Cavalier County farmers press. (Langdon, N.D.) 1920-1921, 1920-08-12

without mercy. I dognot believe that
a hundred men of that. regiment were
left alive, and the. Frenchmen came
back across our front, shouting at us
and waving their weapons, which were
crimson down to the hilts. This they
did to draw our fire, but the colonel
too old a soldier. for we could
have done little harm at the distance,
and they would have been among us
before we could reload.
These horsemen got behind the ridge
on our right again. and we knew very
we'll that if we opened up from the
squares they would be down upon us
in a twinkle. On the other hand, it
was hard to bide as we were, for they
had passed the word to a battery of
twelve guns which formed up a few
hundred yards away from us, but out
of our sight, sending their balls just
over the brow and down into the midst
of u.s., which is called a plunging fire.
And one of their gunners ran up to
the top Of the slope and stuck a hand
spike into the wet earth, to give them
a guide, under the very muzzles Of the
whole brigade, none Of whom fred a
shot at him, each leaving him to the
other. Ensign Samson, who was the
youngest subaltern in the regiment,
ran out from the square and pulled
down the h%andspike, but quick as a
jack after a minnow a lancer came fly
ing over the ridge, and he made such
a thrust from behind that not only his
point but his pennon, too. came out be-
tween the second and third buttons of
the lads tunic. "Helen! Helen! he
shouted, and fell dead on his face.
while the lancer, blown half to pieces
with musket balls, toppled over beside
him, still holding on to his weapon, SO
they lay together with that dreadful
bond still connecting them.
But when the battery opened there
was no time for us to think of any
thing else. A square is a very good
way Of meeting a horseman, but there
is no worse one Of taking a cannon
ball, so we soon learned when they
began to cut red seams through us,
until our ears were weary of the slosh
and splash when hard iron met living
flesh and blood. After ten minutes
Of it we moved our square a hundred
PAGES to the right, but we left an
other square behind us, for a hundred
and twenty men and seven officers
showed where we had been standing.
Then the guns found us again, and we
tried to open out into line, but in an
instant the Observation-Disclosures they
were this time-were upon us from
over the brae. / tell you we were glad
to hear the thud Of their hoefs, for
we knew that that must stop the can
non for a minute, and give us a chance
Of hitting back. And we hit back
pretty hard, too, that time, for we were
cold and vicious and savage, and l,
for one, felt that I cared no more for
the horsemen than if they had been
so many sheep on Corriemuir. One
gets past being afraid or thinking of
ones, W skin after a while. and you
just feel that you want TO make some
n pay for all you have gone through.
We took our change out of The lancers
that time, for they had no hrenstlhates
to shield them. and W.. cleared seventy
of them out of their SnAtl'''s II! IL vol.
ley. Maybe if we could Ii seen sew
was doing Just in front Of US, though
the oar Of the guns told us that the
battle was general all along the lines,
Four hundred of them were all crash
ing at once now, and the noise was
enough to split the drum of your a
Indeed, there vas not one of us but
had a singing in his head for many a
long day afterward. Just opposite us
on the slope of a hill, was a French
gun, and we could see the men serving
her quite plainly. They were small.
active men with very tight breeches
and high hats with great, straight
plumes sticking up from them, but they
worked like sheep %shearers, ramming
and sponging and training. There
were fourteen when / saw them first
and only four left standing at the last
but they were working away just as
hard as ever.
The farm that they called Hougou-
mont was down in front of us, and all
morning we could see that a terrible
fight, was going on there, for the walls
and the windows and the orchard
hedges were all flame and smoke, and
there rose such shrieking and crying
from it as I never heard before. II
was half burned down, and shattered
with balls, and ten thousand men were
hammering at the gates, but four hun
dred %guardsmen held it in the morn
ing, and two hundred held it in the
evening, and no French foot was ever
set within it's threshold. But how they
fought, those Frenchmen! Their lives
were no more to them than the mud
under their feet. There was ONE
can see him nova stoutish, ruddy
man on a crutch. He hobbled uI
alone in a lull of the firing to the
side gate of Hougoumont, and he
beat upon it, screaming to his men to
come after him. For five minutes he
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