Mrs. Grundy. (Tracy City, Tenn.) 1903-1930, 1920-12-30

] had always thought Of Frenchmen Gs
small men, for there was not one Of
that first company who could not have
picked me up as II had been a child,
and their great hats made them look
taller yet. They were hard, wixened.
wfry fellows, too, with fierce, puckered
eyes and Dristling ustaches--old sol.
diers who had fought and fought week
In, week out, for many a year. And
then. as ! stood with a finger upon
the trigger, waiting for the word to
hre, my eye fell upon the mounted off,
Ger, with his hat upon his sword, and
l saw that 1t was De Lissac.
l saw 1t, and Jim did, too. heard
a shout, and saw him rush forward
madly at the French column. And,
as quick as a thought, the whole
| brigade took their cue from him. off,
GERS and all, and flung themselves
upon the Guard in front, while our
/ comrades charged them on the TANKS.
!, We had been waiting for the order,
;sad they all thought now that 1t had
Teen given; but, Won may take my
| word for It, Jim Horscroft was the
real leader Of the brigade when we
| charged the Old Guard.
| God knows what happened during
/ that mad FIVE minutes. remember
putting my musket against blue-coat,
and pulling the trigger. and that the
man could not fall. because he was SO
wcdsed In the crowd; but ! saw q
horrid blotch upon the cloth, and thin
/ curl Of smoke from 1t, as II II had
taken fire. Then found myself
thrown up against two big Frenchmen.
and so squeezed together. the three Of
US, that we could not raise weapon.
One Of them. fellow with very
large nose, got his hand UP to my
| throat. and felt that ! was chicken
lin his grasp. .'Rendez-vous, coquin,
rentlez- v0usl' said he. and then sud-
denly doubled up with scream, for
some one had stabbed him In the bow
els with bayonet. There was very
! little firing after the first sputter. but
there was the crash OF butt against
! barrel, the short cries of stricken men,
and the roaring of the officers. And
then. suddenly. they began to give
/ ground, slowly, sullenly. step by step
but still to give ground. All. II was
4 worth NIL we had gone through, the
thrill of that moment, when we felt
that they were going to break. There
was one Frenchman before me, a
sharp-faced, dark-eyed man. who was
loading and firing MS quietly as If he
were at practice, dwelling upon his
aim, and looking round first to try and
pick off an officer. remember that 1t
struck me that to kill so cool man as
that would be good service. and
rushed at him, and drove my bayonet
into, him. He turned as | struck him.
and fired full into my face, and the
bullet left veal across my cheek
which will mark me to my dying day.
tripped over him as he fell, and,
two others tumbling over me, was
half smothered in the heap. When at
last l struggled out and cleared my
eyes, which were full of powder, saw
that the column had fairly broken,
and was shredding into groups Of men
who were either running for their lives,
| or fighting back to back, In vain at
tempt to check the brigade, which was
still sweeping onward. My face felt
as IL red-hot iron had been laid
across It. but / had the use OF my
limbs SO, jumping over the litter OF
dead and mangled men, scampered
after my regiment. and fell In upon
the right flank.
Old Major Elliott was here, limping
along, for his horse had been shot, but
none the worse in himself. He saw
me come up, and nodded, but 1t was
too busy time for words. The bril-
gade was still advancing. but the gem
eral rode IN front of me, with his chin
upon his shoulder. looking back at the
British position.
"There is no general advance" said
he. "But I'm not going back"
.@'The duke of Wellington has won a
great victory" cried the aide-de-camp
In solemn voice, and then. his feel
lngs getting the better of him, he
added. IF the ID fool would only
push on i"-which set MS all laughing
In the flank company.
But now anyone could see that the
French army was breaking up. The
4. ~ =
stood so sqnarely all day were now all
ragged at the edges, and where there
had been thick fringes OF skirmishers
in front there were now spray Of
stragglers In the rosr. The Guard
thinned out in front Of us az we