The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1899-03-09
BOSSuc'S VindiCatiOn
How Charger Sustained His Dead
Masters Honor
WI HEN NJ. de Bossue returned to
w the court in France he was most

w HEN NJ. de Bossue returned to
w the court in France he was most
coldly received. The king refused to
see him and the kings courtiers were
quite uncivil. At his sweetheart's
house, in the Rue des Saints Peres, the
door was closed in his face. He was
filled with establishment and grief, both
of which were increased when he went
to see his friends. All looked askance
at him, few deigned even to- speak to
him, and none accorded him the expla-
ration he sought.
Too proud to question strangers. and
yet sensitive enough to suffer keenly
under the trea tment he had received, he
went to his. room to- brood alone.
There was a mirror here, and in this
he surveyed himself. The hardships of
war had deprived him of his good looks;
his face was drawn and haggard, his
skin wrinkled; his eyes were dull and
sad; while across his left cheek long,
disfguring scar told where saber had
cut deep.
He left the mirror and SAT- down de-
jectedly. II am grown ugly" he said
''and poor, and therefore they shun
me-" He thought of his life, offered to
his country and to glory; of his hard
campaign in America and the Indies;
of the famous battles in which he had
done his part under Montcalm and Vau
dreuil-'but all this" he told himself,
''has been in vain. The king, my love,
my friends, they are none of them left
to me. The only faithful one of them
all-my horse, who used to- lick my
hand and neigh gladly at my coming
he, too, is gone, for 1 have sold him.
No one-nothing is left to mel"
One black thought was succeeded by
another, and his gloom and melancholy
to be got rid of. He was a man of
promptitude and decision, and, having
come to this. conclusion, he did not pro-
crastinate. His pistol lay ready to- his
Land-one shot and the deed was done.
At court they said IN. de Bossue had
the fever" Weeks and months passed,
and they spoke of him no more.
But there remained to Bossue an old
time friend. After serving in Spain for
some ten years, and growing discon-
tented with his work, NJ. lie Comte de la
Puysaye returned to France and to the
court He gained prestige at Mesdames
de Bufess', de Chauvelin's, de Surgere's
and Luxembourg's asked new service
of the king, and solicited a regiment.
He called himself a friend of Bossue's.
''Poor fellow!" he said; "only 30 years
old. What could have made him leave
us in that way?'
His face clouded when he heard the
story, for he was brave man himself.
"a coward!" he cried; "impossible!"
But yes!" said his informer; eve re-
peat only what the reports said-re-
ports which were sent to the king di-
rect. NJ. de Bossue, it seems, disliked
the enemy too greatly-so much so, in
fact, that he could never bring himself
toapproach him."
''Bossue coward" cried the count !;
che must have changed greatly, then.
May not those reports have been faise?"
''Well, the marshal HIMSELF and so
on. La Puysaye heard the story re-
peated score of times, and found that
the mention of Bossue's name brought
forth only curses or reproaches. He
ended by renouncing him.
"But," he said to himself one day, 81
can'tforget him. Iloved him we'll. and I
believe l love him still. Very we'll, I
shall allow myself this little eccen-
tricity-that of loving a dishonored
wretch. Bossue remains my friend,
- oil I, a. ~
him with something other than dis
dain."
He hung the dead mans portrait on
his wall once more. But the portrait
was an old one, and no longer resem-
bled anybody. La Puysaye, discon-
tented, wished for some other souvenir
something which Bossue had used.
He thought of the horse. "Where is he
now? They tell me that he sold him.
That horse carried poor Bossue for ten
years. must find him.
Once, while his friend still served
with him, he had seen the horse-a
curious beast, of dark-yellowish
color, the product of a cross between a
Spanish barb and an Indian pony. He
was able to furnish descriptions of the
animal to certain men whom he sent in
search of it.
The men were away three months.
One day, La Puysaye received notice
that a horse answering to the descrip-
ton given had been found in a field in
Artois. He went to the place and
bought the animal at once. 1t was, in
deed, Bossue's extraordinary beast, the
friend of his friend, old and thin, worn
by the hard service before the plow and
the ill-treatment of the farmhands.
There were the white legs, still fine as
those Of . racer, the long. black tail