.

Then, the Norman radiant with the mute joy of an old peasant, rose up,
and merely to please himself, cut the dead soldier's throat. After that,
he dragged the corpse to the dike and threw it in.

The horse was quietly waiting for its rider. Pere Milon got on the
saddle, and started across the plain at the gallop.

At the end of an hour, he perceived two more Uhlans approaching the
staff-quarters side by side. He rode straight towards them, crying,
"Hilfe! hilfe!" The Prussians let him come on, recognizing the uniform
without any distrust.

And like a cannon-ball, the old man shot between the two, bringing both
of them to the ground with his saber and a revolver. The next thing he
did was to cut the throats of the horses--the German horses! Then,
softly he re-entered the bake-house, and hid the horse he had ridden
himself in the dark passage. There he took off the uniform, put on once
more his own old clothes, and going to his bed, slept till morning.

For four days he did not stir out, awaiting the close of the open
inquiry as to the cause of the soldiers' deaths; but, on the fifth day,
he started out again, and by a similar stratagem killed two more
soldiers.

Thenceforth he never stopped. Each night he wandered about, prowled
through the country at random, cutting down some Prussians, sometimes
here, sometimes there, galloping through the deserted fields under the
moonlight, a lost Uhlan, a hunter of men. Then when he had finished his
task, leaving behind the corpses lying along the roads, the old horseman
went to the bake-house, where he concealed both the animal and the
uniform. About midday he calmly returned to the spot to give the horse a
feed of oats and some water, and he took every care of the animal,
exacting therefore the hardest work.

But, the night before his arrest, one of the soldiers he attacked put
himself on his guard, and cut the old peasant's face with a slash of a
saber.

He had, however, killed both of them. He had even managed to go back and
hide his horse and put on his everyday garb, but, when he reached the
stable, he was overcome by weakness, and was not able to make his way
into the house.

He had been found lying on the straw, his face covered with blood.

* * * * *

When he had finished his story, he suddenly lifted his head, and glanced
proudly at the Prussian officers.

The Colonel, tugging at his moustache, asked:

"Have you anything m