Beadle's Dime Library No. 157 — page 3: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

~s olner’s words, — / you can, another man on account of his»race, ee _ wall had once separated the town from the —_—_ = _ waiting the arrival of his adversary. . _ cer’s throats for the world, _ thing to an old man like me that three vigorous —— a _—_———» - nie —_—— + who look the same as the rest of you—-who are not so dark as that Gascon bully 1 am to meet to night—that we have no rights a white man need respect, because there lurks in our veins one little drop of the blood of the people of this continent? You wonder why I am to fight this Gascon to-night, monsieur? I willtell you, It is to show bim that a half-blood can beat a pure- blood, and because he is the best fencer in this army.” The old professor was wiping bis glasses with n pursing of the lips that told he did not like the ‘‘My young friend,” he observed dryly: 4d think you are unduly sensitive. Since the Rev- clution we in France care nothing for blood. Deeds are everything. You are about tekill, if ecause you think he despises yeurs, and you are quite wrong. I know Lafangere, and though he is @ vein mun of little education, he is no fool. But you will find your mistake some day. Inthe mean time I will ask liberty to change iny mind, and, I will come to the field this evening. I hope you will not try to kill each other. St. George smiled. - AL “That is not necessary, but | must give him a lesson, You think [ am eruel, monsieur. Wait till you have. been brought up, as | was,.a slave—petted” and indulged, no doubt, but knowing that my father might sell my mother and me whenever he took a whim to it. You would learn then why it is I hate the race of my ee pp - ~ ‘*But we have no slaves now,” persisted the old savant. ‘* You forget the Revolution.” . ‘* No,” answered St. George, bitterly, ‘‘ no slaves; only the slave taint. And Madame Bonaparte is a creole,as you say. Therefore, I am only a sergeant, though, as you see, Ihave | an education better than that of your friend, Darengere who sports the epaulet on his shoul- er, Te. The old savant shrugged his sboulders. He saw it was no‘use to argue with. this man, im- bittered by the injustice. of a false system, so he said nothing, and soon after left the ca/e. When evening arrived, he repaired to the ex- tremity of Alexandria, where the old Arab me ee -t—s—te peninsula of Aboukir, and where the sand came right up against the ruins. Here he found La- fangere, with two officers of his regiment and a sword-ease, walking nervously up and down; As soon as the three saw the old savant com- ing they hid the sword-case, and affected to be cxamining some agates in the sapd,.but the professor set them at ease by remarking: ‘* Never mind me, gentlemen. I come .-by in- vitation merely as a spectator, and would not disturb your pious duty of cutting one anoth- It is truly a curious young men in the service of our common mo- ther, France, should come out here aud hide be- hind a wall for the puipose of putting each other into the hospital. But here, I see, comes Monsieur St. George, and I hope you will get through your business in time to get back to tattoo roll-cail,” The officers looked uneasy under his open raillery; but they did not resent it, fur at that moment the slender, graceful figure of S5. George, in his hussar uniform, came strolling ee SS diers of the Guides with their long sabers: and } the light was too precious to be wasted in dis- a —-- ee ‘ —— _ swords of his adversary. | | : { 7 : putes. There was a good deal of stiffness. in the salutes of the officers; for they didn’t like to be compromised in an cffair with enlisted men: but, under the republic, ciscipline, so far as eti- quette went, was much relaxed in the French army, and duels between maitres. d’armes— who were in the lowest of commissioned grades | oe sergeants were not regarded as out of | place. St. George waived; the privilege of choosing | sabers and cheerfully accepted. the slender clong under the walls, followed by three sol- ' ' ! ——— He even paid him a compliment, observing: ** Tf I am to take a lesson from the first swords- man in France, let it be with the weapon he has made famous with the stop thrust.” The men were placed opposite to cach other, | the swords clashed and both leaped back in a moment out of measure. Then one might see the difference of their schools as St. George _, laid bis sword and hand on his right knee and | watched _ bis antagonist, who assumed the old- _ fashioned fencing attitude with the left hand , Taised in a supposed balance, his sword hand , the other working before he made a step. e) extended. The one was resting and. waiting, Presently Lafangere lunged, feinted, and made a prolonged attack on St. George, who Pr leaping back, doing very little partying, till the master’s sword executed a strai ht lune im carte, when the creole madeacircu blade with it warrying the cpposing m = 2 cso ‘iding in a straight thrust in. - am aster stamped his.foot angrily. Mourad, the Mameluke. — ' *‘ Come on; then,” he said between his teeth. ‘* Let's see if you can attack.” In a moment St. George was on him, plyin him with thrust on thrust, till Lafangere foun the opportunity he coveted to execute his famous “‘stop thrust.” The stop thrust is a very simple thing in itself anddepends entirely on what is known as the ‘*‘ upper. attack.” If one man lunges at another, and, the second, instead of parrying, thrusts hack, the one who thrusts at the upper part of the body is sure to hit first, because that part is nearest to the enemy. Sst. George made a low thrust at Lafangere, and the swordmaster instantly thrust back at his enemy’s throat. With a sudden stoop the creole dropped on his left knee and hand, with point up. La- fangere’s sword ripped up the collar of his jacket, but St..George’s blade took the sword- master full in the right breast under the nipple, and had not the creole at the same moment Crawn back his hand would have. spitted the other like alark. As it was, Lafangere leaped back withacry of pain, leaving his sword en- tangled in the other’s collar, and pressing both hands to his breast, exclaimed: : ‘* Ah, mon Dieu, he has done itas he said he would. Iam hilled!” | St. George had risen and was cleaning fhe point of the sword in the’sand. ' ‘You are mistaken, monsieur,®. he said coldly. “I have not served you as I did Miratori. The blade went in less than one inch. You will only lose a little blood, and .be more careful in future.. You see that the coup d’ arret is not the whole of fencing.” , be eg Lafangere was in fact saly slightly ‘wounded but he was completely subdued, and. the real frankness and courage of his nature came out in the way he took his defeat. | ‘“‘ Monseiur St. George,” he said to the creole,. “vou fence better than I, and it is I who have taken the lesson, not you. Still, I warn you, ‘that cannot be done twice to me, and there is only one way in which we.can avoid killing each other the next time we meet.” , ‘* And what is that?’ asked St. George, ‘‘ By becoming fast friends, if you will honor me so far,” was the fencing master’sreply. * As enemies we are. nothing, as.friends we can do anything, .even kill one of these mel who are such terrible fellows they say.” __- . A ja rge smiled and gave the other his and, ' , my ‘‘] believe you area good. fellow, after all,” he said, whereat M, Dlot hurried up, crying: “I told you so, young man.. | told you he was no fool, Upon my word now, I am glad this has ended thus. Lafangere, you must come home now, or youllhave a fever from. loss of blood.” ; And the reunited combatants were about to embrace each other when—whiz! came a car- bine bullet close to them into the sand, and the next moment with a loud yell of triumph, down rushed a squad of wi.d ragged Arabs on their lean ponies,, headed by a. Mameluke, blazing with gold and steel, and mounted on a bay mare that seeme:| fairly to fly. How they bad got there no one could tell, though they bad heard of the xudacity of the Mameluke scouts, but there was no time .to se, The whole French party, headed by Professor | Blot, took to their heels as hard as they could co, running to the ruined gate of the old wall and shouting for help, when the guard hastily turned out and fired a scattering volley at the Arabs, which sent them to the right about and saved Professor Blot, who was almost over- taken. ; The brilliant Mameluke, however, was not to be frightened so easily, and he dashed up.to ihe very gate, intercepting, one of the dragoon oflicers who had come out with Lafangere, The belated one drew his sword and aimed a blow at the Mameluke, who took it on bis lett | arm with aclang that told he wore armor un- der his rich garments, and retaliated with a slash across the other’s face, made apparently with littie effort.. Lafangere, who had turned at the Kate, uttered a cry of horror. The Mamelnke’s saber, with its sickle edge, had sliced off the Frenchman's head at the mouth as if it had been a carrot.” The next moment St, George, with a cry of fury, was running after the Mameluke—as the latter, apparently satisfied, wheeled his mare to flee, and before the beast could start had dealt. her a fierce blow, which cut the hamstring and crippled ber, ; a Tae Mameluke uttered a savage curse of “Ya Allab!” and dashed in his sharp stirrup irons, causing the poor creature to gallop off on three legs, but as soon as he had got a hundred yards cff he turned and uttered such a profusion of maledictions, “Co his saber,, that it was clear he was Jefying the Frenchman to fight, In a moment St. George ran out with his own long ago Se ee ; Lalit e Mameluke undors the signal and leaped off his mare, when he again shook his saber, as if to say: ** Come here, if you dare.” | The soldiers at the gate called warningly to with the gigantic forms of the front of -mud-walled hovels, inhabited by ragged beca ~~ a eee ——_ —— -— —-—— © St. George not to go; but he went on and in otber moment had met the Mameluke. single- banded. The soldiers of the rsuard were afraid to fire for fear of hurting their own man, and a singular combat commenced, in which the Mameluke, a large powerful made huge sweeping cuts at St. George, while the latter st on the defensive, not daring to cut back for fear the other might get a chance to deal bim aslash, ; In another moment the Frenchmen at the gate gave a wild shout. They saw St. George beat up, the Mameluke’s sword, eatch him by the wrist with his. left hand, and in the same moment drive his saber A the throat of the Turk, so that he fell ea | And then came a clatter of hoofs and scab- bards in the street and up rode a small pe man in a general’s uniform, followed by a bril- liant staff, who balted and asked: | ‘“What the ceuce is all this! Do know the orders?” CHAPTER IIL. A NIGHT EXPEDITION, THREE weeks later, the French army, cov-.. ered with dust, lay in bivouac in the midst of enormous wheat fields at the edge of the desert, yramids loom- ing rom the sand far ahead of them. , e great red disk of the moon, rising in the fast, was obscured by the smoke of fires .along the, banks of the Nile, and me soldiers knew. that the whole army of the melukes lay in. ite French were much dispirited by the hot weather. and ‘the apparent poverty of the. country through eich midst of thousands of acres of wheat they bad no country; and they had to feed on, beans and wild watermelons, a diet which caused much . all their march t ey bad not, grumbling. In found a town or a decent bonse,, Nothing but use the 4 tians, who had pothing, sell Mamelukes had taken all in Around them on the mare , and cut off the stragglers mercil Lafangere, longing for Paris, was now only one of a crowd of officers, who kept. up. an in- cessant grumbling and wished: they. were back, in Italy. ' In the midst of the dry.dusty bivouac, where © the yellow clouds bung thickest, burned a Jittie fire of dry sticks; and a small slender figure, in the uniform of a general of the French Re- — could be seen standing with his hands ‘ehind his back, his head slightly bent in an at- titude of meditation, while groups of staff offi- cers lay or sat around, talking in low tones. St. George.who had gone over to the_bivouac of his new friend Lafangere, hearing the latter grumbling, remarked: * You are no worse off than the general, See how patient he is. He has not mounted his horse allday. And see Cafarelli, the engineer,. a cripple; vet he has walked all day on his wooden leg,”’ ‘* He doesn’t care,” retorted Lafangere in a tone of raillery.. ‘‘He has one leg in France anyhow.” ‘hereat the others laughed, and one of the. donkeys, tethered close by, for the use of the siennes men accompanying the army, brayed oudly, 1 aietoes turned to his friends, : ‘‘ Listen to the savant: he is telling us all he knows about Egypt.” And the joke, poor as it was, restored them to good-humor, so variable are the tempers of soldiers on campaign. | : ‘“‘T wonder what they are doing over there,” remarked St. George, musingly, to his friend Lafangere, looking over at the dusky line. of smoke that marked the camp of the Mamelukes, “if [hada friend or two to accompany we I would take a little nip over there.” “Thank you for nothing,” retorted the fenc- , ing-master; ‘but, besides being dangerous, it is against orders to go outside the pickets.” ‘* Nevertheless,” persisted St. George, in a low tone, ‘‘I know a way to distinguish ourselves — you and I—if you dare try it, Come and take a little walk with me and I'll tell vou.” | The Gascon rose, for he had acquired a great respect fur his companion since the latter’s vic- tory over himse strolled th the camp till they came to the outskirts and beheld the fire of the grand cpen reserve abouta hundred yards out on the san Hare thay stopped and Lafangere said rather nervo vs tt ae “a * r. cursed Tell me er mcadartl Are St, George node ed, af6 I will, person of the general and hear a good d what passes,” “ Naturally. Goon.” : OMIGEDOO S you not — Cairo to dispute their possession of . they passed. in the _ bread, because there was not a mill-in the | CY Poe, 1 ee are Ens tenia te ane rabs on ponies, W the sand- _ and the Mameluke, and they . bs may be- You know we Guides are near the | eal of oS are: > = -_ = pom oe i - tS Se = J me eg te mm we ee cr — > Ai,