The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-07-27
{ Continued from Saturday.
XI. ~- Manasseh's Battle.
are at Solferino.

XI.
 Manasseh's Battle.
 We. are at Solferino.
 The day on which one of the most mem orable battles in the worlds history-the fate of two countries and one continent was decided Manasseh's battalion stooo from early morning till the afternoon in the reserve, on an eminence from Wnicn a great part of the battlefield could De viewed. Manasseh was still an ensign Leaning upon his gun, he had since morn ing been a witness of the drama. The chessboard fitted exactly the bloody game of chess in progress here. A far-ex- tending plain divided into squares by rows of fruit trees. vine bowers and irri- gation' channels, with little green farms; in the distance a romantic chain of hills, with vineyards rising in terraces; he-e and there groves of olives, and the entire neighborhood like city scattered in 2 forest, with summer residences. villas and farms-all radiant in the splendor of the sun.
 And this paradisaicaI country was se- iected by the two gigantic armies for Manasssn, with his hands in his lap. viewed the battle. This combat is not as beautiful as those described in heroiS- poems.
 among the hedges; white smoke Of pow der rising from the green of the gardens; swarms of men climbing upon rocks: groups in white uniforms intermingied
 
 meet them; both groups pushing eacn other to and fro; and when for moment the organ play of thunder pauses the bat tie howl and death cries of myr1ads are heard.
 If, on one silent afternoon, the death cry of a murdered individual were heard in the great garden, how it would touen the heart of evsry one who heard it How quickly they would hasten to his assistance, pursue the murderer and CT set a monument on the spot of the tragedy! But now, when many thousands or slaughtered ones lie in the dust, every one looks upon the scsne with composure. Manasseh did not even think of his own fate. All his thouhgts were now occu- pied with the question as to wnetner tnIs must be so; whether it will eternally be so;that reason, science, bravery, hdenty, patriotism, self-sacriflce and all the pow CTS which move heart and brains and are destined to create and model. unite ever and again to set murderous ma chimes against one another. thereby oe- stroying the most beautiful creation or the Deity: whether two giants have the right to incite hundreds of thousands Of those dwarfs called men" against one another, and to ascertain in the evening of the day of battle as to who has killed the greater number. And shali he wno has succeeded in doing this be the victor and shall glory and right be on his HoeY He, too, now carries the weapon, the use of which is to fill with unutterabfe grief the heart of mother who VII ex-
  tears, had reared; to make 6 beggar ot the hoary-headed father. whose support has been taken away, and to prepare Tor the bride. instead ef a bridal wreath. a North of the solferino fort, among the many small hills. there rises one which the historians of this campaign mention sm s tS1 syprsss socI h of ths and bstte waeh
 From the plateau on which Manasseh's battalion was posted. that hill could be plainly seen, and Manasseh watched the fight as it swayed to and fro.
 Now the batteries of one party, then those of the other kept up a cross ire on the hill until the cannon grew hot. Then. sometimes one and sometimes tho other party, made the attack, but Man asseh saw neither the troops of the one nor those of the other retire. Troops, which had taken the cypress mll-Aus- voured Sby it. Whither did they go? What had become of them?
 At o'clock in the afternoon the confu- sion greatly increased. During the re- newed storming the battaltons intermin- zied so much with one another that epati" iettes of all colors could be seen in the same group.
 The army was almost starved, and ex- hausted with fatigue. Some regiments had not seen a morsel of meat for a week (of the forty thousand oxen), and the bread which had been distributed among them was mouldy and insufficient ly baked, nauseous and unwholesome.
 A last powerful effort was made. Re serves. march! They advanced towards the cypress hill for the last time. A battalion of chasseurs, one of the proud est in the Austrian army, marched against the mysterious hill. After a short resistance it was taken. and the renort of guns on the other side demon- strated that the battalion was continuing the fight somewhere in the adjoining vallSg
 Manasseh's battalion then received or ders to occupy the hill, while the chas- seurs advanced farther.
 The drums sounded, and the battalion, with shouldered guns, commenced the march Manasseh, as the commander, marched at the side of the division. He was 8 handsome, stately man. and the whole vanguard consisted of his coun- frynen. Earnest. quiet, courageous faces. It was a plesure to look at them.
 The fighting troobs had withdrawn for a while from the cypress hill. Manasseh and his comrades could occupy 1t without impeachment.
 Now he hears what is happening there. The cypress hill is a large burial place the graveyard of the entire neighbor- hood. Every cypress marks grave But the dead under the earth do not lie so close together as do those upon it. The cypress hill is a double graveyard. Seven kinds of uniforms cover the sod. French men, Arabs, Italians, iiungarians, Ger mans, Polanders, Crotians, with convul- sively distorted faces, lie one upon an- other in all directions. The last sigh ut- tered In different languages, may have been 'Dh, my nother!" Now they have a common mother, whose name is terra. [" The sod is torn up by cannon balls; the many-colored amaranthus are dyed with blood; the marble geuii, dashed from the grave-stones, lie among the other dead. A cannon ball has torn the head from