The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-02-14

| III IuO 1u0duLlIu0 Lu0 SO1ul0TS drought
in, every moment, prisoners arrested
with arms in their hands.
Our turn came to march to the bar
ricades. A strong column, formed of
troops of the line, of mobile guards,
and of national guards run up from
the provinces, began to move. A score
of mobile guards, children of Paris,
formed the vanguard and the fiankers
They took this post without an order,
because it pleased them. One of them,
whom seized strongly by the arm to
hold him in his rank, said to me:
Hold, hold, wish to see, myself, and
your grenadiers hinder me-" This
young fellow had certainly never read
Charron, and he expressed the same
idea in the same terms. Charron re-
lates that brave gentleman mounted
on the heaps of the corpses to see
more nearly"
Three barricades were successfully
carried; the fourth was a wall, real
embattled, freestone wall, that it was
impossible to approach without artil-
lery. The order was given to turn
the position, and to walk by the
houses; we therefore beat retreat,
little precipitately, into the crossing
streets. .
entered one of these streets at the
same time as about thirty of the COM
batants, soldiers of the line, mobile
guards, and national guards of the
Provinces; the rest of the column,
thrown into disorder, sought cover
beyond the first barricade carried by
us. The street in which we marched
was so contiguous to the formidable
barricade, that we were still in the
midst of the atmosphere of smoke pro-
duced by the general discharge.
comprehended suddenly that we rested
on the ground of the insurrection, and
that we would be taken If the defend
ers of the barricade, freeing them
selves from the obstacle, attempted
an offensive return.
I could wish that words would paint
as rapidly as the facts I am about to
attempt to recount unrolled them
selves. All that was prompt as
thought.
In a damp and gloomy courtyard, on
the bloody straw, the Sisters of Char
ity had established an ambulatory hos
pital. They were ignoran. to which
of those parties this corner of the
earth belonged; kneeling near the
wounded-soldiers, mobile guards, in
surgents, or national guards, they
dressed the wounded, praying to God
for them. Sullen and overspent, the
men, just now so terrible, abandoned
themselves to the hands of these poor
Sisters.
When, with one glance of the eye, l
saw what 1 have written so slowly,
two soldiers of the line brought in a
mobile guard. whose shoulder had
been shattered by ball, and who sent
forth piteous cries. He was youth
Of sixteen years, with blue eyes, fair
hair, and fresh complexion. A Sis
ter of Charity bent over dying in
surgent, rose up, supported the young
man in her arms, and tore off his
tunic quickly; she still held the uni
form in her hand, when band of in
surgents issued unanimously from the
house which faced the ambulance, and
of which the door had just fallen at
our feet. The chief of that band, clad
with a blue blouse, carried hunting
knife, at his red girdle, a handkerchief
rolled round his head; his mouth
blackened by the cartouches, gave him
strange appearance Of ferocity. He
, saw, before all, the uniform of the mo
bile guard in the hands of the Sister
of Charity; she had turned her back
to me, and her face was hidden from
me.
, Traitor" cried the insurgent. will
a horrible imprecation, thou diest!'
Then he threw himself on the mobile
J guard; the Partisan youth, couched OF
: his back, got up, seeking to shun the
blade of the hunting-knife; the mar
had thrown upon the ground his dis
, charged fusee.
Raising herself, the Sister of Char
} ity made the Sign Of the Cross, ant
| placed herself in front of the insur
/ gent. But he was no longer man;
. vengeance, intoxication, perhaps
blinded him, and he struck the Sister
of Charity with the blade of his cut
lass. She reeled, and falling on hel
: knees near the mobile guard, she
wished to protect him still with her
} body, for already the blade was raised
for the second time.
Then a provincial guard flung him
self between the Sister and the as
sassin. With one stroke of the bay
onet he extended the insurgent at his
: feet, whilst the blade of the cutlass
directed toward the Sister, broke itself
upon the cartridge-box of the guard.
From both sides the fusillade com
menced; they shot each other with
the muzzles to the opposing breasts
they battled hand to hand, and very
) shortly the smoke became so thick
that we could no longer distinguish
; friends from enemies. But not cry
not a word. That lasted only two
minutes, but they were two terrible
minutes. The onset was heard by oul
troops, and then the military tramp
was heard; the chasseurs a-foot ap
: peared at the end of the street, the
insurgents precipitated themselves
into the house whence they came, bar
; Reading themselves in it.
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