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v-Vv- : ' ' THE NEWS-RECORD, MARSHALL, NORTH CAROLINA. ., i , 8YNOP8I8. Francois Beaupre. a peasant ' babe of three years, after an amusing Incident In wnicn Marshal Ney ngures, is made I Chevalier of France by the Emperor Na poleon. In the home of the lad's parents ' In the village of Vieques, France, where . the emperor bad briefly stopped to hold council of war. Napoleon prophesied that the boy might one day be a marshal of France under another Bonaparte. At the age of ten Francois meets a stranger who Is astonished when the boy tells him of his ambition. Francois visits General Baron Oaapard Oourgaud, who with Allxe, his seven-year-old daughter, lives at the Chateau. A soldier of the Empire under Napoleon he fires the boy's Imag ination with stories of his campaigns. The general offers Francois a home at the Chateau. The boy refuse to leave his Earents, but In the end becomes a copy it for the general and learns of the friendship between the general and Mar quis Zappl, who campaigned with the gen eral under Napoleon. Marquis Zappl and ms son, fietro, arrive at the unat eau. The general agrees to care for the Mar quis's son while the former goes to America. The Marquis before leaving for America ask Francois to be a friend tils son. The boy solemnly promises. CHAPTER IX. . The Castle Children. There was a farm in the Valley Deleemontee Ave miles It was from Vieques which was a dependence of the selgneury; for centuries the same family had held it, and It was con sldered the richest holding for a peas ant in that part of the world. Just now the family all at once came to an end. It was necessary to find new tenants, and the general offered the place to Le Francois and La Claire. Kven in their best days they had not been so proBperoue as this would make them. But what about Fran colsT The general glowered at them from deep eyes. "There's always a screw somewhere In every good thing. This time it's the boy." - There was a silence. Claire trem bled. ' --Vr ". -- "It will go hard with the lad to give us up," she brought out softly, "He won't give you up; I should not respect him if he gave you up," the general thundered, and the two peas ants breathed more .freely. This great good fortune was not, after all, the price of their son; - - . - .iujr aegrees me tnree came to an understanding. A tutor was to be en gaged for the three children; Francois was to live at the castle as If It should be explained to him he were going away to school, and every Fri day he was to walk to the Ferme du Val the Valley Farm and stay with bis people until Sunday afternoon.. This new order of things was well settled before eix months had passed after the going of the Marquis Zappf. And then in three. or four months xnore something happened. Francois was alone with the general when the letter come. His eyes were on, his seigneur's face as he read the letter and the boy saw the blood rush through the weather-hardened skin in a brown-red flood, and then fade out, leaving it gray.. The boy, had never seen the general look so. With that, the big arms were thrown out on the table and the big grizzled head fell into them. - ; v. Then he lifted his head and told the boy how the friend whom he had found lately, after eo many years of separation, had gone away not to come back in this life, and how Pietro was fatherless, . Francois, holding tightly wltn both, fists to the general's hand, listened wide-eyed, struck to the heart "But he had a brave life, my seigneur t is the best thing that there is. My mother said so. My mother told me that we shall emile later, when we are with the good God, to . think that we ever feared death on this earth. For she says one spends a long time with the good God later, and all one's dear friends come, and It is pleasant and it la for a long, long time, while here it is, after all, quite short Is not that true, my seigneur? My mother said it." Big little Pietro had to be told what bad t happened and how the general was now to be , a father to him as best he might and Allxe and Francois -would be his sister and brother. He took the blow dumbly and went about bis studies next morning, but for many days he could not play, and only Francois could make him speak. He was handsome extraordinarily handsome and a lovable good child, but slow in Initiative where Francois was ready, shy where Francois was friends with ' all the world, steady going where, the peasant boy was bril liant Between the two, of such con trasting types, was an unshaken bond from the first And at this age It seemed to be the little peasant who bad everything to give. Smaller phys ically, weaker In muscle than the big boned son of North Italy, he yet took quRe naturally an attitude of protec tion and guidance, and Pietro accept ed It without hesitation. ' Two years -slid past noiselessly, un noticed, and It was vacation time; It was August of the year 1824. ' The old chateau of Vieques the ' ruin lay back behind the corn fields and smiled fn hot sunlight A tall lad of fourteen, another boy, slighter, quicker, darker, land a little girl of eleven In a short white dress, wandered through the ruins, talking earnestly now, silunt now, filling the grim place with easy latter again. Nbwwmow mpnm Andrews ILLUSTRATIONS ELLSWORTH YOVN&- Allxe and Francois and Pietro were growing up; the general already grumbled words about kittens turning Into cats, as he looked at them. "Just behind the great stone there," Allxe formulated, "was the dog's bed room. Of course, a great monsieur like the dog had his own bedroom yes, and office, too and' maybe his dining-room." And the Joke was enough on that lazy day of vacation to set peals of laughter ringing through the ruins, Allxe stopped laughing suddenly. "Who le that?" she demanded. Her eyes were lifted" to the hill rising be hind the green mound, and the glance of the others followed hers. A young man, a boy, was coming lightly down the slope, and something in his figure and movement made it impossible even at a distance that it should be any one of the village. He saw them, and came forward, and his cap was off quickly as he .glanced at Allxe. But with a keen look at the three, it was Francois to whom he spoke. "Is this France?" he asked. "But yes, Monsieur," Francois an swered wondering and in a moment he wondered more. The strange boy, his cap flung from him, dropped on his knees and kissed the grass that grew over the Roman governor's foun datlons. With that he was standing again,' looking at them unashamed from his quiet gray eyes. "It is the first time I have touched the soil of France since I was seven years old,''' he stated, not as If to excuse his act but as if explaining something historical. And was silent The strange boy talked very little; they could not recollect that he asked questions, after his first startling question; yet here was Alixe, the very spirited and proud little Alixe, anxious to make him understand everything of their own affairs. "I am Allxe," she . began and stopped short, seized with shyness, Was it courtesy to explain to the young monsieur , about her distin guished father? She found herself suddenly in an agony of confusion Then the stranger made a low bow and spoke In the gentlest friendly tones. "It is enough. It Is a charming name, Mademoiselle Allxe. I believe I shall now think It the most charm ing name in France." "She has more of a name than that however, Monsieur," and Francois stepped across the grass and stood by the little girl, her knight unconscious of the part he played. "It is a very grand name, the other one. - For our seigneur, the father of Alixe, is Mon sieur the Baron Oaspard Oourgaud, a general of Napoleon himself; was in deed with the Emperor at St Helena." Francois had no false, modesty, no self-consciousness; he felt that he had placed Alixe's standing now in the best light possible. The strange boy felt It too, it seemed, for he started as Francois spoke of Napoleon; his reserved face brightened and his cap was off and sweeping low as he bowed again to Alixe more deeply. Francois was delighted. It was in him to en joy dramatic effect, as it is in most Frenchmen. He faced about to Pietro. This one, Monsieur," he went on, much taken with himself as master of 1 : "I Am Louis Bonaparte." ceremonies, "is Monsieur the Marquis Zappl of Italy. His father also fought for the, great captain." The quiet strange boy interrupted swiftly. "I know," he said. "Of the Italian corps under Prince Eugene; also oh the staff of Lannes. I know the name well," and he had Pietro'a hand In a firm grasp and was looking into the lad's embarrassed face with his dreamy keen eyes. rne cniiaren, surpnsea, were yet too young to wonder that a boy scarce ly older than themselves should have the army of Napoleon at his fingers' ends; he gave them no time to think about it -- ':-.-' 'One sees, without names, that yon are of the noblesse,"vhe said simply, embracing the, three In his sleepy glance. He turned to Francois. "And you, Monsieur the spokesman? You are also of a great Bonapartist house?" Francois stood straight and slim; his well-knit young body in his mili tary dress was carried with all the assurance of an aristocrat He smiled his brilliant exquisite smile Into the older boy's face. "Me I am a peasant," he said cheer fully. "I have no bouse." , "He Is a peasant yes. 1 But he is our brother, Pletro's and mine, and no prince is better than Francois not one." "Or half so good," Pietro put in with his slow tones. "You are likely right" the stranger agreed laconically. And then without questions asked, In rapid eager sentences, the three had told him how it was; bow Fran cois, refusing to leave the cottage, was yet the son of the castle. With that they were talking about the village of Vieques, and Its antiquity, and then of the old chateau; and one told the legend of the treasure and of the guardian dog. "Just over the wall there is the opening where he appeared to old Pierre Tremblay," Francois pointed out "I think I should like to climb the wall," the stranger said. . And he did.- The others watching anxiously, he crawled out on the un certain pile ten feet In air. A big stone crashed behind him; he crawled on. Then there was a hoarse rumble of loosened masonry, and down came the great blocks close to his hands- he was slipping! And, above, the wall swayed. Then, In the Instant of time before the catastrophe, Francois had sprung like a cat into the center of danger and pushed the other boy, vio lently reeling, across the grass out of harm s way. Alixe screamed once sharply. Fran cols lay motionless on his face and the great stones rained around him. It was all over in a moment; in a mo ment more a shout of joy rose from Pietro, for Francois lifted his head and began crawling difficultly, with Pletro's help, out of the debris. "I have to thank you for my life, Monsieur the peasant,", the stranger said, and held out his hand. "More over, it Is seldom that a prophecy is eo quickly fulfilled. You said a few min utes ago that you should one day do a thing worth while for a Bonaparte. You have done it . You have saved my life." Francois' hand crept to his cap and he pulled it off and stood bareheaded. "Monsieur, who are you?" he brought out. The strange boy's vanishing smile brightened his face a second. "I am Louis Bonaparte," he said , quietly, The little court of three stood about the young Prince, silent And In a moment In a few sentences, he had told them how, the day before, he had been seized with a hunger for the air of France, which he had not breathed since, as a boy of seven, his mother had escaped with him from Paris dur ing the Hundred Days. He told them how the desire to stand oh French soil had possessed him, till at last he had run away from his tutor" and had found the path from his exiled home, the castle of Arenenberg, In the canton of Thurgovie, in Switzerland, over the mountains into the Jura valley. It Is imprudent" he finished the tale calmly. , "The government would turn on all Its big engines in an uproar to catch pne schoolboy. If it was known. But I had to do it", He threw back his head and filled his lungs with a great breath. "The air of France." he whispered in an ecstasy, For two hours more they told sto- ries and played games through the soft old ruins of the savage old strong hold, as light-heartedly, as carelessly as it mere were no wars or Intrigues or politics or plots which had been and were to be close to the lives of an oi mem, a in, as tne red round sun went down behind the mountain . .1 T1 . - . . . ui. uis nose, r rancois quick - eye caugnt sight of a figure swinging rap idly aown tne mountain road where tne Prince, had come, v' "But look, Louis," he called from be hind Use rock where he was preparing. as a robber baron, to swoop down on Prince Louis convoying Alixe as an escaped nun to Pletro's monastery In another comer. And the boy Prince, suddenly grave, shaded his eye with his hand and gazed up the mountain. Then his hand fell and he sighed. "The adven turn Is over," , he said. "I must go DacK to tne prince business. It Is Monsieur Lebas. Monsieur Lebas, the tutor, arrived shortly in anything but a playful hu mor. The boy's mother. Queen Hor tense, was in Rome, and he was re sponsible; he had been frightened to the verge of madness by the prince's escapade. -. ;v:-r-- ,- t, . The playmates were . separated swiftly. - Monsieur Lebas refused with something like horror the eager sug gestion that he and his charge should spend the night at the chateau. The Prince must be gotten off French ground without a moment's delay. CHAPTER X " The Promise., "MonDieul" said the general It was six years later. At the new chateau not a blade of grass seemed changed , The 'general stood in the midst of close-cropped millions of blades of grass as be stopped short on the sloping lawn which led down to the white stone steps which led to the sunken garden. Allxe. In her rid ing habit, with a feather in her hat and gauntleted gloves on her hands was so lovely as to be startling. She looked at the ground, half shy, half laughing, and beat the grass with her riding-whip. Francois was leaning toward her and talking, and the gen eral, coming slowly down the lawn felt a flood of pride rise in him as he looked at this successful picture of a boy which he had done so much to fashion. The two had been riding to gether, and Francois appeared, as most men do, at his best in riding clothes. With that as the general marched slowly down the velvet elope. unseen by them, regarding them his girl and his boy, this happy sister and brother with that the brother lifted his sister's hand and, bending over it, kissed it slowly. In a manner unmis takably unbrotherly. Mon Dleu!" gasped the general, and turned on his heel and marched back to his library. All that afternoon he stayed shut up in the library. At dinner he was taciturn. The next morning the general sent for Francois to come to him in the library. A letter had been brought a short time before and was lying open on tne table by his hand. "Francois," began the general In his deep abrupt tones, "I am in trouble. Will you help me?" "Yes, my Seigneur," said Francois quickly. The general glared at him, frown ing. "We shall see," he said again, and then suddenly as a shot from a cannon "Does Alixe love you. Fran cols 7" "I I think not my Seigneur," he answered In a low voice. "I am hurting you," the deep voice said and only one or two people in the world had heard that voice so full of tenderness.' "I am hurting my son, But listen, FrancolB. It was the dear est wish of Pletro's father it has been my dearest wish for years that Alixe and Pietro should one day be married. It is that which would he the, crown of a friendship forged in the fires of battle-fields, tempered in the freezing starving snow fields of Russia, finished I hope never finished for all eternity." Francois, his head bent, his eyes on the general's hand which held his, an swered very quietly; "I see," he said. !You would not take her from Pie tro, who, I am sure, loves her?" Francois looked up sharply, but the general did not notice. He spoke slowly. "I promised Pletro's father" the boy seemed to be out of breath to be Pletro's friend always,." he said. The general smiled then and let the fingers go, and turned to the letter on the table before him. "Good!" he said. "You are always what I wish, Francois," and it was quite evident that the load was off his mind. CHAPTER XI. " With All My Soul. The general swung around to the lad. "Francois, this letter Is about you.'.' He tapped the rustling paper. Pietro wants' you to come to him as his secretary." ' Francois' large eyes lifted to the general's face, inquiring, startled, childlike. "Pietro!" he said slowly. "I had not thought of that." "Yet you knew that Pietro was heart and soul in the plots of the Italian patriots?" "Yes." j -y, ': '. ., -:l';y "But you had not thought of going to help him fight?" "No, my seigneur. I had thought only of the fight for which I must be ready here." "This Italian business will be good practice," said the general, as a man of today might speak of a tennis tour nament "And you and Pietro will be enchanted to be together again." . Francois smiled, and something in the smile wrung the general'B heart Francois, you are not going to be unhappy about little Alixe?" ' Quickly Francois threw back, as If he had not, heard the question: "My Seigneur, I will go to Pietro; It will be the best thing possible action and training, and good old Pietro for a comrade. My Seigneur, may I go to morrow?" . ,-. Tomorrow!" The general ' was startled now. "A thousand thunders. but you are a sudden lad! Yet it. will be no harder to give you up tomorrow than it would be next month. Yes, to morrow, then, let It be." FrancolB stood up, slim, young, alert and steady, yet somehow not as the boy who had come In to the general an hour before; more, perhaps, as a man who had been through a battle and come out very tired, with the noise of the fighting In his ears. I will go to the farm tonight to my mother and my father. And this afternoon I will ride with Alixe, if you do not want me for the , book, my Seigneur and if she will go. May I ask you not to tell Alixe of this to leave It to me to toll her?" S OQfrctfm2 by eoaas nawiLC(X "Yes," agreed the general doubt fully. "But you will be careful not to upset her, Francois?" "I will be careful." ' " "And and you will do what you can to help Pietro, will you not, my son?" i A quick contraction twisted Fran cols' sensitive mouth and was gone, but this time the general saw. "You may trust me, my Seigneur," the boy said, and moved to the door; but .the general called to him as his hand touched the latch. "Francois!" "Yes, my Seigneur." He faced about steady and grave, and stood holding the door. "Francois, my son I have not hurt you very much? You do not love Allxe deeply? Do you love her, Fran- cols?" There was a shock of stillness In the old dim library. Through the window where the children's shouts had come in ten years before to the mar quis and the general one heard now In the quiet the sudden staccato of a late cricket The general, breathing anxiously, looked at Francois, Fran cois standing like a statue. The gen eral repeated his question softly, breathlessly. "Do you love her, Fran- cols?" With that the great eyes blazed and the whole face of the boy lighted as if a fire had flamed Inside a lantern, He threw back his head. "With all my soul," he said. "And forever." ' A rushing mountain stream white- veiled in the falling, black-brown In the foam-flecked pools tumbled, splashed, brawled down the mountain; the mountain hung over, shadowy; banks of fern held the rampant brook In chains of green. Alixe and Fran coise, riding slowly in the coolness of the road below, looked up and saw it all, familiar, beautiful, full of old as sociations. "One misses Pietro," Francois said. He always wanted to ride past the 'Trou du Gouverneur.' " A Roman legend had given this name to the deep pool of the brook by the road; it was said that the cruel old governor had used It two thousand years back, for drowning refractory peasants. Allxe gazed steadily at the dark murmuring water. Yes, one misses him. Is life like that do you suppose, Francois? One grows up with people, and they get to be as much a part of (living as the air, or one's hands end then, sud denly, one,' la told that they are go ing away. And that ends it One must do without air, without hands. What a world, Francois!" "We are not meant to like it too much, I believe, Alixe," said FrancolB sunnily. "It Is just en passant, this world, when you stop to consider. This is school, this life, I gather. . My mother says It is not very Important if one has a good seat in the school room or a bad; if one sits near one's playmates or is sent to another cor ner, so long as one is a good child and works heartily at one's lessons! It is only for a day and then we go home, where all that Is made right. Not a bad idea of my mother's, is it Alixe?" Your mother is a wonderful worn-) Alixe Turned 8harply. an," Alixe answered thoughtfully. "She lives like that She never let things trouble her, not even when your father lost everything. Did she, Fran cois?" ;,0:'V:.V. "No," said Francois. "She is one of the few people who know what the real things are and live In them. It is hard to do that I can not I care so bitterly for what I want "It !" Francois hesitated "It Is very hard for me to give up what I want" He stumbled over the words; his voice shook so that Alixe shifted in the saddle and looked at him Inquiringly. ."Alixe dear" then Francois stopped. "You need not be afraid that I shall have more than Pietro," he be gan uncertainly. "For it is not going to be bo. He will have what what I would give my' life for." Then he hurried on. "I see how it is," he said gently, "and you are right to care so loyally for Pietro. Us la worth it And you must r-ver care less, Allxe never forget him because he has gone away, he will come back." The boy spoke with effort, slowly, but Allxe was too much occupied with her own tumultuous thoughts to notice. "He will surely come back and be long to you more than ever. He will come back distinguished and covered ' with honors, perhaps, and then and then Allxe, do you eee the chestnut tree at the corner that turns to the chateau? It Is a good bit of soft road we will race to that tree shall we? And then I will tell you something." The horses raced merrily; Allxe sat close to the saddle with the light swinging seat, the delicate hand on the bridle, which were part of her perfect horsemanship, and over and over as he watched her ride FrancolB said to himself: "I will give my happiness for the Seigneur's I said it and I will. I will be a friend to Pietro always I said It, and I will." Over and over the horses' flying feet pounded out that self-command, and at length the music of the multiplying hoof beats grew slower, and with tight ening rein they drew in and stopped under the big chestnut Alixe was laughing, exhilarated, lovely. Wasn't It a good race? Dldnt they go dellciously?" she threw at him. And then, "We will go around by the1 Delesmontes Road; it is only three miles farther, and it is early In the afternoon; there 1b nothing to do." Francois spoke slowly. "I am afraid I must not, Alixe. I am going to the farm tonight" ' "To the farm!" Allxe looked at him in surprise. "But you were not to go over till tomorrow. My' father and I will ride over with you. Have you forgotten?" No," said Francois, "I have not for gotten no, indeed. But I am going away tomorrow, Allxe." Going away?" Alixe turned sharp ly, and her deep blue glance searched his eyes. "What do you mean, Fran cois?" And then, imperiously: "Don't' teaee me, 'Francois! I don't like it" Francois steadied, hardened his face very carefully, and answered: "I am not teasing you, Allxe. I did not tell you before because " he stopped, for his voice was going wrong "because I thought we would have our ride just as usual today. I only knew about it myself this morning. I am going to Pietro." I Going to Pietro!" Allxe was gasp ing painfully. "Francois it is a joke tell me it is a poor joke. Quick!" she ordered. "I won't have you play with me, torture me!" It is not a joke." The boy's eyes were held by a superhuman effort on the buckle of the bridle-rein lying on his knee. "There was a letter from Pietro this morning. The seigneur wishes me to go. I wish to go, I go tomorrow." f "Going tomorrow!" The girl's voice was a wail. "You taken away from me!" Then in a flash: "I hate Pietro! He is cruel he thinks only of him self. He wants you but I want you too. How can I live without you. Francois?" Then softly, hurriedly, while the world reeled about the boy, sitting statue-like in his saddle: "It Is just as I said. You are as much' a part of my life as the air I breathe; ana you ana my iamer ana rietro say quite calmly, 'The air is to be taken away you must do without it I can not I will choke!" She pulled at her collar suddenly, as if the choking were a physical present fact : f No slightest motion, no' shade of inflection missed Francois; still he sat motionless, his eyes on the little brass buckle, his lips set in a line, . without a word, without a look toward her. And suddenly Allxe, with another quick blue glance from under her long lashes Alixe, hurt, reckless, desper ate, had struck her horse a eharp blowj and she was in the road before him; galloping away. He let her go. He sat quiet a long! time. As she, turned in, still gallop ing, at the high stone gateway of the chateau, his eyes came back again to the little shining buckle. It seemed the jonly thing tangible in a dream universe of rapture and agony. Over; and over he heard the words she had said words which must mean what? Had they, meant it? Had he possibly been mistaken? No the utter happi ness which came with the memory of the, soft hurried voice. must mean the truth she cared for him, - and thea over and over and over he said, half aloud, through hie set teeth: , - "I said that I would give my happi ness for my seigneur's; , I said that I would be a friend to Pietro; I will.' ; (TO BE CONTINUED.) Home, 8weet Home. A well known player was talking, about a brilliant but unsuccessful dis- ciple of Blackstone. v , "His habits are to blame for his fall ure," said he. "One of his remarks illustrates his habits well. He said to me In the Union club:; " There's no place like home-espe cially at I or 3 a. m., when you've ex hausted the pleasures of all tha other places,, and you're tired, and every- . thing shut up anyway.' " r.
The News-Record (Marshall, N.C.)
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