The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1896-12-22
A SOLDIERS STORY.

y
the old Commandment B, a shade of
sorrow crossing his worn visage-'you
wish me to tell you Of my entree at
Saint Cyr in 1919? All, we'll, I will do
it, though it is a story and memory
so painful that it clings to me yet. :"
Now, judge for yourselves, my dear
readers, the emotion with which heard
it that stormy evening, seated beneath
the arbor of the pretty garden that sur
rounded the dwelling Of the old veteran
of Choisy-le-Roi.
81 was but 16 years of age when /
departed from Charlemagne. As you
have heard before the story of those
brilliant days, it is only necessary to
recall to mind the state of feeling be-
tween the scholars of the Prytaneum,
all sons and grandsons of the officers,
and the scholars of the Lyceum, and
sons and grandsons Of the bourgeois
Add to this that the moment Of my ar
rival was Immediately following de-
cree of the emperor's which had called
to the grand army, as candidates for
sous lieutenanoies, every scholar who
had completed a six months course at
the school, and that all the Charlie
magn5s Of thezprevtUus p2s5anoJion nau
already been dispatched toward Moscow.
| was, therefore, alone, without sin
gle comrade to protect me against the
Prytaneums or to serve as guide for
me across the unknown breakers of a
new life.
Gas in all the training schools of that
epoch, where it was necessary to turn
out soldiers as fast as possible, the days
were entirely consumed in studying and
putting into practice the tactics that we
were there to learn. And truly it would
be hard to depict to you the determine
ton, the ambition to excel, if possible,
those captains of 20, returned from b.
hemia or Spain, whom daily we elbow
ed in the streets of Paris, with crutches
under their shoulders and the star of
gallantry upon their breasts.
ga portion of the evening, however,
was given us as our own and spent, as
a rule, in the depths of the Cafe Turc-
that is to say, the special nook most
frequented by the school cadets-its NAL
odorous atmosphere operating as check
upon the interference or appearance of
L'Ecole surveillants. Longing there
as usual one evening, among the rest
of them, suddenly remembered that I
had entirely forgotten a commission
that had promised myself to attend to,
and that, close upon the hour at which
we must be in quarters, there was but
a little time in which to do 1t. Neces-
sity driving me, forgot to be prudent
and failed to see, as scurried through
the doorway, that 1 had knocked against
a corporal of the Prytaneum at that
moment coming into the cafe, and that
his pipe had fallen to the ground.
"'What do you mean, blockheadr
with formidable oath. What do you
mean, he cried, 'upsetting me in that
way?
''But hurried on. In fact, I scarcely
heard him in the haste / was in to fin
ish my errand.
Didn't you hear me, he shouted,
you miserable little poltroon-you,
who pretend to be Partisan? Stop,
say stopl' And he darted after me, call
ing at the top of his lungs.
'How I found myself before him,
how he parried the blow that l gave
him full in the face. is more than | can
tell you. I foamed with rage and recall
nothing save that they ran from the
cafe at the noise, and that ten vigorous
arms held me at respectful distance
from the corporal.
$780, my little one. he said to me
when he could speak again, so that is
your humor, is itp But you are not at
the Lyceum now. At L'Ecole it is not
with blows of the fist that one regulates
these little affairs. Go, you others; seel
instruments. The "blue. since he wish
es it, shall have a lesson to remember.
''Two of the seniors ran at his bid
ding, while third, almost as much o
child as myself, approached and quss
toned me in low voice.
"'You are here without friends, SAT-
he, and fencing. Do you understand
itP'
'FencingP Of course. was tire
years at the IRON
SO much the better, he replied
addressing the corporal. Then / will
his second.
sat this moment the seniors return
ed, bringing with them couple of bay
onets, upon the ends of each was tie
with stout wrappings of cord an ope
compass. 1t was weapon hard to han
die, but supple, light and dangerous.
"'And now, my brave one, said tn
corporal, throwing himself into posi-
tion, look to your skull, if you knoN
what is good for you; look to it we'll, G
you will have it broken.
Everything that had occurred ha
passed so rapidly that it seemed to m
as if / were the victim of dream,
nightmare from which I must 500
awaken. But it was not time to hesi
tate now. Nay, my adversary was wal
ing. the seconds, in order to give us al
the space that was possible, drawn clos
against the wall-from which the car
catures done in charcoal and the ribal
inscriptions scratched upon its surfac
seemed to leer at and mock US.
"'Beginl cried the friends of the col
poral. 'Beginl 1t is late, and the hou
for quartersp We obeyed, and the dut
began.
"And the corporal-I see him nov
the yellow rays of the single lamp fal
ing full upon his mocking face, b