The National tribune., 1882-06-10
SERGEANT HORNUS.

whole Prussian army massod opposite in the
wood. They were exchanging shots at eighty
metres. The officers shouted, Down
DOWN. bat no one would obey, and the
proud regiment remained on its feet, grouped
about its standard. In the broad stretch OF
fading sunlight, of grain in the ear, OF
; pasture grounds, this mass of men, tossing
envelopcd in confused smoke, had the air CT
a herd Of animals surprised in an open field
by the first whirlwind of formidable
tempest.
1t rained lead upon that slope. One heard
only the crack of the tusilade, the hollow
sound of mess plates rolling into the ditch,
and the balls, which made long vibrations
from one end of the field Of battle to the
other, like the stretched strings of some
sinister and sOnOrOus instrument. From
time to time the standard, which was raised
overhead, agitated by the wind of the canister
shot, sank amid the smoke; then a voice
arose, grave and commanding, sounding
above the fusiIade; the death-rattlcs, the
oaths of the wounded: "To the flag, my
children, to the Gag" Instantly an officer
leaped forward vague as a shadow in the red
mist, and the heroic standard, restored to
life, again scared over the battle
Twenty-Five times it fell! twenty-five
times its still warm staff, escaped from
dying hand, was seized, lifted up again, and
when, rs the sun disappeared, what remained
OF the regiment-scarcely q handful OF
mcn-slOwly retrcated, the standard was
| but rag in the hands of Sergeant H0rnus,
! the twenty-third standard-bearer Of the day.
This Sergeant Hornus was an old fellow
with three stripes on his arm, who hardly
| knew how to sign his name and had been
twenty years winning promotion to the
ranks Of a sUb-officer. All the misery of
founding, all the brutishness of the bar
rack, could be seen on his low and resolute
foreheard, on his back crooked by the KNAPP
sack, i'll his stolid bearing of soldier in the
ranks. With this, he suffered little, but,
to be a standard bearer, one has no need of
eloquence. On the very evening Cf the battle
his colonel said to him: :" You have the f8g,
my brave man; keep it," And upon his
wrctched campapote, terribly faded by the
rain and the fire, the cantiniere Immediately
sawed the gold embroidery of a sub-lieu-
tenant.
This was the sole ambition of a life Of hu-
mility. At once the form of the old soldier
Strengthened up. The poor creature, accus-
toned to march bent, his eyes on the ground,
would for the future have proud face
glance always lifted TO see that stripe of
bunting float and hold it upright, very high |
above death, treason and defeat.
Never was man as happy as Hornus on |
the days Of battle, when he held his flagstaff |
with both hands, firmly planted in the leath- |
er support He spoke not, he moved not. |
Serious as Il priest, he seemed to be holding !
something sacred. All his life, all his
strength was in his fingers, clenched around |
the beautiful, gilded rag upon which the
balls hailed, and in his eyes full of defiance |
which looked the Prussians straight in the
face with IN air of saying: "Try to take it
from mel"
No one tried, not even death. After BOrny,
after Gravelotte, those fearlully sanguinary
battles, the flag went everywhere, cut, torn,
transparent with wounds; but ii was always
old HOrnus who bore it.
Then September came, the army in Metz.
the siege and that long halt in the mud
when the cannon rusted, when the finest
troops in the world, demoralized by mac
tivity, by the lack of food and news, were
dying Of fever and WEAKNESS at the foot of
their defense. Neither chiefs nor soldiers,
no one, had any further 1aith-IIornus still
alone was confident. His tri-c0Iored latter
was everything TO him, and while he knew
that it was safe it seemed to him that moth
ing was lost. Unfortunately, as the fighting
had ceased the Colonel kept the flag at his
quarters in one Of the suburbs of Metz, and
the brave Hornus wasE. somewhat like
mother whose infant is out to nurse. He
thought Of it inCessantly. Then, when he
felt too uneasy, he ran all the way to Metz,
place, motiOnless against the wall, sent him
back full of courage, of patience, bearing to
his soaked tent dreams Of battle, Of march
ing in the van, with the tri-colOr spread
out to it's utmost extent floating over the
Prussian trenches.
An order of the day from Marshall Ba-
zaine destroyed all these Illusions One
Hornus, on awakening, saw the
whole camp in an uproar, the soldiers in
groups, greatly animated exciting each other ,
with cries Of rage; with every fist lifted to- S
ward the same quarter Of the city as if their ,
ire designated culprit they shouted: Let I
us drag him outi Let us shoot him!p And ;
the officers did not check them. They
walked apart with bowed heads, as if {
ashamed to look their men in the face. It {
was, indeed, infamous. They had Just read 2
TO hundred and fifty thousand soldiers, c
well armed still sturdy, the order of the t
Marshal which surrendered them to the I
enemy without striking a blow. y
"And the siandards?" asked Hornus, |
turning pale. The standards were given up C
with the rest, with the muskets, with what
of the equipments, everything. 7
Th-th-thunder of heaven!" " stammered @
he poor man. "They shall never have L
nine!" And he started for the city on L
,un. L
There, also, great animation reigned Ma .
ional Guards, citizens, gardes mobiles were il
hOuting, agitating themselves. Deputa- e