The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-07-04

Colonel Martini cried Hardwood
/ ''send a file of men to arrest two cap
tains of the carbineers. Speyer and
! Stauffer. 1 charge them with treason
Here is my witness" He dragged the
! Mouse up the steps and led him for
ward In half dozen sentences he
! told what he had seen. The Mouse
nodded his corroboration, stealing
cunning glances about him and
shutting his muddy shoes, partly to
inspire self-confidence. partly because
he appreciated the Importance of his
present position.
But" said an artillery officer, "the
| carbineers have already gone. I heard
them breaking camp before daylight"
Gomez repeated Hardwood.
They followed the river bank to-
ward Blanc Mesnil''
Before Hardwood could speak again
cannon shot from the end of the stree.
brought the soldiers out of the church
on run. AT the same moment {.
shell struck a house opposite and
burst.
Colonel Martin, now ranking officer
in the village, turned quietly to Hare
wood and said: IF 1 live to get out
of this I'll have the carbineers before
a drumhead court-martial. Are you
going back to PARISH
eff I can," said Hardwood.
IF you get there, have these carbi-
neer officers arrested by the first
patrol"
Hardwood started again toward the
river, calling impatiently to the Mouse
to follow. The bombardment from the
PruSsian guns had suddenly become
violent; shells fell everywhere, explod-
ing on slate roofs, in courtyards, in the
middle of the street.
The Mouse, half dead with terror,
shrieked as he ran, ducking his head
at every crash, one had twisted in
Harewood'S coat. one shielding his face.
This won't do" cried Hardwood,
dragging the Mouse into a hallway,
we've got to wait until the lombard
ment stops. Here, break in this door.
Quickr'
Together they forced the door and
entered. The house was dark and
empty. Hardwood climbed the stairs,
CROPPED about, unfastened the scuttle,
and raised himself to the roof. North.
east and west, the smoke of the PruS-
sian guns curied up from the plain.
In the north vast masses of troops
were moving toward LIE Bourget, can
nonaded by the fortress of the east at
long range.
There was no chance to reach Paris;
he saw. that at the first glance. He
saw, too. the French pickets being
chased back into lie Bourget by Uhl-
ans, and he heard the drumming of
mitrailleuse in the west end of the viii
lage, where columns of smoke arose
from a burning house. Far away in
the gray morning light the fortress of
the east lowered, circled with float
ing mist, through which the sheeted
flashes of the cannon played like light
ing behind thunder cloud.
And now began, under the guns of
st. Denis and bervilliers-almost
under the walls of Paris-that first of
a series of terrible blows destined to
reduce France to moral and physical
condition too painful too pitiable to
describe. For the storming of LIE
Bourget made the commune certain
ty, and, although the second and third
attempts at anarchy We're to prove
abortive. the fourth instruction was
inevitable, and the political triumph
of NJ. Theirs assured its success.
AS for the miserable village of LIE
Bourget, it was already doomed. The
black masses of the Prussian guard
gathered like a tempest in the north,
and swept across the plain in three
columns. From Dugny. from Pont-
Iblon. from Blanc Mesnil. they poured
down upon LIE Bourget, firing as they
came on. Right through the main
street they burst, hurting back the
Mobiles, sweeping the barricade and
turning again to batter down doors
and windows where through the
blinds, the soldiers Of the One Hundred
and Twenty eighth of the line were
firing frenZiedly. From the slate roof
where he crouched, Hardwood saw the
Mobiles give way and run. In a min
ute the interior of the village swarmed
with panic-stricken soldiers. The Prus-
slams shot them as they ran. The shells
tore through them and whirled them
about as winds hurl gayly tinted au-
tumn leaves. A battery, a mass of
wrecked limbers. dying horses and
smashed guns choked the transverse
alley. Behind it a company of the One
Hundred and Twenty eighth fought
like wildcats until the Prussian Queen
Elizabeth regiment" took them on the
flank, and bayoneted them to the last
man. And now, from the west, two
splendid regiments swept into LIE
Bourget-the Emperor Francis and
the Emperor Alexandra" regiments Of
the Prussian guard royal-driving be-
fore them an agonized mob of Mobiles,
Franctireurs and linesmen. The mas
sacre was frightful. The Prussian
bayonets swept the streets as scythes
swing through ripe grass. South and
east the village was on fire. In the
west the firing had ended, and the
Uhlans capered from garden to gar
den, spearing the frightened fugitives
and shouting. .'Hourra! Hourrai Nit
uns list Gott,'' In the north, however,
the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth
line regiment still held out. The men
had barricaded themselves in the stone
houses lining both sides of the main
street, and were firing from the win
dows into the thick of the Germans
The street swan with smoke. through
which the Prussians dashed again and
again, only to stagger back under the
blaze of rife fame.
Hardwood, on the roof, was a mark
now for the German rif1emen; bullet
after bullet thwacked against the
behind which he chung. He
waited his chance. then crawled along
the states and dropped into the scuttle, |
where the Mouse stood speeches. with
terror.
II was time that he left. shell, i
bursting in the cellar, had ignited the |
stored faggots, and the first floor of |
the house had already begun to burn
fercely.
Come" he said. 1--WE must make a
dash for the church," And he seized |
the Mouse dragged him down the |
stairs to the street door. and |
out over the cobblestones, where |
group of officers and a couple of dozen |
voltigeurs of the guard We're running |
toward the church, pursued by |
Uhlans.
Up the steps and into the dark |
church they tumbled pellmell, Hare |
wood and the Mouse among them. They |
closed the great doors. bolted and |
oarricaded them with benches, pews |
and heavy stone slabs from the floor |
Already the voltigeurs were firing /
through the stained glass across the |
street; the officers climbed beside them |
and emptied their revolvers into the