The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-11

Pascalet had. climbed up on to a high rock for safety, but when he saw them so beating his father he grabbed a great stone and hurled it through the air SD that it just grazed the gamekeeper's ear
 and landed on the toes of M. Robert. ''Aiel'' yelled the young Count, and,
 wheeling, he saw Pascalet. Off went
 both barrels of his gun and the shot
 whizzed around the boy. who, plunging
 down the ravine, ran for life and hid
 himself in the depths of the wood.
 There he remained, half frozen and half
 starved, thinking of his hard lot and
 ble was he that the thought occurred D
 him that it would be a good and com fortable thing for him to bs dead. There was a lake below him and going down
 to its edge he leaped as far cut into the
 lake as he could spring. Was Pascalet
 drowned? Not a bit of tiff he had been
 this history would not have been writ
 ten. But he was horribly shaken up.
 The pond was frozen thick, and the ] boy came down with bump which Jared l the ice and himself, but effected no se- | rious damage on either.
 After his disappointment in his en
 1eavor to commit suicide, tho little fellow
 concluded that, after all, he had best go home, and so he stole through the night
 and the cold to the hut perched high up
 on the hill of La Garde. He found it de-
 serted-no mother, no father, no fire! In
 despair he thought of the priest, M. Ran
 doulet, who was kind to all, was the
 real father of his flock, peasant or aris-
 tocrat, and he made his way to the will lage. He knocked at the priests door.
 The good priest took the litrle fellow in,
 and. for the first time in his life, Pasca- | let slept on a real bed
 In the morning M. Randoulet gave Pas calet an outfit of clothes in elegance be-
 ysnd anything the boy had ever dreamed
 of wearing, and took him to the hospital, where old Pascal was lying, dangerously
 Ill from the blows he had received from
 M. Robert and the gamekeerer. By the
 bedside of the father was watching the
 faithful mother. Sad as the situation seeing his parents again, though his heart
 rebelled and a bitter feeling filled his
 breast when the old man said that as soon
 as he was well enough he would go to M. le Marquis and M. Robert and beg
 their pardons on his knees. For what?" thought Pascalet. Tor being starved
 and beaten almost to death?"
 While the boy was in the hospital new
 terror came to him. A band of people | 1sx -.~t,. | go about burying the dead of the poor broke into the place and stabbed to death
 a number of men who lay there recov- | ering from wounds received in fight be- tween the supporters of the old regime
 and those who espoused the cause of the new revolution. Among the leaders of the assassins was Surto. and seeing Pas calet, he seized him and bore him away toward the chateau with the intention of killing him.
 | And Surto had very good cause to wish Fascalet dead. Once, not long before, the
 boy had climbed into tree and was con- cea,ed there when there srrolled along and stopped to talk beneath his hiding place the Marquis d'Ambrun and Surto.
 Much of what they said Pascalet could not understand, but he comprehended enough to know that the 1narquise and the gamekeeper designed to kill the mar quise and Count Robert-that the mar quiese was infatuated with Surto. When
 they had passed on Pascalet had dropped from the tree and run home, but he had been seen by the guilty pair, and his I death ha q hean resoIvad ,Ipon thay kpaw | he must have heard a part at least of their conspiracy. But Surto did not kill Fascalet when he took him from the hos pital The boy, willy, supple, sinewy. swift of foot as a hare, managed to es- cape from the gamekeeper's hold and ran | for safety again into the depths of the I forest. l Once more, when the pursuit was oveT | did Pascalet seek out the good M. Ran doulet and the priest, knowing that the | boys life was not safe while he remained in the neighborhood, sent him to Avig- | non, giving him letter to the Canon Jusserand, high ecclesiast of that city. The boy, whose vision had never before ranged beyond his native hills and dales, was filled with wonder at the stately city which, after wearisome journey on foot, he finally reached-the oIty of Avig- non.
 Still more was he astonished at the conditions he found there. The people seemed all beside themselves There were the constant rolling of drums and the rush of groups of dancers treading the wild. revolutionary dance of the faran- dole or indulging in the wilder gyrations of the carmagnol. Hither and thither went marching men clad fin the uniform of the National Guard, while the air re- verberated by day and night with shouts of 'Vive la nationl"
 r Pascalet as he entered The city was | carried away by the general frenzy and found himself wildly dancing a faran- dole down the streets to inc sound of flies and drums. buzzing tambourines and squealing pipes. There, in line with barefooted ruffians, were well dressed citizens. each with his watch on. There were soldiers and washerwomen. buck stsrs in their Catalan caps dancing with ladieg in lace dresses and dandies clad in silk. And there seemed to be no end to that farandolei Only now and then exhaustion made some drop out of the wild dance. There was commissioners as they call them, of the revolutionary government, who made speeches to ths crowd, and rations of bread, olives ana filberts were served out to the people. PaacaIet worked his way out Of the press