The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1914-12-05

life upon surprising adventures. Ano
this gorge. though less mixed with the
history Of war than what lies above
and below it, has fortress at its gates
and in it's midst corresponds to his.
tory of war.
All these three sections, then. cor
respond to something in the history
OF war. The wars to protect the
Netherlands against the ambition OF
the French concerned the Dutch
Mouse; to possess Maastricht, ulti-
mately to possess Liege, was the OBJ
ject of the defenders and Of the at
tackers. The upper reaches through
Sedan, through Verdun, on against
the stream into Lorraine, were q
mark of obstacle against invasion, q
line Of bases for counter-invasion; a
string Of names big in the story of the
perpetual come and go between civil
ization and the barbaric marches of
the Ceramics. Upon the Mouse was
the capitulation Of Sedan; upon the
Mouse the surrender of Verdun in
1892 threatened the survival Of France
perhaps, certainly of the Revolu-
ton. The Gaulish river rises in those
high, rolling lands near Langres. But
the central exceptional piece, the high
land country through which the Mouse
has cut its way, or has had a way
opened to it by nature, has had less
place in the story of arms. The wars
have passed 20 the north of it, over
the Belgian plain. and even in this,
the greatest and perhaps the last of
the struggles between the confirmed
West and the uncertain Ceramics,
the central gorge of the Meuse has
been no highway. Its bridges, not it's
line, have been the matter of conten-
ton, and when 1t was abandoned in
the retreat the German columns
passed. in the main. on either side
of the trench; not along 1t.
From Liege to Namur going up
stream the valley, growing though it
does more striking, Is yet not fixed
in character, and in many plces the
solemn heights OF the Ardennes upon
the south overlook an easier land to
the north. But between Namur and
Givet the ruggedness Of outline in
creases. At Oinant the valley is al
ready strikingly profound. Between
Givet and Mezieres its majesty,
depth and isolation make one remem-
Der the Sierras or the Pyrenees and
forget the too .easy north.
This gorge singularly corresponds
in its aspect and spirit both to the
legends that have risen round it and
to the obscure but enormous part
which the little Frankfsh tribe and
the Carbonarian Forest played in that
great transition Of Europe between
the Pagan empire and Christendom.
The Franks lay all around that val
ley; Journal at its edge is the Roman
tomb Of their king: Roman officer.
The Ardennes is the very forest Of
the Franks. And the auxiliary Frank.
lsh troops-a Belgian people-which
the Roman empire had raised upon
the lower valleys of the Rhine and Of
the Mouse, those auxiliary troops
whose captains were later to A.
sumo the government Of northern
9aul. had. 1t would seem, for their
place and for the center of
heir national dreams, this strange
left running tortuous and alone
through the heart Of the great woods.
t IL from one group Of its fantastic
'ocks that the four sons Of Aymon,
n the Carolingian poem, spurred their
Horses. and another group of its bare
,innacles of stone is, in popular tradi-
ion. their castle; while those highest
cliffs, which are called
The Ladies Of the Meuse," are
hcught ofby the populace as q gate
o q defile which may lead to all
Mysteries.