The Rhode-Island Republican. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1809-1841, 1832-04-24

TO perpetual steriliiy. We contrived,
however to make it bear crop of human
skulls. As the holder of fef Of the
Empire, regiment was offered to me,
and, ut the head Of my cavaliers, / rush.
ed into the war. Glorious inventions
for accumulating the miseries, exercis-
ing the follies, and displaying the blind
ness of man! Two hundred thousand
of us were sent out TO butcher each other.
lmperialists and Prussians pounced on
each other with the appetite ofvultures,
and, having gorged ourselves with hu-
man blood, rested only until fresh
feast Of blood was ready. Every horror
that fiction ever raised, was transacted
as the common, every day business of
life. To-day victor, Tomorrow fngitives;
wading through Austrian carcasses at
Prague; bathing in Prussian gore at
Kollin fighting through fire and water.
through famine, nakedness, pestilence |;
we were still as ready as ever to tear each
other into fragments. as five were fling
ing away life for any one thing that ever
uiade life disirable. Between the hos
pital and the field, the first campaign
strewed the rocks and morasses of
Silesia with hundred thousand skele-
tons Of what once were men and fools.
"But to me this was delight. ! was
wild beast, not a mani longed to
wreak myself upon all who bore the hui
man shape-I felt myselfterribly divorc-
ced from human interests--and, with
the Consciousness Of an exile from hap
piness which could finish only in the
grave, I sough, the grave. was always
foremost. My regiment imbibed, as all
soldiers will, the headlong habits oftheir
colonel. We dashed at every thing un-
till the enemy began to think that resist
hussars in the field, decided the fate of
many an encounter.
i was Of course, honored for al this.
Stars and crosses were hung npon q
breast which cared no moro for them
than if they wero so many cobwels.
Still tore my way through the enemy's
squadrons, and led on my fierce sabreurs
from dauger to danger, until ! was pro-
nounced' incontestabIy the most gallant
hussar officer in the service-a Nadasti,
Scanderbeg-the pride and the exam
pie of the Austrian army. 1t was re-
markable, that in oil these hazards 1 had
escaped without wound. Superstition
said bore a charmed life. and had
brought spell with me from Italy. ]
had indeed brought that spell /; for what
preservative to the soldier is equal to
despair who never heard Prussian
battery without a secret wish that il
should lay me low--I, who never saw the
sabres Of the Prussian cavalry without
prayer that / might be impaled on
their points before evening. alone
was untouched, while my charger tramp
led the bones Of thousands and tens Of
thousands Of my fellow men.
was, however, to feel at last the ca
prices of fortune, As commanded the
rear-guard of Loudohn's corps in its re-
treat through the last deflcs Of Silesia, a
charge made by some Of tho Zieten hus-
sars upon our baggage, set my squadron
IN motion. We fell upon the marauders,
and quickly recovered our baggage but
the darkness of the twilight, the intrica-
cy of the ravine, and more than either,
the habitual daring Of my men plunged
" into the centre of the whole advanced
Prusian cavalry. We fought desperate
ly, and at last extricated ourselves, but
in the final charge / received blow.
which struck off my helmet, and COM
pletely blinded mo for the time, / fell
off my horse, and must have been tramp
led to death, but for the gallantry Of one
my officers, . Hungarian who had lately
been received into the corps. This brave
fellow, after first driving his sabre from
point to hilt through my assailant, drag
ged me from among the horses feet, and
carrying me on his shoulders, restored
their unlucky colonel TO his regiment,
who we're, already in the utmost despair.
Iwas conveyed to Viennn-was cover.
ed with honors and racked with pain.
But I was not to die. The gallant hum
garian was my nurse, and after having
saved my life from the enemy, he pre-
served it from the doctors. But my ILL
ness was long. and during it Septimia
arrived from Italy with wife-like duty.
to watch over her dying husband. Iwns
moved by th,s display of tenderness, and
on my feverish pillow, from which 1
thought / was never to rise, inwardly
requitted her Of the crime Of giving me
the semblance of heart. Itook myself
to task for the rash precipitancy with
which had wooed herr for the proud
and lavish proposa!s which had infu-
snced the vanity Other relations, for the
fierce and violent determination to mako
myself happy, when it might be at the
expense of making her miserable. Hour
after hour Of lonely thought, when all