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 50 that it just grazed the gamekeeper's ear and landed on the toes Of M. Robert. ''Aiei' yelled the young Count, and, wheeling, he saw PascaIet. 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 | afraid to go home. At length so misera- ble was he that the thought occurred D him that 1t would be a good and com l fortable thing for him to bs dead. There | was a lake below him and going down to it's edge he leaped as far cut into the lake as he could spring. Was Pascalet drowned? Not 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 5 boy came down with bump which jarred the ice and himself, but effected no se- rious damage on either.
 After his disappointment in his en- deavor 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 fffll 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 vil- lage. He knocked at the priests door. The good priest took the little fellow in, and. for the first time in his life, Pasca- let slept on a real bed.
 Tn the morning M. Randoulet gave Pas calet an outfit of clothes in elegance be- yond anything the boy had ever dreamed | of wearing, and took him to the hospital, where old Pascal was lying, dangerously i'll from the blows he had received from M. Robert and the gamekeeIer. By the bedside of the father was watching the faithful mother. Sad as the situation was, the joy of Pascalet was great ar seeing his parents again, though his heart rebelled and 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. For being starved and beaten almost to death?'
 While the boy was in the hospital new terror came to him. A band of people disguised as White Penitents--those who 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 place the Marquis d'Ambrun and Surto. Much of what they said Pascalet could not understand but he comprehended | enough to know that the 1aarquise 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 death had been resolved upon; they knew l 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 hare, managed to es- cape from the gamekeeper's hold and ran 1 for safety again into the depths of the l forest. Once more, when the pursuit was over 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 a 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 clty of Avig- non.
 | Still more was he aetonished 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. IIither 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 nationr
 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 | suuealing pipes. There, in a line with barefooted ruffians, were well dressed citizens, each with his watch on. There were soldiers and washerwomen, buck 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 Pascalet worked his way out of the press