Cavalier County farmers press. (Langdon, N.D.) 1920-1921, 1920-08-05

each other in absolute deE1ry' silence.
a sight which often comes back to me
in my dreams. Then Of q sudden
there was a lurch among the men just
in front of us, a thin column wheeled
off from the dense blue clump, and
zane swinging up toward the farm
house which lay below US. 1t had %
taken fifty PAGES, before a gun banged
out from an English battery on our
left and the battle of Waterloo had
begun.
1t is not for me to tell you the story
of that battle, and indeed I should
have kept far enough away from such
a thing had it not happened that our
own fates-those Of the three simple
folk who came from the border coun-
try-were all just as much mixed up
in it as those Of any king or emperor
of them all. To tell the honest truth,
I have learned more about that battle
from what I have read than from what
I saw, for how much could I see with
a comrade on either side, and a great
white cloud bank at the very end Of
my frelock? 1t was from books and
the talk of others that I learned how
the heavy cavalry charged, how they
rode over the famous cuirassiers, and
how they We're cut to pieces before
they could get back. From them, too,
I learned all about the successive as
saults. and how the Belgians fed, and
how Pack and Kempt stood firm. But
of my own knowledge I can only speak
of what we saw during that long day
in the riffs Of the smoke and the lulls
of the firing, and it's just of that that
I will tell you.
We were on the right Of the line and
in reserve, for the Duke was afraid
that Boney might work round on that
side and get at him from behind, so
our three regiments, with another Brit
ish brigade and the Hanoverians, were
placed there to be ready for anything.
There were two brigades of light cav
airy, too, but the French attack was
all from the front, so it was late in
the day before we were really wanted.
The English battery which fired the
first gun was still banging away on
u left, and a German one was hard
at work upon our right, so that we
were wrapped round with the smoke,
but we were not so hidden as to screen
us from a line Of French guns oppo
site, for a score of round shot came
piping through the air and pumped
right into the heart Of us. AS I heard
the scream of them pass my ear my
head went down like a diver, but our
sergeant gave me a prod in the back
with the handle of his halbert.
Don't be SO blasted polite" said he.
"When you're hit you can bow once
and for ALL" ....
There vas one Of those balls that
knocked five men into a bloody mash,
and I saw it lying on the ground after
wards, like a crimson football. An
other wen through the adjutant's
horse with a plop, like a stone in the
mud, broke its back and left it lying
like "a burst ~gooseberry. Three more
fell farther to the right, and by the
stir and cries we could tell that they
had all told.
"Ah, James, you've lost a good
mount" says Major Reed, just in front
of me, looking down at the adjutant,
whose boots and breeches were all
running with blood.
81 gave a cool fifty for him in Glas-
gow," said the other. Don't you think,
major, that the men had better lie
down, now that the guns have got our
ranger"
''Tut!' said the other. "They are
young, James, and it will do them
good.'
They'll get enough of it before the
days DONE" grumbled the other, but
at that moment Colonel Reynell saw
that the Rifles and the Fifty-second
were down on either side of us, so we
had the order to stretch ourselves out
too. Precious glad we were when we
could hear the shot whining like hun
CRY dogs within a few feet of our
backs. Even now a thud and a splash
every minute or so, with a yelp of pain
and a drumming of boots upon the
ground, told us that we were still los
ing heavily.
A thin rain was falling and the
damp air held the smoke loxv, so that
we could only catch glimpses of what
rades, who lay stretched in the mud.
with the storm beating upon them,
until the first peep of day.