The Press., 1896-09-10

G10I rOareQ the COIOno1s as With over | strained nerves a few of the soldiers pulled their triggers and the bullets tore up the grass harmlessly few yards | ahead.
 "A company flre-ready No 2P' shouted the lieutenants, but the men | were now past all control. They had l comrades blood to avenge and shouted | and yelled as they thrust cartridge after \ cartridge into the chamber as fast as \ they could turn the sniders over. The fever of the fight was on them. for they | now felt their time had come after the | weary waiting.
 Meet them with the bayonetp' The | colonel hardly knew his own voice, it | gasped: Good heavens! What was | that?'' For above the rattle of the rifle the words Courage, mes bravesP' rang out sharp and clear through the smoke.
 Dropping his smoking revolver he sprang among his men shouting. "Cease f1rel" But the hammering of the sniders drowned his voice and. the acrid smoke choked him, and he stood in silent hor- TOT and watched the fight. It did not last long. The swarm of savages had not nerve to rush upon the unbroken line of flashing bayonets-they turned and fled from the impregnable breast work. Then came the turn of the de- lenders, and with hoarse shouts the west Indians leaped over the brushwOOd and with dripping bayonets drove the foe through the forest.
 The colonel sat down with his back | II L.s and longed for the dawn as he had never longed for anything ill his life. Fortu- nately there was not long to wait, for the suspense was deadly. The shadowy palm fronds sharpened into shape; a soft gray light, growing rapidly clear CT, filtered through the overhanging branches and broad crimson streak ap- peared over the forest. Then morning came suddenly, as it always does in the tropics. The colonel looked around. The enemy had gone, leaving only dead and wounded, but his first care was to see after his own men. Three white officers and sergeant major of the west Indians had fallen at their posts, with faces to- ward the foe. Six privates were killed and a score were badly wounded, and the colonel groaned, as with dry lips and contracted brow he recognized the pity of it and the usclessncss of this waste of life; for there was WOrse to come.
 The bright sun rays fell on the scene of the fight, and the gloomy forest clear ing became at once a place of warmth and light, but the space in front of the square was dotted every hero and there with rigid, motionlcss figure and the surrounding bushes were full of wound ed men. For a few moments tho officer hardly dared go forward and examine ! the slain, and when at last he slipped over the breastwOrk and stood over the quiet dead the sight was what he cx- | pected-they were not Sofas.
 Many were naked savages, auxiliaries only, but ten of the chief assaiIants lay there, with distorted features, clad ill the uniform of the French Seneealis. The colonel wondered who would be called to account for this nights work, but the crowning horror of the whole affair was reached when Haussas carried i'll a white officer and laid him on the dewy grass, coughing up gulps of blood. ! his head and he saw the pitying faces bent over him, for the defenders had al ready solved the riddle, then gasped, "Helas, mes amis'' and sw ooned away.
 A few drops of spirit were poured down his throat, and then after awhile the eyes rcopened and he mu1murcd the story how, deceived by native chief, KOrOnah, he supposed tho British force to be Sofas and did not find out the mis- take until too late.
 "There-there, that will do. Don t fret yourself. It's 0 ghastly thing, but it can't be helped. Take another drink and go to sleep," said the surgeon. The Frenchman swallowed a mouthful of the liquor, then his speech wandered and his eyes grew hay. 'Poor feIlowp' said an English officer. ''Its gone case, but we must do what VIC can for him. Take him to the tent, sergeant "
 It would have been an instructive lesson to the colored editors of the Sierra Leone journals, who are fond of de- claiming against the "dissolute sol diery," to have seen an Englishman seated by the side of his late foe mois- tening the black parched lips from time to time and wiping the hot precipitation from the hot forehead. The command ing officer came round occasionally, and the last time the younger man raised his head for silence Hush! He's com
 ing to-" ho said. The white lids opened
 and faint smile shone in the tired eyes
 as the wounded officer raised his head.
 He stretched out cold hand, which
 felt like ice when the Englishman
 took it.
 ''Adieu, mes amis-je vous souhaite
 un meilleur sort, " he gasped, then brOkC
 off and chOked. A stream of dark blood
 stained his white uniform and he sank
 back dead.
 This mistake, caused Intentionally by the treachery of Koronah, who was duly
 hanged for it afterward, cost the lives of four officers, who could be but badly
 spared, besides numerous privates anC
 auxiliaries, and forms one of the dark pages ill our west African history. Yet although the details seldom reach the
 ears of Englishmen at home, the deeds
 of our frontier soldier officers, amid the , dreary swamps and forests of the debat able land where our colonies abut or
 the wilderness beyond, are such that the
 nation has cause to be proud of them.
 By hidden ambush, facing savage foes, or stepping calmly, man after man, into a dead comrades place, SC
 that the disease stricken station may not be left for a single day, district commissioner and soldier lay down theil
 lives. When we hear of II officers dy
 ing. one after another, at the same pos
 in nine months, and yet none hesitatcc to go, and of 3 men holding 500 savagef at bay through long night, it is not hard to realize that the west African legion of honor is @ long one and thai the supremacy of Great Britain in thai fever haunted littoral is dearly bought with British blood. Chambers Jour nal.