The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-12-19
OLD HORNUs.

% " 'ii' iusSldil army, naSSeu III
tho woods some so yards away. AS
tho bullets fell thick about them, tho
French officers ordered their men to lie
down. but not one would obey. All
remained proudly standing about their
flag.
In that broad cxpanso of green pas
lures and waving cornficlds illurnined
by the setting sun, that body of tor
mcntcd mon, cnvcloped in IL cloud of
smoke looked like IL flock surprised in
tho open fields by the first gust of n
terrible tempest 1t did indeed rain
lead on tina: hillside! Nothing could
be heard lut the cracking discharge
OF muskctry. tho heavy rumbling of
shells and the ccasclcss vibration of
balls all over the battlefield.
Again and again the flag fell. but
every time Il clear, bold voice rams, ont
above the din of the musketrv. the
oaths of the wounded. the death rattle
of the dying: To the flag, boys. To
the flag"
And instantly, like Il vague shadow
III that fiery fog, an officer would spring
forward, and the dauntlcss ensign. as
If restored to life, would look down
again upon the battle.
Twenty-Five times it fell. Twenty
two times its staff. still warm as it slim
ped from Il dying hand, was caught and
raised again, and when at sunset the
remnant of the regiment, n little hand
ful of men, slowly rctreated the flag
was but Il tattcrcd rag in the hands of
Sergeant Hornus the twcnty-third en-
sign of the day.
ms Sergeant HCrnus, an old fellow
who could scarcely sign his name, had
been 20 years in gaining the rank of
a noncOmmissioncd officer The mis-
cries of the founding and the brutality
of the barracks had left their impress
i'll his low, obstinate brow, his back bent
by the knapsack and that unscrupn-
lons air of the trooper in the ranks. He
stammered a little, too, but eloqucncc
IS not essential in an ensign. That
same evening of the battle his colonel
said to him. You lave the flag, my
gallant fellow we'll, keep it,"
And on his shabby army coat, worn
and faded by rain and powder, the SUIT
Ter placed at once the golden badge of
the ensign. This was the one glory of
his life. From this time the old troop
CT held up his head. The poor soul.
who heretofore had walked with bent
back and downcast glance, henccforth
stood proudly erect, with eyes ever
lifted to watch that scrap OF cloth iiut-
terins i'll the breeze, and to hold 1t very
high, very upright, above death, de
feat and trcachcry
Never was there II man so happy us
I,l,n i,,, Il
field, his hands claspcd about his fiar-
staff III its leathcln sheath. Silent.
motionless, grave as Il priest. one would
have said that he WAS holding some
thing sacred. His whole life, his whole
being, ccntcrcd in the fingers grippcd
about the beautiful golden rag npon
which the balls seemed to hurl them
selves, and his defiant eyes looked the
Prussians straight i'll the face as f to
say, Just try now to take it from me-
No one did try-not even death After
those deadly battles of Borny and
Gravclottc, the flag left the field cut to
pieces, literally riddlcd with bullet
holes, but it was still old Hornns who
bore it. Then came September, the
army at Metz, the siege, and that long
rusted, and the finest troops in the
world, dcmoralized by inaction, by
lack of provisions and of news, died in
the trenches of fever and despair and
deadly WEAKNESS. Leaders and men
alike lost confidence. Hornus alone still
had faith. His tricolor rag was all the
world to him, and as long as he kept
that it seemed to him that nothing was
lost
Unfortunately, as there was no more
hght1ng, the colonel kept the flag at his
quarters III one Of the suburbs of Metz,
and honest Hornus was very like a
mother whose child is out at nurse.
He thought of it continually, and when
his longing for it became uncomfortable
he would rush off TO the colonel S house.
where the mere sight of his flag, rest
ing TRANQUILITY in its place against the
wall, would send him back with cour-
age renewed, to dream under his soak
ing tent of marches, Of battles. of the
flag floating gayly down there on the
Prussian trenches.
An order of Marshal Bazaine destroy
ed these illusions. Ono morning Hor-
nus awoko to find tho camp in an up
roar, the soldiers in excited groups
shouting and talking angrily and GEES
tlculatinS toward ono part of tho town
"On with him! Shoot hint" they
cried, and the officers, walking apart
with heads bowed in shame before the
men, let them talk ON UNDECIDED.
1t was indeed shameful To $50, 900
well armed, ablebodied men had Just