Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1847-02-17
cheer them on, moved with a firm step

llswa through or die in the effort. But a
ieigAt dread, enough TO appal the stontest
theaE met his gaze as he looked along the
aiKlaf fpw strip OF road between the rocks,
t he Danube. AS far as the eye could
So Isfe But dense.ba battalishs.
Of the enemy in order Of battle. Without
shrinking, however the steady column NOV
ed with fixed bayonets into the living mass.
IA deadly fire received them, and the car
mage at once became dreadful. With the
cannon laundering on their rear, and bury
ing their fiery loads in their ranks, swept
in front by incessant discharges of musket-
ry trampled under foot by the cavalry,
and crushed between two armies, the es-
cape of that brave division seemed utterly
hopeless. Indeed, the work of annihila-
tion had begun with frightful rapidity.
Mortier, after the most desperate fighting,
had pierced but little way into the pass,
and hope fainter every moment, when the
thunder of cannon at the further extremity
shot a thrill ofjoy through his heart. No
cannon shot ever before carried such hope
to his bosom, for he knew that Dupont was
charging along the defie to his rescue.
The Russians Immediately faced this
new foe also, and then commenced the
complicated strife of four armies, fighting
in the form Of one long protracted column
Mortier hemmed in between two French
ones. But Mortier was the first one to go
down in this unequal strife. Combating
all the morning against overwhelming
numbers and struggling all the afternoon in
deep ravine, crushed between two armies,
his noble division had sunk away till nothing
but the mutilated fragments remained; and
now, as twilight deepened over the Danube,
its last hour seemed sinking. But perceiv-
ing that the fire of Dupont approached
steadily nearer, he cheered his men to
another and still another effort.
Under the light Of the stars that now and
then twinkled through the volumes of fsmoke
that curtained the armies, and by the blaze
Of the artillery, the work Of death went on
while an old castle, in which Richard
TCeur de Lion once lay imprisoned, stood
ON the hills above, and looked sternly down
on the strife. All along that gorge was
tho incessant thunderpeal of artillery, to
which the blaze of musketry was the light
ning's flash. .@a.-
Amid the carnage that wasted around
him, Mortier lowered like pillar of fire
before his men as they closely stepped
behind him. Nearly three-fourths of his
whole division, had fallen in this Thermop-
yle, and nothing but its skeleton was left
] standing, looking as if a hurricane had
passed through it. Still he would not yield
but rousing his men by his words and
example, cleared q path through the enemy
with his sword. With his majestic form
rising above the throng, that tossed like &
wreck strong current about him, he was
: visible to all his men, sometimes he woulc
be seen completely enveloped by the
Russian grenadiers, while his dripping
sabre swept in rapid circles around his head
3 drinking the blood of some poor wretch a
every blow as.he moved steadily on th'
, lane, he made for himself. Parrying swor'
! cut and bayonet thrust, he trod amid thi
chaos and death, as if above the power 0
' fate. With friends and foes falling lik
, autumn leaves around him, he still remain
3 ed untouched, and it was owing to hi
, amazing strength alone, and the skill an
. power with which he welded his sabre tho
q he escaped death. His strokes fell lik
! lightning on every side, and under ther
1.-THE strongest grenadier bent like q smitte
g freed. Struck with admiration at HI
!. gallantry, and thinking all was lost, h
n officers besought him to step into bar
it they saw moored to the shore, and escape
ssNo," said he, in the spirit Of true heroisn
Y skeep that for the wounded. He who hi
y the honor to command such brave soldier
Q should think himselfhappy to die with ther
/ We have still two guns left and a few box
s of grape shot. we are most through Clo
e up The RANKS for last effort" And the
d did close up and move intrepidly into Il
ID fire. But the last of the ammunition w
lie gone, and nothing was left but the bayont
r But just then cheer burst on their ca
ID over the roar of battle; the cheer Of q
is preaching deliverance, and they answer
d it.. That shout was life to the dead, al
'e that torn and mangled remnant Of colun
4. closed up for final charge.
+ The. Russians flew up a side vale
* before the onset, and with the shout, Franc
So France, you have saved us, that weary b
n heroic band rushed into the arms of thu
n deliverers. A loud hurrah rent the a
to and the conflict was done. Nearly S
thousand men lay piled in ghastly hea
in along the road, while broken muskets q
ut bayonets scattered here and there, show
81 how close and fierce the struggle had bee
at
lc- "Jane, you must not learn Ari
rn metic.s .s--.Why, mama?" Because, !
l I.