Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1899-10-31
FATHER MILLION.

FATHER MILLION.
For an entire month the sun has
thrown its powerful rays on the fields
and farms. life bursts forth on every
hand under this shower of fire-the earth
is green, the heavens are blue as lar as
the eye can reach. The Norman farms,
scattered over the plain, look from dis
tance like little forests enclrcled by their
girdles of lank beech trees. Approach,
however, open the Worm-eaten gate and
YOU seem to stand in a great garden, for
all the well-grown apple trees, sturdy as
the peasants themselves, are in full
bloom The old, blackened trunks
crooked, gnarled, forming hollow
square spread out their gitterlng domes
OF pink and white. The sweet perfume
they exhale mingles with the coarse ooors
from the open stables and with the
yapors from a dunghill where the chick
ems gather.
1t is monday. The family is at din
ner in the shade of a pear tree planted
near the door-father. mother, four chill
dren. two servants and the three farm
hands. Hardly word is spoken. After
the soup they uncover a ragOut of pota-
toes and bacon. From time to time a
servant rises and goes to the table TO re-
fill the cider jug.
The farmer. a great fellow of 40, seems
to be studying vine trailing its course
like serpent along the entire length
of the houSeWall, under the shutters.
Finally he says: Fathers vine buds
early this year; maybe it will bear fruit"
His wife also turns and looks. but says
nothing. The vine had been planted ON
the spot where Father Milon was shot.
x X
1t was during the war Of 1870, and
the Prussians occupied the land. Gen.
Faidherbe led the opposing force. the
Army of the North. Just now the Prus-
sian staff officer was quartered In this
farm. The old peasant who owned it,
Father Milon-Peter Milon-had received
and quartered them as best he could.
The German advance guard stayed in
the neighborhood a month, to watch the
situation. The French were stationed
quietly thirty miles away. Meanwhile
every night Uhlans disappeared. OF all
the scouts sent out alone, or even IN par
ties of two or three, not one ever re-
turned. They were found dead in the
morning in a ditch in a field or at the
edge of the wood. Their horses, killed
by saber stroke, lay along the roads. The
murders seemed to be the work Of the
same men, but who they were, no one
could discover. The country was in a
suspicion, women were imprisoned. at
temptS were made to force children to
reveal the secret All in vain.
One morning Father Milon was dis
covered stretched out in his stable with
a deep cash in his face, two Uhlans lay
Dutchered about league from the farm.
One of them still grasped his bloody
weapon-he had struggled to defend him
self.
A council of war was held in the open
air in front of the farm, and the old man
was led out. He was 6S years old, short
thin, somewhat bent, and had hands like
great crabs claws. The skin of his head
could be seen clearly through his lifeless
hair, thin and soft. like a duckling's
down. His wrinkIed, bronzed throat
showed the heavy veins sinking and re-
appearing under the thick jaws. In the
neighborhOod he was known as miser
and hard to please. He stood guarded
by four soldiers. in front of the kitchen
table, which had been pulled out of doors:
Five officers and the colonel were seated
facing him.
The colonel began in French: ''Father
Milon, we have been here a month and
have never had anything but praise for
YOU. You have always been kind and
even thoughtful. But today terrible
accusation hangs over you. This matter
must be cleared up. Where did you get
that scar on your face!
The peasant said nothing.
Again the colonel began: "Yonr silence
condemns you, Father Million, but | in
sist upon an answer, do you understand?
10 Won know who killed the two Uh-
1ans who were found near Calvary this
morning."
The old man answered plainly: Ct
The colonel, stunned, was silent mo-
ment looking fXedly at the prisoner.
Father Milon remained impressive, with
oip
cast as if he were talking to a priest.
One thing alone betrayed a troubled
spirit. He tried with a visible effort to
moisten his throat, as If he were stran-
Cling The mans family-his son,
daughter-in-law and their two children
stood in the background, dismayed and
terrOr-stricken.
The colonel resumed: DO you know.
too, who killed all the scouts of our
army. found dead in the fields every
morning this month :?
With the same british impassbility
the old man answered: Il.
''You-you killed them all?'
Eyes, L: all of 'em.'
''You-alone?
II aloner'
''Tell me how you did it,
This time the fellow seemed worried.
The necessity for long speech affected
him visibly. He stammered: Il dunno.
| took 'em as they came"
81 warn you repeated the colonel,
that you must tell me everything. You
will do we'll to decide at once. How
did you begin?'
The man looked restlessly at his fam
lily standing listening behind him. He
waited one moment more, then suddenly
resolved.
Il came home one evenin', p'rhaps
bout 10 o'clock, the day after you came
here. You an your soldiers took twenty
crowns OF fodder. an COW an two
sheep. Says 1 to myself, AS often as