Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1857-03-26

l
"Do you think you could kill an indian q
the President said, taking him by the hand
as he leaoed from his horse.
"Aye-and eat him afterward." cried tn
boy, ringing ou, his fierce laugh, as he rea,
his fate in the old mans ewes.
"You had better come in and get you
commission" and the hero of New Or can
led the way into the White House.
There came night, when an old man
President no longer-sat in the siee
chamber If his Hermitage home, a pictur,
of age trembling on the verge of Eternity
The light thai stood upon his table revea e,
his shrunken form resting aga inst the pill
lows which cushioned mis- arm-cl air, an,
the desth-like pail3r Of his venerable face
In that face, with lis sbits bsirs and mas.
fsve forehead, everything seemed already
dead, except the eyes. Their deep gray
blue shone with the fire of New Orleans, al
the old man with his long, white fingers
grasped letter postmarked Washington.
"Thfy ask me 10 designate the man WHIT
shall lead our army, in case the annexation
OF Texas brings on war with Mexico"-
his voice, des7-toned and thrilling, even in
that hour of decrePitude and decay, rung
through the silence OF the chamber, There
is only one man who can do it, and his
name is Zachary Taylor" b..
IL was dark hour when this boy and this
General, both appointed at the suggestion
or by the voice of the Man of the Hermitage
met in the battle Of Resaca de la Palma
By the blaze of cannon, and beneath the
canopy OF battle smoke, We will behold the
meeting. .-s.
"Capt. May, you must take that batteryl'
As the old man uttered these words he
pointed far across the ravine with his sword
1t was like the glare of a volcano-the
steady blaze of that battery, pouring from
the darkness o. the chapparel.
Before him summoned from the rear by
his command, rose the form of splendid
soldier, whose hair, waving in long masses,
swept his broad shoulders, while his beard
fell over his muscular chest. Hair and
beard as dark as midnight, framed deter
tering with a golden tassel. The your
warrior bestrode a magnificent charger,
broad in the chest, small in the head, deli
cate in each slender limb, and with the nos
trils quivering as though they shot forth
jets of flame. That steed was black as
death.
Without word, the soldier turned to his
meh.
Eighty-four forms. with throats and
breasts bare, eighty-four battle horses,
eighty-four sabres, hat rose in The clutch
of naked arms, snd flashed their htning
over eighty-tour faces, knit in every feature
with battle fire.
"Men, folow!" shouted the young CON-
ma nde-, who had been created a soldier
by the hand of jackson, as his tall form
rose in the stirrups, and the battle breeze
played with his long black hair.
There was no ssDonse in words, but you
should have seen those horses quiver be-
meath the spur, and spring and launch away.
Down upon tine sod with one terrible beat
came the sound OF their hoofs, while through
the air rose in glittering circles those battle
scimtars.
-Four yards in front rode May, himself
and his horse the subject of a thousand
eyes, so certain as the death that loomed
before him; proudly in his warrior beauty
he rode that steed, his hair floating from
beneath his cap ia raven curls upon the
wind.
He turns his head-his men see his face
with stern lip and knit brow, they feel the
fire of his eyes; they hear--not ''Men, for
ward!" but "Men, follow!'' and away, like
an immense battle-engine, composed of
eighty four men and horses, woven together
by swerds-away and on they dash
They near the ravine; old Taylor follows
them, with hushed breath, aye, clutching
his sword hit, lie sees the golden tassel of
May, cleaning in the cannon fash.
They are on the verge of the ravine, May
still in front, his charger flirging the earth
from beneath him, with colossal leaps, when
from among the cannon, starts up a half
clad figure, red ith blood and begrimmed
with powder.
1t is Ridgely, who to-day has sworn to
wear the mantle of Ringgold, and to wear
it well! At once his eyes catch the light
now blazing in the eyes Of May, and SPRING
ing to the cannon, he shouts
"One moment, my comrade, and l will
draw their fre!''
The word is not passed from his lips when
his cannon speak out 10 the battery across
the ravine. His flash, his smoke have no.
gone, but bark. Did you hear that storm
of copper balls clatter against his cannon, 3,
did yeu see it dig the earth beneath the
hoofs of Nays squadron.
"Men, foIlowI" Do you see that face
cleaning with battle-fre, that scimitar cut
ting its glittering circle in the ar Those
men can hold their shouts no longer. Rend-
ing the air with cries. Hark! The whole
army echo them. They strike their spu,s
and worried into madness. their horses whrl
on and thunder awsy to the deadly ravine.
The old man, Taylor, said after the battle
that he never felt his heart beat as it did
then. For il was a glorious sight to see
that young man, May, at the head OF his
squadron, dashing across the ravine, ioul
wards in acvance OF his foremost man, while
long and dark behind him was stretched the
solid line of warriors and their steeds
Though the windows OF the clio ds some
CLEANS OF sun light iell-they light the
golden lassel on the caP-they glitter OF
the appraised sword-they illumine the darl
horse and his rider with their warm glow
they reveal the battery-you see ii, above
the further bank OF the raviRe, frownns
death from every muzzle.
Near anu nearer, up and on! Never hee'
the death before YOU, though it is cerlala
Never mind the leap, though it is terrible
But up the bank and over the cannon
+ hurrah! At this dread moment, just as hi
horse rises for the charge, May turns an
sees the sword Of the brave Inge on hi
right, turns again and reads his own sou
written in the fire of Sacket's eye.
To his men once more he turns, his hal
, flo. ting back behind him, he points to tn