The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-16

the north ern provinces Nenoee anu Brittany, where the peasants rose III support of their Catholic 1alth ana ol their hereditary nobles against the commune of Paris. The wars or La vendee thus presented the strange, though not unique spectacle of an op- pressed people fighting against llperty:
 "Ninety-three" is a most damatic and 3npaesioned work-the Dance or the Revolution done into prose. It IS lke the "Toilers of the Sea" in one re- snact in that 1t has contributed one Sa,,,ons incident to the miscellaneous reading of the whole world. rms part og Inc story, which is rarely omitted from any system of selected readings Ia tha description of the breaking loose of a carronade from it's fastenings on the British sloop of war Claymore'
 the 2Sth of April, 179S, the
 commune of Paris gave this or N .dar to the volunteers under 6anterre, who were in Britanny to stamp out the rebellion of the peas ants: No mercy, no quarter" At the end of May, of the 120OO Parisian troops two-thirds were dead.
 Three hundred of these men were securing the terrible woods of La Saudraie in this time of epic conflicts. The men marched cautiously. The forest of La Saudraie was tragic. The fero- cious cripple Mousqueton had come out of It's gloomy depths. The number of murders committed there made ones hair stand on end.
 Suddenly a soldier heard something like a whisper in the thicket. It seemed to another that he had just seen @ movement among the leaves. Signs were made from man to man. Instant ly a circle of muskets was aiming into the thicket from all sides at once and the soldiers waited for the command.
 In that moment the vivandiere who had come to the front ventured to peer through the branches, and her cry in terrupted the sergeant just as he was about to cry "Fire!"
 She rushed headlong in. A woman was sitting on the moss, with an in fant at her breast, and in her lap the blond heads of two sleeping children. The woman looked up, stupefied, petri- fled. She was young, thin, ragged. Her bare feet were bleeding.
 Bewildered as in a dream, the human f1otsam tossed in the tempest of war an- swered questions. Her village had been burned; by whom she did not know. Her husband had been shot; by whom she did not know She was carrying her children away; whither she did nots knaw T am surrounded on all SlQeS Wltn BuuSIlOts, stammered she. T don't know what It all means They have killed my hus- band I only understand that
 The sergeant strengthened himself up. .'Let us adopt these three children! cried he. "Behold the children of the battalion of Bonnet-Rougei"
 At almost the very hour when this thing happened in La Saudraie, man of-war was sailing the dangerous pas- sages between the Channel Islands. She was the Claymore, of 30 guns. Though she was British, her officers ana crew were French--picked men of undoubted, even fanatic, loyalty to the King.
 At one of the islands this ship had taken on board tall old man, straight and sturdy. with a stern face full of wears and strength, with white locks on his brow and fire in his eye. He wore the threadbare costume of Breton peasant; but the officers of the ves- sel addressed him as General ana Prince
 The sea grew more tempestuous hour- 1y as the ship ran on. They drew near Ia Courbiere Great surges began to lift her and drop her heavily. Suddenly a wild cry was heard within the snip. The gunners swarmed in panic from the a1Indeck. One of the carronades mad broken loose.
 FIt was the fault of the gun captain. who
 
 had struck. the carronade had moved. broken it's inooring, and it's first terrible dart had killed four men of the battery. s1idinp hack. and then shot out again as the ship rolled, it cut in two another and unshipped gun on the starpoaro. The men had no recourse put to nee i,oiii this inanimate enemy, more terripie ehah the most terrible intelligent roe
 Alone. it moved hither and yon on the vundeck. like a drop of water running over glass It shattered four otner guns. ii smashed two holes In the side or the shin. It's four wheels passed back ana forth over the dead men.
 lis convulsve blows cracked the mlzzen- mast and cut into the mainmast. The pat terv was being reduced to nothing. me corvette was beginning to leak
 Suddenly a man sprang down Wlln ah iron bar It was the gun captain In the eemi-darkness an unprecedented battle pe- gan-a gladiator of flesh attacking beast of brass The carronade was like gi- pantic insect of metal, having the will Of a demon It ran at the man. He wrlthed away from it like a snake. The blow fell against the side of the ship.
 An end of broken chain hung to the cannon 1t whirled desperately like an Iron lash in brazen hand.
 Suddenly the cannon made quick dash at the gunner. He sprang out Of the way The monster, as II enrdSeu, SiIldSHeu d carronade on the port side. Then it was hurled back to the starboard side again, at the man. Three carronades gave way
 As if blinded it turned from the gun ner and rolled from stern to bow. mak- ing another breach. The next instant it slid backward at the man swift as a falling ax. He was driven against the side of the ship. The crew cried out in terror
 At that moment, the peasant darted down the ladder. He leaped like one leap- ing at the throat of death and threw a huge bundle between the wheels of the carronade. It stumbled The gunner plunged his bar between the spokes of wheel. It stopped. The man had conquered.
 He had conquered, but the cannon had conquered as well. Twenty of the 30 guns lay useless. The gun deck was fright full. The ship had five holes in her side, a gale had begun to blow, the ves- sel was far out of her course
 On the deck of the half-wrecked cor vette the gunner was brought before the man in the peasants dress.
 He took a cross of Saint Louis and pinned it on the gunner's jacket. The ma rines presented arms. The sailors cried: "Hurrah!"
 Now said the peasant, have this man shot'
 A few minutes afterward shot sounded in the bows and body fell into the sea. The captain of the corvette said to his lieutenant: "I.a Vendee has found a head.'
 In the east appeared whiteness which