CHAPTER IV.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 171, 18 May 1871, Page 7

CHAPTER IV.

1 When I had in some degree collected my scattered senses, I perceived — the duskiness of the hour in which I had arrived prevented me seeing it then — that in the rear of the Anberge a block of building had been erected. In this block were the three bedrooms of our story, and the communication through the trap-door. This block was still standing, bat, with the exception of the room which 1 had occupied, was enveloped in flame. Oh ! the wierd grandeur of the spectacle of that hour. Light flooded the valley, and seemed to be flowing over the summits of the mouncains. On the roads on each side of the valley the minutest objects were visible. My eyes rested on the shattered crags. I had seen them last in the pure light of the holy stars. Where was she, the preserver of my life % Beset by — ah ! Paul Fourier ! How closely the noble and the base are huduled together in the finite world of our minds. I grasped the arm of Nicole, who stood before me. " Paul Fourier and the farmer — they have not been removed !" I cried. He was about to reply, when an appalling shriek smote upon our ears. Instinctively my eyes turned to the window of my room. There stood a human being frantically dashing his hands through the glass, tugging at the iron bars, and mingliug wild supplications for help with wilder shrieks. It was Paul Fourier. Bonded by the feeling of the moment to the impossibility of rendering him any assistance, I was in the act of springing forward, when Nicole, shouting, " Back, as you value your life," caught me by the collar of my coat, and swung me round with such good will that I had run nearly a dozen yards before I could recover myself. As I did so, the vvall of the building which had joined the Auberge gave way, and the blazing roof descended, carrying with it the middle floors. The work of destruction was complete. I stood gazing on Paul Fourier's grave- of fire. Presently several men, with a saddle horse and a number of vehicles which had been concealed somewhere in the neighbourhood, made theii appearance, and the business of lifting the wounded and the prisoners into the carriages began, and was proceeded with rapidly and silently. 1 watched intently while a prisoner was being laid in the foremost vehicle. It wts G-onsalvo. He was still iv countenance, reading his book. While I was observing the man, a finger was laid lightly on ray shoulder. " Monsieur will know his enemy when he has forgotten his friends," said the young merchant. ' He was in a full flow of spirits, and communicated to me with great animation the particulars of the capture of the brigand :—: — "Nicole, myself, and four of our fellows," said he, " took up positions at the door of the outer room, winch he believed to be occupied by Gonsalvo and his huge lieutenant. It turned out that the latter gentleman was not there ; aul it was well he was not," cried my friend, with a shrug of his shouldeis. He continued — "On the first alarm of fire, the door of the outer chamber was thrown open. At a glance Gonsalvo saw the real state of affairs. He levelled a pistol at Nicole, and fired. The bullet grazed the head of our chief, and passed through the neck of one of our men. Nicole rushed forward. Gonsalvo seized him with boih hands, and hurled him from the room, prostrating in his course Monsieur's humble servant, and the man who stood in my rear. The brigand endeavoured to close the door, but two of our fellows wei'e already in the doorway. They levelled their pistols, when, sudden as lightning, Gonsalvo hurled one of the heavy chairs in their faces. Their discharge was harmless. Nicole and mys4f were again on our feet. Gonsalvo fired his second pistol at Nicole ; and again another was the victim. Now Nicole was in the room ; he levelled his pistol, but swift, as a panther Gonsalvo closed wihh him, wrenched the pistol from his hand, and struck him to the floor with his fist. Struck him to the floor, Mon sieur, as a butcher strikes a bullock to the earth," reiterated the subordinate, with a slight touch of exultation in his tone. Nicole's pistol he levelled at me. Monsieur can see that it passed through my collar. It entered tha breast of a dear comrade of mine. Poor fellow, he ran forward a step or two, then fell dead. Gonsalvo had now possessed himself of a sabre. He, rushed upon us, uttering a wild paculiar cry, yhi«h rang through the housa, having, as my fellows tell me, a maddpning effect upon his followers. What the result of the brigand's rush mi^ht have been who can tell? Certain it is, th it some who are now living would not have been living, of which number, I take the liberty of saying, tint Nicole and Monsieur's humble servant wonki have bean t.vo ; but his foot slipped in the blood of my poor friend, and before he Gould recover himself, Nicole, myself, and others were upon him.

We bore him to the floor, and bound him. Monsieur knows the rest." "This was the way," said my uiulr, " in which Gronsalvo 1' Diable fou»hi his last battle." Ou the appearance of the saddlohorse, I bethought me of Darby. The good creature had never been wholly out of my mind; but I had felt no anxiety on her account. The stables I knew to be completely detached from the Auberge ; and then she had the steed of Nicole for a companion. That polite gentleman, strolling leisurely up to me with a cigar in his mouth, said, " Monsieur will oblige us with his company. We are nearly ready to begin our journey."- " I hastened to the stables, and found my poor friend in a sad case. Dear old Darby," sighed my uncle, parenthetically. Then he continued — " The heat, the noise, the tumult on every side, had raised the gentle creature's nerves. She was trembling in every limb. A cold perspiration bedewed her glossy flanks. Oh, how she welcomed me ! Shall I say it ? I thanked God that she could not be a Paul Fourier. For the first time during that eventful night I leant my heart upon a living thing, and my head too. I wept," said my uncle, looking round upon us sternly, as if he expected we would laugh. But we did not laugh ; so he reiterated mildly, "I wept. I was thus manfully employed, when, close to my side, a voice, that seemed to speak to my soul, said — " Mousieur perceives that I have kept my promise. He saved my life ; I have saved his. Will Monsieur grant me a little favour ?" I thrust my hand forth ; a small, cold hand was laid in mine. '• By my soul, which Christ died to save, I will, if it be such a service as a man can, at the risk of life only, perform." " I knew," she said, enthusiastically, " that Mousieur, who so loves a dumb creature, would not be cruel to me. Will Monsieur carry me under hia clock to-night, as he did yesterday, that I can tell him as we go along all that I so much wish to tell him ; then I will ask my little favour." While she was yet speaking, the voice of Nicole, commanding the procession to move, ran^ in our ears. In a few seconds Darby was ready for the road ; yet a few seconds I was by the side of Nicole. My mysterious preserver, folded in my cloak, and nestling in my bosom. Pi'sancon, a town on the mountain frontier, and distant about six miles, was the place Nicole was desirous of reaching before communications could be established between auy straggling portions of Gkmsalvo's band that might be still at large. The cavalcade moved at a round pace, considering the nature of the road, Nicole and myself riding some distance in advance. Not a word was spoken till the valley lay far below us, and before us spread a broad horizon, flecked with dusky mountain peaks. There was a highup hurtling of thunders in the night sky, and fitful, vagrant sheets of lightning wandering through the air. A rocket, thrown up in our rear, brought us to a sudden halt. Nicole wheeled his horse round and rode back. '• Monsieur will fear nothing," said a sweet voice. "There will be no attack. The head is shorn away ; there is no life in the limbs. The rocket was thrown up by a good friend of mine, as po erless as myself. It was done that I might be alone with Monsieur; I have much to say to him." The voice was low, and the utterance very rapid. I bent my head and listened. It went on — : ' Monsieur is a •joocl man; T would not have him helieve I could be guilty of trenc'iery. even to save his life. Gronsalvo is not my father, though he says he is. Gonsalvo murdered my father at the crags, whero I left Monsieur last night. Gonsalvo compelled my poor mother to marry him. He said he loved her.'

Smoking Two Hundred and Fifty Yeuis A.go. — Little did our forefathers think that the rage for smoking would be carried to the extent it is in our day. for we find the following notice, which we extract from the proceedings and debates in the House of Commons: — "Wednesday, 18th April, 1621.— Sir William Stroud moved that ho ' would have tobacco banished wholly out of

the kingdom, and that it may not be brought in from any part nor used ainongs us,' and Sir Grey Palmer said ' that if tobacco be not banished, it will overthrow one huudrod men in England, for now it is so common* -that I have seen ploughineu take it as they are at plough.' "

A sorrespondent of a Wellington paper gives the following probable solution of a puzzle : — I perceive in the English telegrams published by you to-day, that New Zealand whsat is quote.l at 45s to 565. From previous remarks on the s-ime subject in Colonial journals, I am under the impression that it is actually supposed that the wheat in question is the produce of this' Colony. One naturally asks how our wheat should get to Rotterdam 1 Th ;re are two Zealands, or anglice Sealiinds, in Europe — one is tb.3 provi ice of Holland, the other in the c'lief inland of Denmark, celebrated for its wheat. New Zealand wheat, in the Rotterdam market, means the newwheat — the Tvhe \t from the last crop of the Danish »sland of Zealand, not wheat from the Antipodes.