The evening world. Newspaper, January 14, 1916, Page 19

By Sir Arth Author of (Copyright, 1892, by A. Ooman Doyle.) FEXONGS, OF PRECEDING CHAPTERS, mle ie? dim? slorrott Eta ae EE aces, eacrens ie Oni rm Krams carn cry paar Jot Hee haath ae age E c nd inne Pie A estes CHAPTER XI. The Gatherings of the Nations. ND now I come to a bit of A my story that clean takes my breath away aa I think that I had never taken the Job of telling it in hand. For when I Write I like things to come slow and orderly and in their turn—iike sheep coming out of a paddock. So it was at West Inch; but now that we were drawn into a larger life, like wee bits of Mraw that foat slowly down some lazy ditch until they suddenly find themselves in the dash and swirl of a @reat river, then it ie very hard for mé, with my simple to keep pace with it all. But you oan find the cause and reason of everything in the books about thistory, and so 1 shal just leave that alone, and talk bout what I saw with my own eyes nd heard with my own ears. The regiment to which our friend had been appointed was the Seventy- firet Highland Light Infantry, which wore the red coat and the trews, a: had its depot in Glasgow town. There We went, all three, by coach, the Major in great epirits and full of stories about the Duke and the Pen- insula, while Jim sat in the corner, with his lips set and his arms folded, and I knew that he killed De Lissac ‘three times an hour in his heart. I could tell it by the sudden glint of his eyes and grip of his hand, As to me, I did not know whether to be glad or sorry; for home is home, and it Is a thing, however you may brazen it out, to feel that half Bcot- jand is between you and your mother, We were in Glasgow next day, and the Major took us'down to the depot, where a soldier, with three siripes on ie arm an? a fistful of ribbon: cap, alicwed every tooth he had in his head at the sight of Jim, and ‘walked three times round him, to have the view of him as if he had been Carlisle Castle, Then he came over to me, and felt my muscle, and was as pleased as witb Jim. ese are the sort, Major; these ere the sort,” he kept saying, “With a | ip renlbed eee we could stan to Boney’s a O.How do they run?” asked the Major. - r show,” said he, “but they may Rex into shape. The best men ‘have been drafted to berry Cn) we full of militiamen and recruities. werat tut!” sald the Major, “We'll have old soldiers and good ones against us. Come to me if you need a help, you two.” And eo, with @ he left us, and we began to un- derstand that a major who ts your officer is a very different person from @ major he 4 happens to be your in the country. “ One wells why should TI trouble you with these things? I could wear out a good quill pen just writing about what we did, Jim and I, at the depot in Glasgow, and how we came to know our officers and our com~- rades, and how they began to know us. n came the news that the folk at Vienna, who had been cutting Burope as if it had been a jigget of mution, had flown back, each to his own country, and that every man and horse in their armies bad their faces towards France. We heard of great reviews and musterings in Paris, too, and then that Wellington was in the Low Countries, and that on us and on the Prussians would fall the first blow, ‘The Government was shipping men over to him as fast as they could, and every port along the east coast was choked with guns and hor and stores, On the third of June we had our marching orders also, and on the same day we took ship from Leith, reaching Ostend the night after, It was my first sight of @ foreign land, and, indeed, most of my comrades were the same, for we were very young in the ran! T oan seo the blue water now, and the curling surf-line, and the long, yellow beach, and queer windmilis twisting and turning—a thing that a man would not see from one end of Scotland to the other, It was a clean, well-kept town, but the folk were undersized, and there was neither ale nor oatmeal cakes to be bought Ghent, where we picke® up with the Fifty-second and the Ninety-fifth, which were the two regiments that we were brigaded with. It's a won- 4erful place for churches and stone- work, is Ghent; and, indeed, of all the towns we were in there was scarce one but had a finer kirk than any in Glasgow. From here we pushed on to Ath, which Is a little village on a river, or a burn rather, called the Dender. There we were quartered—in tents mostly, for it was fine, sunny weather d the whole brigade set to work t {ts drill from morning till evening. Gen, Adams was our chief and R nell was our Colon both fine old soldiers heart into us most was to th we were under the Duke, for his name was like a bugle-call. Ilo was at Brussels with the bulk of the army, bat we know that wo should see tm quick enough if he were needed, T had never seen so many English together, and, indeed, T had a kind of contempt for them, as folk always ave if they live near a border, But the two regiments that were with us now were as good comrades as could be wished. The Fifty-second had a thousand men in the ranks, and there were many old soldiers of the Penin- sula among them. They came from Oxfordshire for the most part The Ninety-fifth were a rifle reg ment, and had dark green coats in- stead of red, It Was strange to sce them loading, for tyey would put the ball in nd then hammer it dow t, but they could fire both id straighter than we, A! of Belgium was covered with British troops at that time, for the Guards were over near SRENEENONEUONONENEN ‘ONE The Great A Romance of Love and European War ur Conan Doyle LOCK HOLMES,” Ete, of it, and mdkes me wish! 4 as hard as a great aie dani — — The Evening World Dally Magazine, Friday, January 14, 1916 Shadow Pnghien, and there were cavalry regi- =e on Gi farther aide of us. ‘ou see, It was very necessary Wellington should spread out all bis force, for Boney was behind the screen of his fortresses, and, of . course, we had no means of saying on what side he might pop out, ex- England; and on the other he might shove in between the he, for his light troops all round Great spiders web, so that mo- oot across men at the right place. For myself, I was very happy at Ath, and I found the folk very kindly and homely, There was a farmer, of the name of Bots, in whose fields we were quartered, who was « real good friend to many of us. We built him @ wooden barn among us in our spare time, and many a time I and Jeb Beaton, my rear-rank man, have hung out his washing, for the smell of the wet linen seemed to take us both straight home as nothing else could do, I have often wondered whether that good man and his wife are still living, though I think it hardly like- ly, for they were of a hale middie- a t the time, Jim would come wit us too sometimes, and would sit with us smoking in the big Flem- ish kitchen, but he was a different Jim now to the old one. He had al- ways had a hard touch In htm, but now his trouble seemed to have turned him to flint, and I never saw nd ® Smile upon his face, and seldom heard a word from bi whole mind was set eI tore ine himself upon De Lissac for having taken Exile from him and he would sit for hours, with his chin upon his hands, glaring and frowning, all Wrapped in the one idea. This made him @ bit of @ butt among the men at first, but when they came to know him better they found that he was ma: a Faced rig laugh at, and then We were early risers at that and the whole ‘brigade was comity er arme at the first flush of dawn. One morning—It was the sixteenth of June—we had just up, and Gen, Adame had ridden up to give some order to Col. Reynell, within a pier bes of whore I stood, when enw, ey both staring None of us dared mo heads, Dut every eye tn the regiment whinked round, and there we saw an officer, with the cockade of a general's aide: de-camp, ee ore the road Pple- could carry him. He "peat his tose over ite mane and flogged with the slack of the yas tuseen he rode for very life, “Hullo, Reynell," says the General, “This begins to look lke business. Whtat do you make of itt They their horses ted: Adama lamas tore open the 4 which the messenger handed teen The envelope had not toughed the fetter over tie head cs it Yeats etter over ead @ sabre, Cals ote “Dismiss!” he orted. “General pa- rade and march in half an hour.” - Then, in an instant, all was buss and bustle and the news on every lip. Napoleon had crossed the frontier the day before, had pushed the Prus- sians before him and was already deep tn the country to the east of us with @ hundred and fifty thousand men. Away we scuttled to gather our things together and have our break- fast id in an hour we had marched off and left Ath and the Dender be- hind us forever, There was good need for haste, for the Prussians had sent no news to Wellington of what was doing, and though he had rushed from Brussels at the first whisper of it, like @ good old mastiff from its kennel, it was hard to see how he could come up in time to help the Prussians. It was @ bright, warm morning, and as the brigade tramped down th broad Belgian road the dust rolled up from it lke the smoke of a bat- tery. I tell you that we blessed the man that planted the poplars along the sides, for thelr shadow was bet- ter than drink to us. Over across the fields, both to the right and the left, were ‘other roads, one quite close and the other a mile or more from us, A column of infantry was marching down the near one, and it was a fair race between us, for we were each walking for all we were worth. There was much @ wreath of dust round them that we could only see and shoulders of a mounted officer coming out above the cloud, and the flutter of the colors. It was a brigade of the Guards, but we could not tell which, for we had two of them with us in the campaign. On the far road there was also dust and to spare, but through it there flashed every now and then @ long twinkle of bright- ness, like a hundred silver bende threaded in a line, and the breeze brought down such a@ snarling, clang. ing, clashing kind of music T bad never listened to. If I had been left to myself It would have been long before I knew what it was, but our corporals and sergeants were all old soldiers, and I had one trudging along with his halbert at my elbow, who was full of precept and advice, “That's heavy horse,” said he, “You see that double twinkle, That means they have helmet as well as cutrass, It's the Royals or the Enniskillens or the Household. You can hear their dais and kettles Phe French heavies are too good for us, They have ten to our one, and ood men, too, You've got to shoot at their faces, or else at thelr horses, Mind you that when you see them coming, or else you'll find @ four-foot sword stuck through your liver to teach you better, Hark! hark! hark! thave's the old music again!" And as he spoke there came the low grumbling of a cannonade away some- where to the east of us, deep and hoarse, Ike a roar of some. blood daubed beast that thrives on the lives of men, At the same instant there as shouting of “Heh! heh! heh!’ nd somebody roared, get throug’ ik, 1 saw thi r com. es split suddenly in two and hurl mselves down on either side into the ditch, while six cream-colored horses. galloping two an thundering through the creaking behind them, Following were another and anoth- er, four-and-twenty in all, flying past us with such @ din and clatter, blue-coated men clinging onto gune and the tumbrils, the drivers cursing and cracking thetr whips, the manes flying, the mops and buckets whole air filled ing of chains. There was « roar from the ditches and a shout from the gunners, and we eaw a rolling gray cloud before us, with @ score of busbies breaking through the shad- ow. Then we closed up again, while the growling ahead of us grew louder and deeper than ever. “There's ald the sergeant. and Webber Smith's, but the other is new. There's game more on ahead of us, for here's the track of a nine- pounder, and the others were all twelves. Choose a twelve if you want to get hit, for a nine mashes you up, but a twelve snaps you like a car- rot"—and then he went on to tell about the wonderful wounds that he had seen, until my blood ran like iced water In my veins, and you might have rubbed all our faces in pipe-clay and we should have been no whiter. “Aye, you'll look sicklier yet when you get @ hatful of grape into your tripes, id he; and the: as I saw some of the soldiers laugh ing, I began to understand that this man was trying to frighten us, 60 I began to laugh also, and the others as well, but it was not @ very hearty laugh either, pe ‘The sun was almost above us when we stopped at a little place called Hal, where there is an old pump from which I drew and drank a shako full of water—and never did a mug of Scotch ele taste as sweet. More guns passed us here, and Vivian's huesars, three regiments of them, smart men with bonny brown horses, « treat to the eye. ‘The noise of the cannons was louder than ever now, and It tinglot through my nerves just as it had done years before when, with Edie by my aide, I had seen the merchant ship fight with the privateers, It was 80 loud now that !t seemed to me that the battle must be going on just be- yond the nearast wood, but my friend, the sergeant, knew better. “It's twelve to fifteen milea off,” said he, “You may be sure that the genetal knows that we are not wanted, or we would not be resting here at Hal.” * What he sald proved to be true, for a minute later down came the colonel with orders that we should stack arms and blvouac where we were, and there we stayed all day, while horse and foot and guns, English, Dutch and Hanoverlans, were streaming through. The devil's muste went on till even- ing, sometimes rising into a roar, sometimes sinkin; into a grumble, until about 8 o'clock in the evening it stopped altogether, We were eat- ing our hearts out, as you may think, to know what it all meant, but wo knew that what the Duke dia would be for the best, so we just waited In patience. Next day the brigade remained at Hal in the morning, but about mid- day came an orderly from the Duke, we pushed on once more until we came to a Iittle village call Braine something, and there we stopped, and time, too, for a sudden thunder storm eame on and a plump A Pressing Trip of rein thet turned all the roads and the fields into bog and mire. We got into the barns at this village for and there we found two stragglers, one from @ kilted regiment and the other a man of the German Legion, who had a tale to tell that shelter, at last. to you now, but you cannot think how we men in fought, Just to catch a word of what they said, and how those who had heard were in turn mobbed by those who had not, We laughed and oheered and od all in turn as we were told ow the Forty-fourth had received cavalry in line, how the Dutch-Bel- jane had fled, It seems an old, stale story the barn, and pushed and to aeeaetks, By Maurice Ketten avr) ready, however, with the first light, and as we threw open the doors of our barn we heard the most lovely music that I hed ever listened to playing somewhere in the distance, We all stood in clusters hearkening to it, tt #0@# to see. On our own ridge was ary he ar ssiana Was #0 sweet and innocent and sad- the day before, and our fellows had been sore put to it to hold their own he saw how it had pleased us all. against Ney, but had beaten him off “Them are the French banda,” said he; “and if you come out here you'll scrambled round those two see What some of you may not live cae eee tte beautiful music them’ for comrades, still sounding in our ears, and stood on a rise Just outside the barn. Down cruits, for the p! below, at the bottom of the slope, sula regiments about half a musket shot from us, transports, comin was @ enug tiled farm with @ hedge and how the Black @04 @ bit of an apple-orohard, All a ESQaD Ip Oaah, 19 BOteta bE De) EXPRESS From where we stood it was a the checker of red and blue, stretabing right away to 4 village over two miles ike, But our sergeant laughed when from us. It was whispered from man to man in the ranks, however, that there was too much of the blue and too little of the red, for the Belgians and I saw it lying on the «round had shown on the day before that their hearts were too soft for the Afiother went through the adjutant's play a wholly new and crime-drama. gq His newest exploits are OF THE TIGER.” An instant later the noise had died away, and the two armies stood facing each other in absolute deadly silence sight which often comes back to me in my dreams. ‘Then of a sudden there was @ luroh among the men just in front of us, a thin column wheeled off from th dense blue clump, and came swing! up tdward the (armhouse which lay below us. It had not taken fifty paces before a gun banged out from an English battory on our left, and the battle of Waterloo had begun. it is not for me to tell you the story of that battle, and Indeed I should have kept far enough away from such a thing had it not happened that our own fatea—those of the three simple folk who came from the border coua- try--were all just as much mixed up in it as those of any king or emperor of them all. ‘Yo tell the honest truth, I have learned more about that battle from what I have read than from what | saw, for how much could I see with a comrade on either side, and a great white cloud-bank at the very end of my fire-lock? It was from books }and the talk of others that I learned \how the heavy cavalry charged, how and how tt fore they could get back, From them, too, I learned all about the successive assaults, and how the giana fied, and how Pack and Kempt stood firm. But of my own knowledge I can only speak of what we saw during that long day In the rifts of the smoke and the lulls of vi firing, and it’s just of that that I wi tell you. We were on the right of the line and in reserve, for the Duke was afraid that Boney might work round on that side and get at him from behind, 90 our threo regiments, with smother British brigade and the Hanoverians, were placed there to be ready for any- thi There were two brigades of light cavalry, too, but the French at- tack was all from the front, so it was i in the day before we were really wanted, The English battery which fired the first gun was etill banging away on our left, a German one wae hard at work upon our right, #o that we were wrapped round with the amoke, but we wore not so hidden aa to soreen us from a line of French guns opposite, pestle had begun, for a score of round shot came piping from our followa sloaning thelr pieces, {hFoUR the air and plumped right for thelr priming was in some danger {to the heart of us. As I of being wet from the damp night. fight now that was worth coming over the eard the scream of them pass my ear, my head went down like a diver, but our ser- geant gave me a prod in'the back with the handle of his halbert, ‘Don't be so blasted polite,” eaid he. “When you're hit you can bow ones and for all.” ‘There was one of those balls that knocked five men Into a bloody mash, afterwards, Hke a crimson foot-ball. work, and we had twenty thousand of horse with a plop, like @ stone tn the fool's quarrel wit! Amortoa. ‘atch had taken the lancers into round it a line of men In red coats pearskins of the Guards, two Geir satare and Oe had killed an a r leigure. But the lanoers b nocking holes in the wall and had the jaugh om thelr side when they bering up the doors crumpled up the Sixty-ninth and car- "yy. ried off one of the colors, Guard To wind it all up, the Duke was in retreat, in order to keep in touch with the Prussians, and it was ru- mored that he would take up his French.” ground and fight @ big battle just at the very place,where we had been halted. And soon we saw that this rumor wes true, for the weather cleared toward evening and we were all out on the ridge to see what we could eco. It of corn and erope just green fine bigh man’s Were a dozen hussars behind, and in aft 178 68 Sp 48 * front five men, three with straight, red feather jow and shoulder, A scene more full of peace you could aot think of, and look where you {0 his hi we over the low, curving, oorn- covered hills, you could see the little him! That's Boney, the one with the village steeples king up their @vay horse, Aye, I'll lay @ month's and over, while our men leaned on their muskets and smoked their pipes, looking down at this grant gathering and listening to what the ofd soldiers, red, some green, some Over Europe which darkened the na who had fought the French before, ‘ tions for five-and-twenty years, aod had to say about them. which had eve id shot out-of-the-world uid shout to them ee ee ag ered us all spires among slashed right across this pretty pic- ture w: men, som blue, some black, sigzagging over the plain and chokin; #0 close that we as they stacked their muskets on the and Jim—out of the lives Our left and the other end folk had lived before Us. ridge at lost among the woods as far as we ould see. And then on other roads we saw the teams of horses toiling and the dull gleam of the guns, and the men straining and swaying as they helped to turn the spokes in the deep, deep mud. As after regiment and brigade took position on the ridge, and ere @ line of over 60,000 men, blocking Napoleon's way to Brussels. rain had come swishing down again off to our barn once more, where wo had better quarters than the greater PATE er Pr, Sommeaes, ne. ay tance I could have sworn to the slope our two, and two guns to our one, qiretched In the mud wt Nite ‘arse of hia shoulders and the way he car and, by’ God! they'll make you re- beating | u ried bis head. 1 clapped my hand ¢rulties wish you were back in Ar. ve upon Jim's sleeve, for I could see gylo Street before they have finished eyes te battle t! at moment Bonaparte and had a medal with seven clasps 'T was still drizzling in the seemed to lean over and say some- upon his breasts, so that he bad @ morning, with brown, drift- thing to De Lissac, the party right to talk in his own fashion, Ing clouds and a damp, chil- Wheeled while When the Frenchmen had arranged t there came the bang of @ gun and a themselves just out of cannon-shot ly wind, It was @ queer white spray of smoke from a battery we saw @ small group of horsemen, thing for me as f opened my along the ridge same instant all in @ blaze with silver and scarlet hink that I should be in a the embly was blown In our vil- and gold, ride swiftly between t day, though none of us if nd for our arms divisions; and as they went a roar ever thought it would be such a one as it proved to be, We were up and was ouch @ bonny stretch “Look” long traf] of marobin| the roads, one end each side stood there, regiment brigade after the sun had set wo lay In i} But the yy, rushed Bame is. CHAPTER Xil. ready for any madness, The Shadow of the Land. rnd ‘te and high fur hats were working ike ‘s the Mght companies of the of Pack's brigade, ted riflemen in front: and we knew that, come what might, t ie were men’ who would bide where they were Young, James, and dt will do them placed, and that they had a man to 8904. lead them who would place them Woe looked across the valley at the where they should bide. low ridge upon the farther side, and saw a thousand little yellow points of flame, with the dark smoke wreathing up slowly in the heavy air, There was another farm-house on the far- and waited there came sud: ther side of the valley, and as we watched we suddenly saw @ little ing land, with the Soup of horsemen appear on @ knoll the low hill which had Md ‘and half yel- beside dt and look across at us. There brigade after said the sergeant “They'll hold that farm while one of them can But look over yonder, wag a finger. and you'll see the camp-fires of the helkmnets, are. But Pay on it.” ms this’ py T strained my eyes to seo him, this man who had cast that great shadow fallen across our our As tar as I heard the catch of & man's by my side, and there was Jim, with his eyes glowing like two coals and his face thrust over my shoulder. — gerg “That's he, Jock,” “"Yos, that's Boney, “No, no; It's he. isanc, 6 whispered, This De Lapp or or whatever his devil's the G It was red Even at that dis- my galters Then I saw him the horseman with feather in his hat. that his blood was botling at the with you.” sight of the man, and that he was man, our sergeant, but then he ha been in every fight since Corunna, in, here was a bu t of tiring all along the line, and we thought that the old German Legto: bri diviaion—until It seemed that the: Then, when the breastplate, fting, glimmering lines, rd—twenty thousand my 80 ‘Then even our British troope were Ralf made up of militiamen and ro- of the old Penin- 6 on the ocean in back from some our kinsfolk in But for all that we could see the brigades of them, and the bonnets of ‘ 5 the Highlanders. and the blue of the Glasgow.” said the other. “Don't you nd the red lines id the green dot- ly & Wo could hear the shot whining like Bee ee ee eee acai Guat hungry doko within a few feet of our them— @nd division (eM ioe le oe, ane, Hone the ground, told us that we were still blue with thetr uniforms and bright !08ing heavily. ‘and the last with a low cap. with the glint of thelr weapons ‘cried the sergeant. “That's would never never have done, still pouring over infantry had sheep-farm, formed in long, deep masses, thetr myself, Edie guns came whirling and bounding down the slope, and it was pretty to see how smartly they unlimbered and T could see he was a dumpy, 84Uare- wers ready for action shouldered kind of man, and he held his double glasses to bis eyes with his elbows spread very And then, at a stately trot, down came the cavalry— thirty regiments at the least, with wide out OD plume and I was still staring when breath twinkling sword and fluttering lance—forming up at the flanks and rear in long, ry n'a the chaps,” cried our old nt. “They're gluttons to fight, they are. And you sea them regi- ments with the great high hats in the middle, a bit behind the farm? That's them, 3, and all picked men—gray- headed devils that have done nothing but fight since they were as high a» They've three men to Ho was not a cheerin, purst out from either side of them, and we coud see arms out- stretched ta them aud hands waving, mud, broke its back, and left tt lying like @ burst gooseberry, Three more fell farther to the right, and by the stir and cries we could tell that they had all told “An James, youve Jost @ good mount,” says Major Reed, just in of me, looking down at adjutan whose boots and breeches were all running with blood. “L gave a cool fifty for him in think, Major, that the men had better Me down, now that the guns have got our range?” “Tut!” said the other, “They are “They'll get enough of it before the day's done,” grumbled the other, but Of the French we had seen ittle, #t that moment Colonel Reynell’ aw save the twinkle of their fires and « fow horsemen hore end there on the we had the onler to stretoh ourselves that the Rifles and the Fifty-second were down on either side of us, a out too, Precious glad we were when backs, Even now @ thud and 4 splash every minute or #o, with a yelp of pain and a drumming of boota upon A thin rain was falling, and the damp alr held the amoke low #0 that we could only catch glimpses of w was doing just tn front of us, though the roar of the guns told us that the buttle was general all along the lines, Four hundred «f them were ail crash ing at once now, and the noise was enough to split the drum of your ear. Indeed, there was not one of us but had a singing in his head for many a long day afterward. Just opposite us, on the slope of the hill, was a French gun, and we could ‘see the men serving her quite plainly, ‘They were small, active men with very tlieht breeches and high hats with great, straight plumes sticking up from them, but they worked Ike sheep-shearers, ramming and spong- ing and training. They were four- teen when I saw them first, and only four left nding at the last, but they were working away just as hard as ever, ‘The farm that they called Hougou- mont was down {n front of us, and all morning we could see that a terrible fight was going on there, for the walls and the windows and’ the orchard hodges were all flame and smoke, and there rose such shrieking and crying from it a8 I never heard before, It wag half burned down, and shattered witb balls, and ten thousand men were hammering at the gates, but four hundred guardsmen h {t in the morning and two hundred held it in the evening, and no French foot was ever set within its threshold, But how they fought, those French- men! ‘heir Lives were no more to them than the mud under thelr feet. There wag one—I can see him now. a stoutish, ruddy man on a@ crutch, Ho hobbled up alone in a lull of the firing to the side gate of Hougoumont, and he beat upon it, screaming to bis men to come after him. For five minutes he stood there, Next Week's Complete Novel in The Evening World “The Teeth of the Tiger” By Maurice Leblanc (Author of the “ARSENE LUPIN” Stories) q Arsene Lupin, France's arch-thief, was reported dead, and all the French Police Department re- joiced. But the report was false. q Lupin returned to Paris, and there proceeded to amazing role in the city’s related in “THE TEETH strolling about tn front of the barrels which spared him, but at fit @ Urunswick skirmiaher in ficked out bis brains with a rifle Aud he was only one of many, for all day when they did not come in masses they came in twos and threes, with as brave @ face as if the whole army wore at their heels, ain, So we lay all morning looking down et the fight at Hougoumnont; but soon the Duke saw that there was nothing to fear upon his right, and so he be- #40 to use us in another way. French bad pushed their skirmishers past the farm, and they lay among the young corn in front of us, popping at the gunners, so that three pieces out of six on our left were lying with elr men strewed in round them, baste But the Duke had his eyes every- where, and up he galloped at that moment, @ thin, dark, wiry man, with very bright eyes, a hooked nose, and @ big cockade on his cap. There wero @ dozen officers at heels, all as merry as if it were a fox hunt, but. of the dozen there was not one left In, the evening “Warm work, Adams,” a CR, eaid he as ‘ery warm, Your Grace,” »" eaid our But we can outstay them at think, Tut! tut! we eae let eet mishers silence a battery. Just drive those fellows out of th: lama,” Then first { knew t a devil's thrill runs through a man when he is given a bit of fighting to do. Up th w we had just lain and been killed, which is the wearlest kind of work, Now {t was our turn, and, my wo were ready for it. Up we jum the whole brigade, in a four deep and rushed at the cornfleld as hard as’ we could war, The skirmishere soapped at Us as we came, and then away they bolted like corn crakes, their heads down, thelr backs ged and thelr muskets at the // trail. Half of them got away, but wo caught up the others, the officer first, for he was a very fat man who id not run fast, It gave me quite @ turn when T saw Rob Ste on my atick his bayonet into the man’s broad back and heard him howl like @ dainned soul. There was no in that fleld, and ft was butt or point for all of them. ‘The men's blood was aflame, and little wonder, for those wasps had been stinging all morning without our deing able #0 much as to see them. And now, as we broke through the further edge of the corn-field we got in front of the smoke, and there was the whole French army in position before us, with only two and a narrow lane between us, We ot up @ yell as we saw them, andy away we should have gone, slap at them, if we had been left to our- selves, for silly young soldiers never think that harm can come to them until It Is there tn their midst, But the Duke had cantered his horse be- side us as we advanced, and now he roared something to the pares, and the officers all rode in front of our line, holding out their arms for we to stop. There was a blowing of bugtea, @ pushing and @ shoving, ‘with the ser- goants cursing and digging us with their halberts, and in less time it takes me to write tt there was & brigade in three neat little squares, all bristling with bayoneis and in” heton, as they call it, #o that eaoh could fire across the face of the other. It was the saving of as even 80 young a soldier as I was could very easily seo. And we had none too much time either. There @vas a low, rolling bill on our right flank, and from behind this there came a sound like nothing on this earth so much as the beat of the waves on coast when the wind blows from the east. The earth was all shaking with that dull, roaring sound, and atr was full of it. ‘Steady, Seventy-first, for God's make, steady,” shrieked the voloe of our colonel behind us. But in front was nothing but th green, gentle slope of the grassland, all mottled with daisies and dande- Hons, And then suddenly, over the curve, we saw olht hundred brass helmets rise up, all in a moment, each with a lorg tag of horrehair flying from its crest, and then elght hundred flerc ‘own faces, all pushed forward, and glaring out from between the ears of ny horses. was an Instant of gleaming ates, Waving swords, toss- ) ing manes, fleree red nostrile opening and shutting, and hoofs pawing tho air before us, and then down came the line of muskets, and our bullets smacked up against their armor Ike the clatter of @ hall-storm upom @ window, I fired with the rest, and then rammed down another charge a fast as I could, staring out through © smoke tn front of me, where I could see some long, thin thing, flapped slowly backwards and ? breast- sounded for us to cease fir- |! ing, and a whiff of wind came to clear « the curtain from in front of us, and then we could see what had happened, 1 had expected to find half that regiment of horse lying on the ground; but whether it was that their breast-plates had shielded them, or whether, being young and a little shaken at their coming, we had fired high, our volley had done no very great harm, About thirty horses lay about, bap | ’ together within ten yards @! middie one right on its back, » four legs in the air, and it « was one of these that Thad seen flap- - ping through the smoke, Then there = were eight or: ten dead men, amd * about as many wounded, sitting daged 2+ on the grass for the most part, t one was shouting “Vive l'E-a| Msp at the top of his votce. r (To Be Continued.) ;