South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1913-11-03
ARomane Of ExtraOTdlnuyDb DISTINCTION
TIE MARSHAL
MARY Raymond Shipman Andrews
'ns7'" The Perfect Tribute. ETC.
COPYRIGHT Tse BoSbslfssrM Company.

the turn of the elbow, before their
driver can stop them. One wonders
why the grandfather of the grandfath-
er Of Pierre built his barn at this
place, but there ii stands. and the
horses must accustom themselves.
1t is a quaint old village sitting un-
der its mountains. gray with its gar
dens and poppy fields strung on its
little river and it's old, old highway,
tied together with its steep-arched
ssidge. The general looked about him
with approval when he rode down
OF a morning from the new" cha
teau on the hill. The new chateau,
the castle, is a thousand years old.
built before the Crusades, in the time
stands not distant from and on the
same spur of lie Rose as the old Ro-
man chateau. that pile of tum bled
ruins which Francois loved. The cas-
tie is a massive square of gray stone
with a pointed roof Of red tile; four
towers flank it, two battlemented,
| two with spires red tiled. Windows
narrow and high and round. meur-
| trieres in the towers, prick the stretch
| of masonry; the front facade is bat
| tlemented; a hedge of thorns fifteen
| feet high reaches a delicate green
arm about it's strength; half a mile
| back a stone wall, battlemented, too,
/
the mountain side; the mountain
rises sharply eight hundred feet high
behind. A park Of beech trees stands
| stately about the castle; above il one
sees only the red roofs, and the tow
ers. and glimpses Of gray stone 1t
was like this in the year 1900; II is
like this today.
The Baron-General Gourgaud, TAX
| ing possession in this month of July.
| thought il lucky he had not seen this
| domain Of his before, else the vision
would have turned his heart from his
duty. After a full career almost in
J boyhood-for the Cross OfNthe Legion
I OF Honor had come to him at twenty
/ four-after service in the Spanish and
| Austrian campaigns and diplomatic
missions; after saving the Emperor
| life at Moscow; after Waterloo, Ma
poleon had chosen him as one of
| three officers to go with him 70 St.
! Helena. The chateau and estate of
Nicques had been given to him by the
Emperor after that brave and lucky
/ moment at Moscow when. the first
| man 10 enter the Kremlin. he had
snatched the match from a mass of
gunpowder which would a moment
/ later have blown up both officers and
| Emperor. But what with battles and
diplomacy, what with the years at st.
Helena and the years in England aft
| err he had not till this summer OF
/ 1920 seen his property. Now, az once
his heart went out 10 il, and he loved
! il as naturally. as wholeheartedly as
/ il il had come 10 him through a line
OF ancestors. The splendid, gray, old
pile the wide green fields. the little
village nesting TO its castle-all this
seemed TO the soldier of fortune not a
strange new luxury but like coming
10 his own.
Ten years before he had married
I four years after that his wife had
died. and the daughter she left was
/ now a girl of seven, fairy type OF
I girl. airily and daintily made. quick
/ footed and quick-witted; unexpected.
! too. like a fairy. and with a a brave
and obstinate spirit which gratified
/ her soldier father every day.
You are perfect in every way but
one. Alike" he said. as he swung her
high 10 kiss her. You are"
II know" the little girl interrupted.