The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1901-08-07


of the conflict, he was unconscious.
The Sc ghtIng fury was upon him.
As he spurred his horse down on
them now 90 blades glittered against
him. The foremost would have cut
straight down through the bone of his
barred chest and killed him at single
lunge. but as its steel flashed in the
sun one OF his troopers threR himself
against it and parted the stroke from
him by sheathing it n his own breast
The blow was mortal. and the one who
had saved him ree1ed down off his sad
die under the hoofs of the trampling
charges Picpon remembers !" he muir
INJURED. with a smile. and as the charge
swept onward Cecil, with q great cry
of horror, saw the feet of tie madden
ed horses strike to pulp the writing
body and saw the black, wistful eyes.
of the child of Paris look upward to
him once with love and fealty and un-
speakable sweetness cleaning through
their darkened sight.
But to pause was impossible. Though
the French horses were forced with
marvellous dexterity through q bristling
forest of steel. though the remnant of
the once glittering squadron was cast
against them in as headlong a daring
as if it had half the regiments Of the
empire at its back. the charge availed
little against the hosts of the desert
that had rallied and sWooped down
afresh almost as soon as they had been
for the instant of the shock panic
stricken. They closed in on every side,
wheeling their swift coursers hither
and thither, striking with lance and
blade, hemming in beyond escape the
doomed fragment Of the Frankish
squadron till there remained of them
but one small nucleus ring of horse
men, of whom every one had his, face
to the foe; a solid circle curiouslys
Wedged one against the other, with the
bodies Of chargers and of men deep
around them and with the ground soak
ed with blood till the sand was one red
morass.
Cecil held the eagle still and looked
round on the few left to him.
You are the sons of the Old Guard
Die like them
They answered with a pealing cry,
terrible as the cry of the lion in the
hush of the night, but a shout that had
in it assent. triumph, fealty, victory,
even as they obeyed him and drew up
to die, while in their front was the
young brow of Petit Picpon turned up
ward to the glare of the skies.
The Arabs honored these men, who
alone and in the midst of the hostile
force held their ground and prepared
thus to be slaughtered one by one till
of all the squadron that had ridden out
in the darkness Of the dawn there
should be only black. huddled. stiff
ened heap of dead men and of dead
beasts. The chief who led them press
ed them back, Withholding them from
the end that was so near to their hands
when they should stretch that single
ring Of horsemen all lifeless in the dust.
You are great Warriors he cried in
the sabir tongue. Surrender! We
will spare"
Cecil looked back once more on the
fragment of his troop and raised the
eagle higher aloft where the wings
should glisten in the fuller day. Half
naked, scorched, blinded, with an open
cash in his shoulder where the lance
had struck and with his brow wet with
the great dews Of the noon heat and
the breathless toll, his eyes Were clear
as they flashed with the light of the
sun in them. His mouth smiled as he
answered:
Have we shown ourselves towards
that you think We shall yield? y
A yell of wild delight from the chas-
seurs he led greeted and ratified the
choice. ITO the death! We will not