Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1880-06-23
Appearance of the Spot Where
the YOung Napoleon was
Killed.

AN1A &a1
in point of date with that of her son,
and exactly as he saw the country, she
sees it now. A dense grass, still bright
ly green where the water courses hold
some moisture, but sering elsewhere
into tints of silver gray and yellow,
clothes the landscape on every side.
Not a tree is in sight, hardly even a
bush, and to right and left and ahead
the ground rolls away in great undu-
lating pillows of meadow-land. In the
hollow of each dip, however, lies a.
donga, o. water course, sometimes
filed with reed growths. and in every
case concealed from sight by the SINH.
larity of coloring in the landscape be-
fore and behind it. Each donga,
therefore, is a surprise to the horse
man riding across country, and,
whether choked with water-worn
boulders, or deep black mud, is a vex-
atious incident Of his progress. In
flight from a sudden attack, or to
horsemen in pursuit, these dongas
form serious obstacles; and in the col
ony nearly every accident afeld arises
from the hidden gaps hat PREACHER
ously Turk between the swellings Of
the grass land, and i~nterpose in the
riders path just when the gradual
slope of the land had tempted his
horse into full speed. In the barred
track still left across Zululand by our
advancing and returning forces, they
will be, Of course, conspicuous; but
the empress need only look to one
side or other of her path, to recognize
at once the full peril of a fight that
had such an obstacle in its way. She
has crossed many on her Journey to
that one by which her camp stands
pitched to-day, and each Of them
might have been, during the stir
ring times of the Zulu war.
the scene of similar disaster had
similar rashness been there to
provoke it; for the Zulus regularly
used them as paths from point to
point, and from their safe covert often,
no doubt, watchedou armies marching
and countermarching about their
country. Now, however, the empress's
tents stand secure on the spot where
death lay in ambush for her son: and
the Zulus who come to the place to
let their cattle drink have no assegais
in their hands, which they lift above
their heads in salute to the white
faced strangers. The half beehive
huts below which the men who killed
her son found such convenient shelter
until the moment when they made
their rush, are no longer there, for the
wooden frames and matched roofs
were given to the flames a year ago.
but the round cattle-pen, with its
rough stone walls, is still standing
among the same %luxuriant growth
of mealies. Kafir corn, and tail
tamoukie grass from which the
princes horse was brought ont
for him to mount, and through
which the zulus had stalked their
victims that fatal Sunday afternoon In
June. The self-sown pumpkins trail
their tangled lengths over the ruined
wall, and spread out in a green mat of
leaves upon the open space where the
prince and his party biyouacked. and
over all the scene lies the same still
hush which the survivors of that.
dreadful day only too well remem-
bered. The country is singularly de-
void Of animal, bird and insect life.
and except for a chance buck seer
for an instant bounding into deeper
depths of grass or a bird of the bins.
ard kind, flushed by the wandering
cattle-hend, the silence and solicitude
OF the ltyOtosi river is completes The
great hills, which swell up out Of the
undulating glebe, overlook the gloomy
spot but, except for the June winds
that sweep across their grassy slopes,
and carry the silVery seed-piumes in
wlsps through the air, there is no sign
oflife or motion. Novegetation breaks
the sky line along their level SUBMITS
or rounded tanks, no streams brawl
down their face, no thiekets diversity
their contour or their color; but. in a
dismal monotony of smooth grassy
surface, they stand up out Of The
grass lands around them, making the
dizziness even more complete than i'll
they were gone from the scene. In
flowers the country is absolutely want
ing, for though down by the donrs a
little pale blue plant is blowing n 10
only the phantom of a blossom. a
fragile, loose petaled thing that falls
to pieces in the picking, or faints in
the hands that pick it. EXCEPT this
and the ~immortelles of a dead white
or faded yellow that hold up their
tufts out OF the dying grass, there is
not a flower near the spot where the
prince was killed. In the future
however, there will be strange prowtbs
OF beauty in that desolate place. for
the violet and the rose are already
planted, and many another favorite Of
our gardens IS sure to follow. The
scene OF massacre under the Isand.
Havana bluff is this yea a waving
heldof English oats, and the donpa
"nSie Vne Hulus a5Segaled the French
prince a bank Of violets.
The marble cross enwreatbed with
English immortelles, which bears in
IT'S inscription such tender witness 10
the friendship Of our queen for the
youth who is dead and the mother
who mourns to-day beside his distant
death place, was to have been set nm
yesterday in affectionate remem.
Prance Of Prince Napoleon, Eugene
Louis Joseph, Prince Imperial to
mark the spot where, while ASSISTING
in a reconnaissance with the British
troops, on June l, 1879, he was at
lacked BY a party Of Zulus. and fell
with his face TO the foe" The SCENE
once made dreadful with the cries Of
bloodthirsty savages was also conso.