The North-Carolinian., 1858-10-02
NORTH CAROLINIAN.
F4 ETTETJT.TE NJ n

A'olt " "A uV LII ~ n ~.
FAYETTEVILLE N. c..
The Last Victim Of the Gauntlet.
An imperial rescript, bearing tie date of the
goth Of August, 1854. and the signature of the
Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria, has abol-
Shed forevermOre within realms of the whole
Austrian empire that terrible echastsement--rum-
ming the gauntlet. Terrible it was indeed-a
cruel and barbarous remnant of those dark and
dismal times called the middle ages. witness
ed the last execution of this kind, and record
it for the bent6 of those who still cling with
strange fondness even to the worst legacies of
by-gone centuries.
On a autumn morning. in the year 1851, =,
tho garrison, of tie Ertress of Thsresi~..-....is
the Eyer river. in Bohemia, was formed iir
a large square the spacious place before the
residence OF the com,nandanS. In the middle
of the square, drawn up in file, stood a COM
pany of rifle battalion, to which the dein-
qucnt belonged 1t was unarmed, each private
(there were three hundred) being provided
with switch, and placed at small distance
from the next man. At the tenth stroke of the
clocks the drums were beaten, and amidst a
silence deep and oppressive the prisoner was
marched into tho square.
He was 6ne-look'ng man ever I had
set eyes upon-tall, powerful, and well formed.
His handsome features, to which black nous
tache gave bold and martial expression,
shone forth in the full glow and vigor of man
hood only they were of deadly paleness
He was non-commissioned officer, aud du-
ring the last campaign in Italy, in lS49 he had
distinguished himself in such manner that his
superior officers had recommended him for pro-
motion. \ Austra is more generous than Eng
land towards those that shed their blood in l,eI
service, and lie would have been made a COM
mssoned officer long since-n spite Of his hum
bic origin and his pOverty-If it had not been
for fatal impedm"nt This impediment
! his own passionate temper; he was a very
choleric man; harsh and brutal towards his in-
feriors, morose and stubborn towards his SUI
periors whenever they deemed it necessary to
check rebuke him. He hated by the
men to the utmost. There was not a private
in the whole battalion that had not vowed him
revenge. He had never made one friend,
did he care to have one. Strict in the per-
formance of his military service-the most ni,,-
Or duties of which lie discharged with the ut
most exactness he went his own way, reserved
solitary. Innumerable were the punishments
which ne had brought upon the men; for, how
ever sligh: the offence might be, he sure
not to pass it over III silence.
| Fl is superior officers respected him for his
nscfEtaess. his ability. and his aetitude, but
! they did not like him The evident lack of
| humanity in the man made him an object of
doubt rather than of love. Moreover there
| was vague rumor about his having once struck
at his own officer in the midst of pell-mell
caused by a hand-to-hand encounter with the
| enemy. The report never took clear shape,
the officer having been killed in the engage
ment, and the gossippings OF few wounded
soldiers having been much too incOherent aud
contradictory to lead a formal investigation of
the matter; besides, it at the victory of
Novarra, He had greatly distinguished hinl-
self, and old Feild Marshal Radesky, had, with
his own hands, affixed the golden medal his
| breast. The rumor, however, together with
- /, II.
caused his name to be erased from the list of
| those that were recommended forhigher promo
ton
| When this incident was made known to him,
he became even more suilen, more cruel than
| ever; bnt always, as it was we'll understood, for
the benefit of the service the slightest demands
of which he performed with the same immuta-
ble strictness as he enforced them to he done
| by Others
| A few weeks previous to the dreadful pun
ishment which he had now to undergo he was
mounting guard in the outworks with some
| twenty or twenty-five men of his own company
1t was chilly. rainy night; and when the SEN
| tries relieved they were glad to stretch
themselves-wet as they were-upon the floor
near the large stove il the middle of the guard
room. The floor not being very clean, floors
seldom are in these localities and the white
uniforms of the men being wet, it was no Won
der that the dirt adhered to them with te-
naClty that ueHtO all eAeFtIOn 10 get IL on
when the wearers were reused by this serjeant
to prepare for standing guard once more. The
more they tried to rub their clothes clean the
more sturdy he lent a helping hand to their
endeavorers b; application Of the sad equip
ment of every Austrian non-cOmmiss oncd Off
cer-the stick. Whilst he was fully at work.
cutting away at the men with powerful arm
, the door opened, and the officer on duty en-
| tered the guard-room.
"Attentionp' commanded the ser jeant; and
saluting his superior, made the usual repor.
that nothing worth remarking had happened.
The officer, young ensign, fresh from The mill
tary school, and almost boy, took no notice
of this important news. but asked the sergeant
in brisk aud somewhat mpetuous manner,
What he again striking the men for?"
The sergeant, already much annoyed at this
interference, gave surly and unwilling answer; !;
and, when the young officer rebuked him. in u
severe aud perhaps somewhat naughty manner,
the violent and passionate man, losing all self
CONTROL lifted up his hand against his officer.
Itwas but one fatal moment quick as light
ming. The upiifted hand never descended; it
was caught by a dozen powerful arms He was
felled to the ground and dissrned. Half ali
honr afterwards he found himself i'll irons III the
classmates.
Lifting the arm against superior is consid-
cred capital crime In this case it had been
commi, ted whilst both parties were on duty.
| and the Austrian military laws are the very