The Connecticut labor press., 1920-09-11
CHAPTER xl-continued.

| CHAPTER Xt-C0ntGnuS0.
 --f0-
 1 We were early risers at that time,
 and the whole brigade was usually un- der arms at the first flush of dawn. One morning-it was the sixteenth or
 June-we had just formed up, and
 General Adams had ridden up to give
 some order to Colonel Reynell, within
 a musket-length of where l stood,
 when suddenly they both stood staring
 along the Brussels road. None Of us
 dared move our heads. but every eye
 in the regiment whisked round. and
 there we saw an officer, with the cock ade of a generals aide-de-camp, thun- dering down the road as hard as great dapple-gray horse could carry him. He bent his face over its mane, and logged at it's neck with the slack
 of the bridle, as though he rode for very life.
 "Hullo, Reynell," says the general. ''This begins to look like business
 What do you make of it?" They both cantered their horses forward, and Adams tore open the dispatch which the messenger handed to him. The en- velop had not touched the ground be- fore he turned, waving the letter over his head as if It had been saber.
 Dismiss l' he cried. General pa rade and march in half an hour.
 Then, in an instant, all was buzz and hustle. and the news on every lip. Ma. poleon had crossed the frontier the | day before, had pushed the Prussians before him, and was already deep fn the country to the east of us with hundred and fifty thousand men. Away we scuttled to gather our things together and have our breakfast, and in an hour we had marched of and left Ath and the Dender behind US forever. There was good need for haste. for the Prussians had sent no news to Wellington of what was doing, and though he had rushed from Brussels at the first whisper of it. like good old mastiff from its kennel. it was hard to see how he could come up in time to help the Prussians.
 It was a bright. warm morning, and as the brigade tramped down the broad Belgian road the dust rolled up from 1t like the smoke of battery. tell you that we blessed the man that plant ed the poplars along the sides, for their shadow was better than drink to us. Over across the fields, both to the right and the left, were other roads, one quite close and the other a mile or more from us. A column of infan- try was marching down the near one, and 1t was a fair race between us, for we were each walking for all we were worth. There was such wreath of dust round them that we could only see the gun barrels and the bearskins breaking out here and there, with the head and shoulders of mounted off cer coming out above the cloud, and the f1utter of the colors., It was bri- gade of the Guards, but we could not tell which, for we had two of them with us in the campaign. On the far road there was also dust and to spare but through it there flashed every now and then long twinkle of brightness like hundred silver beads threaded in a line, and the breeze brought down such snarling, changing, c1ashing kind of music as I had never listened to. If I had been left to myself it would have been long before knew what 1t was, but our corporals and sergeants were all old soldiers, and had one trudging along with his hal bert at my elbow, who was full of precept and advice.
 That's heavy horse" said he "You gee that double twinkle. That means they have helmet as well as cuirass It's the. Royals or the Enniskillens or the Household. You can hear their cymbals and kettles. The French heav- les are too good for us. They have ten to our one. and good men, too. You've got to shoot at their faces, or else at their horses. Mind you that when you see them coming, or else you'll find a four-foot sword stuck through your liver to teach you better. Hark harki harkl there's the old music again l''
 And as he spoke there came the low grumbling of a cannonade away somewhere to the east of us, deep and hoarse, like a roar of some blood daubed beast that thrives on the lives of men. At the same instant there was shouting of 'fHeh heh heh !" from behind, and somebody roared, "Let the guns get through i'' Looking back. I I saw the T6sdI COluIsbulCS SpIIC SUuQ0QIy | in two and hur1 themselves down on l either side into the dftch while six | cream-colored horses, galloping two l and two, with their bellies to the | ground. came laundering through the | gap with fine twelve-pound gun | whirling and rreaking behind them. l Following were another and another, | in all, flying past us | with such a din and chatter. the blue | coated men clinging on to the guns md the tumbrils. the drivers cursing | and cracking their whips. the names flying. the mops and buckets clanking, and the whole air filled with the heavy rumble and the jingling of chains. There was roar from the ditches and a shout from the gunners, and we saw B rolling gray cloud before us, with a score of busbies breaking through the shadow Then we closed up again, while the growing ahead of us grew louder and deeper than ever.
 There's three batteries there," said the sergeant. There's Bulls and Webber Smiths. but the other is new.