Waterbury Democrat., 1901-06-03


 an African. autumnal noon 5sSsszEss3 shone. down through the white tSzsy canvas roof of q great tent in the heart of the encamped divisions at the headquarters of the army of the south In the tent there was a densely packed throng, an immense, close, hushed, listening crowd, of which ev cry man wore the uniform of France, for they were in court, and that court was the court martial of their own southern camp.
 The prisoner was arraigned on the heaviest charge that can be laid against the soldier of any army, and yet, as the many eyes of the military crowd turn ed on him where he stood surrounded by his guard, his crime against his chief was forgotten, and they only re membered Zaraila He preserved en- tire reticence in court. The instant the accusation had been read to him he had seen that his chief would not dare to couple with it the proud, pure name he had dared to outrage. His most bitter anxiety was thus at an end. For all the rest he was tranquil.
 No case could be clearer, briefer, less complex, more entirely incapable of de fense. The soldiers of the guard gave evidence as to the violence and fury of the assault. The accuser merely stated that, meeting his corporal out of the bounds of the cavalry camp, he had asked him where he had been and on his commanding an answer had been assaulted in the manner described with violence sufficient to have cost his life had not the guard been so near at hand. The statement passed without contradiction by the prisoner, who only replied that the facts were stated ac- curately as they occurred and that his reasons for the deed he declined to as- sert. When it was finally demanded 1 of him if he had aught to urge in his own extenuation, he paused a moment, with gaze under which even the hard eagle eye. grew restless, looked across i to Chateagroy and addressed his an- i tagonist rather than the president:
 "Only this-that tyrant, liar and a traducer cannot wonder if men pre- l fer death to submission beneath insult. i But I am well aware that this is no yindication of my act as a soldier, and l have no desire to say words which, whatever their truth, might become hereafter dangerous legacies and dan 1 gerous precedents to the army" That was all which he answered, and neither his counsel nor his accusers could extort another syllable from him. He never moved once while the decree of death was read to him, and there was no change in the weary calmness of his eyes. He bent his head in ac- 1 quiescence.
 .'It is well,' he said simply.
 It seemed well to him. Dead, his secret would lie in the grave with him and the long martyrdom of his life be ended.
 In the brightness of the noon Ciga- rette leaned out of her little oval case ment. and, for the first time also, hap piness was not with her.
 They were gone forever-all the elas- tic joyance, all the free, fair hours, all the dauntless gayety of childhood, ell the sweet, harGonieus laughter of a heart without a care. They were gone 1 forever, for the touch of love and pain had been laid on her, and Fever agaiE would her radiant eyes smile cloud lessly, like the young eagles, at sun that rose but to be greeted as only | youth can greet another dawn of life that is>without a shadow. To her it seemed impossible that this patrieian .