The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1899-04-07

charge IL was, tool Have you ever
seen a high sea dash on a rock? Each
company rushed up like breaker on
a reef. Thrice the battery was COW
cred with blue coats aud red trousers,
aud thrice we saw the earthwork re-
appear with It's cannon jaws, i'm.
passable.
"But our company, the Fourth, was
70 snatch the prize. In 30 leaps L
reached the redoubt; helping myself
with my rifle. butt crossed the talus.
/ had only time to see blonde mus
tache, a blue cap and a carbine barrel
almost touching me. Then l thought
my arm few off dropped my gun,
fell dizzily on my side near a gun-car-
riage wheel aud lost consciousness.
"When ] opened my eyes nothing
was to be heard but distant musketry.
The Zouayes, forming a disordered
half-circle, we're shouting 'Yive rEm-
pereurr and brandishing their rifles.
can old general followed by his
staff galloped up. He pulled up his
horse, waved his gilded helmet gayly
and cried:
" Bravo, Zouayesl You are the
first soldiers in the worldp
81 found myself sitting near the
wheel, supporting my poor broken
paw, when suddenly / remembered
Dry-J cans awfulcrime. At that very
instant he stepped out of the ranks
toward the general. He had lost his
fez, and from big cash in his close
shaver head ran trickle of blood.
Leaning on his gun with one hand,
with the other he held ont an Austrian
flag, tattered and dyed red--a flag he
had taken. The general gazed at him
admiringly.
+" Hey there, Bricourtp turning to
one of his staff; look at that, if you
please. What men'
"Whereupon Dry-Jean spoke up:
Quite so, my general. But you
know-the First Zouaves there are
only enough left for once morep
" 4 would like to hug you for that!'
cried the general; you'll get the cross,
you know, and still repeating, what
menp he said to his aid-de-camp some
thing I didn't understandable NJ
scholar, you know. But l remember i
perfectly: Worthy of Plutarch, WASH
it, Bricourt?'
"At that very moment the pain wa
too much for me, and l tainted. Yol
know the rest. I've often told yol
how they sawed off my arm and how
dragged along in delirium for tw
months in the hospital. In my sleep
less hours / used to ask myself if
was my duty to accuse Dry-Jean put
licly. But could 1 prove it? An
then I said, He's a scoundrel, bu
he's brave; he killed Captain Gentil
but he took flag from tue enemy
3 Finally, in my convalesc 9nce,I learne
that as q reward Tor his courage DR.!
Jean had stepped up into the ZouavC
4 of the Guard andha been decorated
g All! at first it gave me disgust at N
a own cross which the colonel ha
8 pinned on me in the hospital. Y
Il Dry-Jean deserved his, too; only b
g Legion of Honor ought to have serve
n as the bull's-eye for the squad detailt
IL to put him out of existence.
ls cts all far away now. l new
a. saw him again; he remained in t
y service, and 1 became a good civiia
But just now, when saw that III
4 form with it's bullet-hole-God kno7
Us how it got there-hanging a stone
T. throw from the barracks where t
u murderer is, it seemed to me that t
T. captain, the crime still unpunishe
ne was clamoring for justice. :"
ne I did my utmost to quiet P'
Vidal, assuring him he had acted
We the best. Five days later, on reachi
/ the Office, Vidal handing me pal
ur folded at certain paragraph, M
ID, INJURED gravely; "What did /
ry you?" / read;
- "Another victim of intemperance.-
To- day afternoon, on the Boulevard de
- nellie. certain Jean Mallet known as
IRE Jean, sergeant in the ZouaVes OF the In
40 rial Guard who with two companions
~ been drinking freely, was seized with dc
5Ie ium tremens while looking ut some old
18th forms hanging in a secondhand shop.
no. drew his bayonet and dashed down
10 street to the terror of all passers-by.
'0 two priyates with him had the utmost
cut Guilty in securing the madman, who shot
zen ceaselessly: i am not murderer;
70 an Austrian flag at Melegnanon 1t Sc
-, that the latter statement is true. NJ
AN was decorated for this feat; his addictic
ned drink has alone prevented him from RI
ain Id the ranks. Mallet was conducted Il
lot military hospital OF Gros-C Gallon whenC
ing " do STT If he can recover his reason
% o. AS returned the paper to Vidal
voc looked at me meaningly and
l;Ms cluded:
''P' Captain Gentili was Corsiei