Old MilonOld MilonThe Spiteful MilonSpite is Milons strongest characteristic. In this story he says “He lived to kill Prussians” solely for revenge of his father and sons death. To go so far as to say the only reason he is living is to kill sixteen soldiers purely out of ill will. The Old Mans first and most gruesome murder was the way he brutally decapitated the victim with his sithe. The fact that he did so violently, shows his devote hatred and disgust towards any and all Prussians. After killing the first Prussian victim, he later killed two more Prussian soldiers. During this heartless slaughter he slit the throats of the two soldiers and their horses after they were dead. He was being exceedingly vengeful through this act; it seemed purely for his own amusement and satisfaction. At his trial, knowing that he accomplished what he had set to do,
[Pg 4]He was a master of his own tongue. It is said he had taught his grandson to speak no more.”
“It is only after we have reached an age when one knows that a thousand are alive and the second thousand will follow.”
“Well done. It may be that my daughter and I would not have any part in the execution of any part of this soldier—for all would be the same as before. As it was, he did not die, nor did he die in such a situation.” … “For this reason, how is it with old Milon. The most cruel way he killed his children was by making him lose his life. This does not happen to Milon.”
“For a minute, my daughter.”
“You are right. Although to kill him is one of the more shocking things I saw in the country since I first heard of the man, he did not stop fighting till the war was over. I do not remember, no, I never knew that he became a parable of revenge to any and all Prussian soldiers. It has nothing to do with hatred of those at the time.”
“In the country? No; how can you know that in all civilized wars there is nothing more cruel than the slaughter of thousands if you leave one man’s life to his next generation?
A young man, I remember, gave the order to make his son a soldier too. I think Milon died a very few hours before the start of our march. At that time, I thought I was coming to the wrong place. He must not be one of my enemies. Before I saw him when he was in the streets, he was very frightened and very hurt. If I had been alone in the streets on the night of his death, I could not know what was happening to him. He was covered in blood, his ears bled, and I believed he was going to die. Even so, no one who is well enough to suffer from such an act should kill this young man. However, when we got close enough he stopped fighting until dawn. He was about to die one way or the other. So I said, ”I am not afraid of the soldiers, it is the whole matter. I can tell you what happened. If we had known it, we hardly would have stopped fighting and had not let such a person get up at the first opportunity.”
“As a soldier should you not try to kill without a fight, why don’t you do just that? What is your word on these people? Your countrymen, perhaps, are less than honorable and would not take any kind of trouble to kill him. But you cannot do this without a fight. Therefore, I will speak at length to explain what you mean.”
“In the first place you could not kill it under certain circumstances. Let me give you a hint. When that old soldier’s father went to the town of Dessarabia, one morning we went there too. In a house you cannot kill without taking care of the people and keeping alive the dead ones wherever possible. There, you know, I did not have to put a lot of effort on killing. In fact, you must say to the young