Middletown transcript. [volume] (Middletown, Del.) 1868-current, 1920-10-09
CHAPTER XIll-Continued.


H.
His cannon could do us no great
harm now, for we were on our faces,
and in an instant we could turn into a
huddle Of bayonets If his horse came
down again. But behind the thunder
of the guns there arose sharper,
shriller noise, whirring and rafting,
the widest, jauntiest, most stirring
kind of sound.
cts the pas-de-charge" cried an
officer. 'They mean business this
time"
And as he spoke we saw strange
thing. A Frenchman, dressed as an
officer Of hussars, came galloping to-
ward us on little bay horse. He
was screening "Vive lie Roi! Vive lie
Roi !" at the pitch of his lungs, which
was as much as to say that he was
a deserter, since we were for the king
and they for the emperor. As he
passed US he roared out in English {:
''The Guard is coming! The Guard
is coming!" and so vanished away to
the rear like a leaf blown before a
storm. At the same instant up there
rode an aide-de-camp with the reddest
face that ever saw upon mortal man.
"YOu must stop 'em, or we are
DONE" he cried to General Adams, so
that all our company could hear him.
"How is it going?' asked the gen.
eral.
1.-TWO weak squadrons left out Of six
regiments of heavies," said he. and be-
gan to laugh like man whose nerves
are overstrung.
"Perhaps you would care to join
in our advance. Pray consider your
self quite one Of u.s." said the general.
bowling and smiling as if he were ask
ing him to a dish of tea.
II shall have much pleasure" said
the other, taking off his hat, and
moment afterward our three regiments
closed up and the brigade advanced in
four lines over the hollow where we
had lain in square, and out beyond
the point whence we had seen the
French army.
There was little of it to be seen
now, only the red belching Of the guns
flashing quickly out of the cloud-bank,
and the black figures, STOPPING, strain
ing, hopping. sponging, working like
devils and at devilish work. But
through the cloud that rattle and whir
rose louder and louder, with deep
mouthed shouting and the stamping of
thousands of feet. Then there came
broad black blur through the haze,
which darkened and darkened, until
we could see that it was hundred
men abreast. marching swiftly toward
us, with high fur hats upon their heads
and q CLEAN of brasswork over their
brOws. And behind that hundred came
another hundred, and behind that an
other, and so on, coiling and writing
out of the cannon-smoke, like a mon
strous snake, until there seemed to be
no end to the mighty column. In front
ran q spray of skirmishers and be-
hind them the drummers, and up they
all came together at kind of trip
ping step, with the officers clustering
thickly at the sides and waving their
swords and cheering. There were a
dozen mounted men, too, at their front,
all shouting together. and one with his
hat held aloft upon his sword-point. I
say again that no men upon this earth
could have fought more manfully than
the French did upon that day.
It was wonderful to see them, for,
as they came onward, they got ahead
of their own guns, so that they had
no longer any help from them, while
they got in front Of the two batteries
which had been on either side Of us
all day. Every gun had their range
to a foot, and we saw long red lines
scored right down the dark column as
it advanced. So near were they, and
so closely did they march, that every
shot plowed through ten files of them.
and yet they closed up, and came on
with a swing and dash that was fine
to see. Their head was turned straight
for ourselves, while the Ninety-ffth
overlapped them on one side and the
f1fty-second on the other.
shall always think that, if we had
waited so, the Guard would have
broken us, for how could four-deep
line stand against such a column? But
at that moment Colburne. the colonel
Of the Fifty-second, swung his right
flank around so as to bring it on the
side of the column, which brought the
Frenchmen to a halt. Their front line
was forty PAGES from us at the mo-
lnent, and we had good look at them.
1t was funny to me to remember that
l had always thought of Trenchmen as
small men, for there was not one Of
that first company who could not have
picked me up as If had been child,
and their great hats made them look
taller yet. They were hard, wizened,
wiry fellows, too, with fierce, puckered
eyes and bristling mustaches-old SOL
diers who had fought and fought week
In, week out, for many a year. And
then, as stood with finger upon
the trigger, waiting for the word to
fire, my eye fell upon the mounted Off
Ger. with his hat upon his sword, and
I saw that it was De Lissac.
I saw it, and Jim did, too. heard
q shout, and saw him rush forward
madly at the French column. And,