The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-08-29

had aided him in keeping the wounded man in the saddle during the retreat,
 This piece of work of Beresfords l account the brayest deed ever saw" and l should have made 1t the topic of this contribution, but that I have al- ready described it fully in print.
 Of very different type of courage was the conduct of Wlgram Batty, a distinguished Indian officer who was my companion with the little garrison of Saarbrucken, at the beginning of the Franco Prussian war.
 On the 2d of August, the day of the poor Prince Imperiars baptism of fre,' came pouring down on the little town Frossard's divisions from the Spichrenberg The German battalion slowly quilted, As the last detachment cleared out from the earthwork it had been holding, man was shot down.
 Batty, who had been chaflng at the withdrawal, "got mad" caught up the fallen mans rifle and pouch, ran out, dropped on one knee, and started llve- ly fusilade against Pouget's French brigade. Pouget's brigade responded with cheerful promptitude, and Batty presently was bowled over,
 His reckless freak woul have cost him his life without benefit of clergy had he, a neutral citizen in arms, been caught by the French and 1t gave to German professor and myself the trouble of going out and fetching him in, mending him, and sending him off to hospital.
 Batty fell fighting bravely In Afghan o ,ty,xr sx, ,tah N,atk tkn.,y nothing whether you are neutral or bel ligerent But for the excellent adage, Nil nisi bonum de mortuis I should style his conduct at Saarbrucken reck- less beyond measure.
 Some instances of serviceable expo sure to danger in cold blood, undertak- en without any incentive beyond the inn pulse 10 avert calamity are in my mer1- ory, and one of them I may relate. The scene was General Tchernaieff's head quarter camp at Deligrad, in Upper Servia, in the summer of 1876. 1 The huts of the camp surrounded a square area, through a corner of which pessed small stream. It was near dusk, and the staff having finished dinner in the schoolroom which served as mess room, were sitting smoking on the rear veranda. Suddenly there came a loud cry of "F'ire!" and men were seen running away in all directions
 We all hurried through to the front, the rush led by couple of Englishmen. Tn the center of the open space stood a wattled hut, roofed in with flat GOV ering of wattled hurdles. Would 1t be believed that this structure was the powder magazine of the Deligrad force?
 Yes; during the day I had seen men at work filling the powder bags to be used as charges for the cannon-flling them from open powder barrels which, when the work was done, were simply covered loosely with canvas.
 Besides the powder in the barrels and in the charge bag, there was quantity of Remington cartridges, partly in cases partly in loose heaps. There was not even sentry on the hut I re- membered thinking it the most danger ous place had ever seen.
 And now sparks carried by the wind from some cooking fire, or swept from one of the innumerable cigarettes con stantly being smoked, had fallen on the roofing hurdles, and they, as dry as l lltluGl, WGlt hlildllDEo lIltO loOlItGd pitiA- ing tongues
 The two Englishmen were running to- ward the hut at top speed. Then they diverged. One headed for the water, the other held straight for the hut, ciambered up it's wattled side, reached the roof, and set about beating out and throwing down, as far as possible, the blazing hurdles. His comrade had filled bucket and was swiftly carry ing it to the man on the roof of the hut.
 The Russian officers of Tchernaieff' s headquarters caught up the idea, ran towards the stream, and formed a chain, but the long link next the hut was allowed to be constituted by the comrade of the man on the roof. His danger, spite of the bucketsful of wa ter which reached him from time to time, seemed imminent.
 With every hurdle thrown down, his footing became the more precarious. Sparks dropping from the waiting had ignited the cartridges, which were pop ping off with the noise and smoke of a respectable skirmish. It seemed inn possible but that the bags and barrels : should catch spark, and then-well there could be but one ending.
 The trouser legs of the man on the rcof were smoldering, but still he work ed on. A few moments more and half of him disappeared; his neither limbs had gone through the thinned roof; but he held on to the top of the wattled wall and then poured down bucket af- ter bucket,
 At length he succeeded in quenching the fire and stopping the explosion of hte cartridges. The door was opened and more water poured in. Then the man on the roof came down therefron barelegged to the thigh, his hands arms, and lower limbs 8 good dea burned and studded with blue powder marks.
 The comrades declined the Takooe cross rendered by Tchernaieff, and ask ed me not to write about the episode 1, I am surely they would not like that should now mention their names- Youths Companion.