Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1903-03-07
THE CABECILLA
BY Alphonse Daudet

mass when they brought him the
prisoners. It was wild spot among
the Arichulegui mountains.
A fallen rock in which fig tree
had plunged it's twisted trunk form
ed sort Of altar, covered in guise
Of a cloth with a silver fringed Car
list standard.
Two cracked water coolers took
the place of vases, and when the
sacristan, Miguel, who was assist
ing the priest at the mass, arose in
order to change the position of the
holy book, the cartridges were heard
jingling in his cartridge box.
All around the soldiers of Carlos
were silently ranged, their guns
slung across their backs and one
knee on the ground upon the white
beret.
The bright sun was concentrat-
ing it's dazzling heat in this burning
and sonorous rocky hollow, where
the flight of blackbird alone from
time to time disturbed the psalmody
of the priest and the servant. High
er up on the jagged peak sentinels
we're standing, forming motionless
silhouettes against the sky.
What a singular sight it was
this priestly commander officiating
in the midst Of his soldiers! And
how plainly the double existence of
the Cabecilla showed itself upon his
conference.-the ecstatic air, the
hard features, further accentuated
blythe bronzed complexion Of the SOL
der in the field, and asceticism with
out pallor, in which was lacking the
shadow of the cloister; small black,
very brilliant eyes, the forehead
traVersed by enormous veins which
seemed to bind the thought as with
ropes, to fix it in an inextricable
obstinacy.
Every time he turned toward the
spectators with open arms to read
the Dominus Vobiscum one saw the
uniform beneath the stole and the
butt Of pistol, the haft Of a Cata-
lonian knife uplifting the rumpled
surplice. ''What is he going to do
with US ?" the prisoners asked them
selves in terror, and while awaiting
the end of the mass they recalled all
the acts of ferocity which had been
related of the CabeciIla and which
had won him special renown in
the royalist army.
By a miracle that morning the
father was in clement mood. The
mass in the open air, his success of
the previous day and also the cheer
fulness of Easter, yet felt by this
strange priest, cast upon his face a
ray of joy and kindness. AS soon as
the service was over, while the sac
ristan cleared off the altar, fasten-
ing up the sacred vases in huge
box, which was borne on the back
Of mule in the rear of the expedi-
ton, the cure advanced toward the
prisoners.
They were a dozen of republican
carbineers, exhausted by day of
battle and a night of anguish in the
straw of the sheepfold, where they
had been penned up after the action.
Yellow with fear, wan with hunger,
thirst and fatigue, they clustered
together like flock Of sheep in the
courtyard of an abattoir.
Their uniforms full of hay, their
belts in disorder, pushed up in the
fight and in sleep, the dust which
wholly covered them from the tufts
IF their caps to the points of their
yellow shoes, all contributed well
% give them that sinister look of
he vanquished in which moral dis
eouragement is betrayed by physical
detection.
The Cabecilla glanced at them for
in instant with little laugh of
triumph. He was not sorry to see
IL soldiers of the republic humble,
rea and ragged amid well fed, well |
equipped Carlists, Navarro and
3ssq1e mountaineers as brown and |
lard as carob beans.
'EViva Dios, my childrenp' said |
le to them with a good natured air.
oHhe republic nourishes her de-
enders very i'll. Why, you are all
IS thin as the wolves of the Pyre-
lees when the mountains are COW
red with snow and they como into
he plain to sniff the odor of the
able by the lights which shine I'M
Ter the doors of the houses. One is
reated otherwise in the service of
he good cause. Would you like to
make trial of it, hermanos? Cast
IF those infamous caps and put on
he white beret. AS truly as this
: +he holv dav IF Fac4or n +booo