The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-06-12
CHAPTER Ii.

CHAPTER II.
At ) o'clock in the evening OF the 18th
of June, 1915, the two battalions of the
East Anglican regiment formed one of the
thirteen squares which for three hours
had been rolling back and destroying the
cuirassiers OF Milhaud, on the plateau of
Mont Saint Jean. Squares, did we say?
Rather, shreds OF squares. During these
long Sabbath hours these fresh-faced
young heroes had more than kept at bay
the finest cavalry in the world, and still.
at o'clock, shattered and torn, with
three-quarters OF their officers killed, with
flags hanging in shreds. faint with fatigue
and thirst, running short of cartridges,
they were defiant
Abner Harrington was there OF what
he had gone through during these hours
he had but confused idea but he knew
that he who had never killed a living
creature willfully in his life had struck,
and thrust, and parried: had cheered with
deliriOus JOY as some colossal horseman
reared in his saddle and fell head down
ward, shot through the head, or pierced
by bayonet thrust; had laughed in deaths
face. and had been in the midst of the
sickening slaughter, and manning and
wounding, without one single impulse to
turn away. Not a man who had stood
near him when the battle opened was by
him now; his face was begrimed with
powder and dust, his white epaulets, his
cross-belts. and his hands were stained
with blood; his shake had been
slashed away, there was singing sensation
in one shoulder, and long, bloody rent
in one leg.
He had caught the terrible infection of
war; the ceaseless commands, "Close up
the ranksw or "0pen the ranks" or
''Step up there I" were as music; and no
power on earth, but death, would have
moved him from his position from behind
that CHASTITY barricade of dead men.
Suddenly a great wall of horses and
steel-clad men rose up before MIN out OF
the smoke drift; there was a sharp,
bright straight flash in the air, a red body
seemed to cut across the fash for a mo-
ment, a deluge of warm blood spurted
over him and he knew no more.
When he came to himself again he was
sensible of chilliness, and OF q rough, jolt
ing movement.
"Where am 70" he murmured.
"Going to Brussels in a cart" was the
reply of his neighbor.
whats been going on?' he asked.
"Going on! Why! we've whipped
Boney properly, that's what's been going
on, was the answer.
Abner tried to raise himself, but pang
of fearful pain extorted a CRY from his lips
and he swooned off again.
All through that terrible night he jolted
on. Early In the morning he recovered
consciousness again. They had left the
forest behind them, and were passing
through open country dotted with houses.
Presently they ratified under an imposing
gateway, and by the broad streets and the
crowds of people Abner knew il was Brus-
sells He raised himself with a painful
effort, and saw that the cart in which he
was contained a dozen other poor fellows
from every regiment engaged all in vari-
Gus stages OF suffering, and that before
and behind, as far as the eye could reach,
stretched line of carts similarly laden.
Presently they halted in front of a
church and were lifted out, and Abner
Harrington found himself, for the first
time, in that terrible world, a military
hospital in war time. It was very dark
so dark that, although it was midday, the
lamps were lit, and Abner could only
make out multi-colored heaps strewn
about the floor in all directions, among
which moved men with their shirt-sleeves
rolled up, the dark. weird forms of sis
tiers OF mercy, and relocated soldiers,
while the sickening smell and the chorus
of agony which rolled from end to end of
the building, the cries OF deliTium, the ell
treaties for water completed a scene which
made far deeper impression on him
than had the battle itself.
His mattress was in one of the darkest
corners of the dark church, in an alcove,
behind the high altar. Here he lay for
some hours, awaiting his turn with the
surgeons.
The wound which had incapacitated
him was bad one, for the edge of a saber
had cut clean through his shoulder to his
collar bone. "And," remarked the sur
geon. ''if that brave comrade of yours
hadn't taken the worst part of the blow
TO himself, you would still have been
lying on Mont ST. jean"
For fortnight Abner remained in the
the church of the Augustines During
all this time he was waited on bv one of
the convalescent soldiers who helped the
staff OF regular nurses in their over
whelming task-a man who had lost his
right arm and the lower part of whose
face was hidden in bandages.
Never had sufferer more gentle or pa
tent nurse or one who, deprived of the
power of speech, could more readily inter-
pref signs or anticipate wants He had.
however, half dozen other sufferers TO
attend 10. each OF whom seemed TO regard
him, as did Abner, with genuine affection
| and Abner, who was longing to seize the
| first opportunity to open his heart TO
some one could not see enough of him.
By fits and starts, however. he did manage
TO point out his trouble and tell the story
OF his life, and often during the course of
the narration felt sympathetic pressure
of the hand laid on his, which spoke all
that the sealed lips of the listener would
have said.
Still, with even the light of this kind
muse breaking through the gloom, it was
a terrible fortnight. Happily, Abner's
position behind the high altar hid from
him the heart-rending scenes which were
hourly being enacted in the body of the
church, but he could hear the cries and
groans, and he even learned the meaning
of a certain measured tramp of heavy feet
along the stone floor, for they had more
than once visited his neighborhood, and
each time they had borne away a rigid,
silent figure wrapped up in a military
cloak.
The hospital accommodation was utterly
inadequate to the enormous demands
made on it, SO that patients were dis
charged as soon as it was possible to re-
move them without risk And their places
were Immediately filled up. The cart
loads of wounded, who had come into
Brussels with Abner, represented but a
fraction of those who had been torn and