The Connecticut labor press., 1920-09-25
CHAPTER xII-continued.

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 From where we stood it was sight
 now that was worth coming over the seas to see. On our own ridge was the checker of red and blue, stretching
 right away to village over two miles from us. 1t was whispered from man to man in the ranks, however, that there was too much of the blue and too little. of the red, for the Belgians had shown on the day before that their hearts were too soft for the work. and we had twenty thousand of them for
 comrades. Then even our British troops were half made up of militia
 men and recruits, for the, pick of the
 old Peninsula regiments were on the ocean in transports, coming back from
 some tools errand with our kinsfolk of America. But for all that we could
 see the bearskins of the Guards, two strong brigades of them, and the bon nets of the Highlanders, and the blue of the old German legion, and the red lines of Packs brigade, and Kempt's brigade, and the green-dotted rife men in front and we knew that, come what might, these were men who would bide where they were placed, and that they had man to .lead them who would place them where they should bide.
 Of the French we had seen little, save the twinkle of their fires and a few horsemen here and there on the curves of the ridge; but as we stood and waited there came suddenly grand blare from their bands, and their whole army came flooding over the low hill which had hid them-bri- gade after brigade, and division after division-until the broad slope in its whole length and depth was blue with their uniforms and bright with the glint of their weapons. It seemed that they would never have done, still pour ing over and pouring over, while our men leaned on their muskets and smoked their pipes, looking down at this grand gathering and listening to what the old soldiers, who had fought the French before, had to say about them. Then, when the infantry had formed in long, deep masses, their guns came whirlfng and bounding down the slope, and it was pretty to see how smartly they unlimbered and were ready for action. And then. at stately trot, down came the cav alry-thirty regiments at the least, with plume and breastplate, twinkling sword and fiuttering lance-formfng up at the Hanks and rear in long, shift ing, glimmering lines.
 "Them's the chaps" cried our old sergeant. They're gluttons to fight, they are. And you see them regi- ments with the great high hats in the middle, bit behind the farm? That's the Guard-twenty, thousand of them. my sons, and all picked men-gray- headed devils that have done nothing but fight since they were as high as my gaiters. They've three men to our two, and two guns to one, and, by gad! they'll make you recruities wish you were back in Argyle street before they have finished with you" He was not a cheering man, our sergeant, but then he had been in every fight since CO runna, and had a medal with seven clasps upon his breast, so that he had a right to talk in his own fashion.
 When the Frenchmen had arranged themselves just out of cannon shot we saw small group of horsemen, all in blaze with silver and scarlet and gold, ride swiftly between the divi- sions; and as they went a roar of cheering burst out from either side of them, and we could see arms out stretched to them and hands waving. An instant later the noise had died away and the two armies stood facing each other in absolute deadly silence a sight which often comes back to me in my dreams. Then of a sudden there was 1urch among the men just in front of us, thin column wheeled off from the dense blue clump, and came swinging up toward the farm house which lay below us. It had not out from an English battery on our left and the battle of Waterloo had begun.
 It 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 have read than from what I saw, for how much could see with comrade on either side, and great white cloud bank at the very end of my f1relock? It 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 were cut to pieces before they could get back. From them, too. I learned all about the successive as- saults, and how the Belgians fled, 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 rifts of the smoke and the lulIs l Of the firing, and it's just of that that 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 fsh brigade and the Banoverians, 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