangled scraps of flesh some days after
one couldn't even tell if they belonged to
him or the Prussian. Everything was car
| ried off to the cemetery, almost without
CEREMONY for the Prussans were still in
| the village and furious after the smash.
Later on we put up a little headstone over
the grave, with the inscription, Died for
his country under his name, then the
| date, and that was all. Thirty years hence
no one will remember who it was. The
| wife is dead, the house sold, the boy has
! gone for soluier-now he is sergeant in
the line and the Prussians will catch it
pretty hot if ever he has chance of get
Ting at them. But he doesn't often get
back to his old home, and with the excep-
tion of himself and fe@ old folk like me,
who will remember jacques Rrulefert?
81 have it, sir: you who are scholar
you should write his history. 1t would
only be justice to him. 1 tell you, spite of
their great battalions aud their great guns,
the Prussians would have had bad time
of 1t in 1870 if there had been many
Frenchmen like our Jacques.
"And now, sir, I've been talking long
enough. 1 must get to my work. Your
health, STRIP
ga la sante de la France, Pere Salvage,
and the memory of Jacques Brulefert. 1
promise you to write his story."-rhe
| Strand MapaZine