Tabor City tribune. (Tabor City, N.C.) 1946-1991, 1950-04-12
The HalloW Road To Chain

,cut them in hall, drive the British
half back to Halle, the Prussian
half on to Tingress, to make two
| shattered fragments of yelling
Iton and Butcher, to carry Mont.
| Saint-Jean, seize Brussels, hurl
1.-The Germans into the Rhine and
1.-THE Englishmen into the sea, Such
Twas Bonaparte's plan of battle.
III the afternoon, the master
Ip!an was altered by fate.
Baudln had been killed, Foy
"ounueu, Duplat KILLED, the Eli
gliSh Guards mutilated, Twenty
rrench battalions decimateo,
Glackmann dead, Neys fourth
nOrse shot from under him.
But how goes the battle? Fate
IS still with Napoleon, the artill.
lyman. His two hundred and forty
Ulg guns have pounded yelling.
llon INTO the plateau between the
nnoll and the village of Mont
Saint-Jean. AT four o'clock" HUI
lgo says. the condition of the
lEngliSn army was serious" Elba
Twas being avenged.
| The little Corporal, sitting cross
larmed on his mount, is again
Lasting tine sweetness OF victory.
destiny is again by his side. The
| island OF Elba is an ugly dream,
i TO be WHIPPED out forever, this
| cay, at Waterloo.
| At dusk the English line draws
back. Suddenly nothing is visible
on the crest of the plateau except
the artillery and a few sharp
shooters. The rest have retreated
ldislodged by the French shells and
Dullets, into a hollow beyond the
ridge of Mont .Saint-Jean.
| The beginning of the retreat!
Icries Napoleon.
Il Along the crest of the plateau
there runs a trench, fifteen feet
deep at places, which is impossible
to see from the French positions
Why this trench? 1t is a road
connecting Braine-p Alleud ano
Chain, dug through centuries by
the tread of horses and buggies
and the wheels of carts.And it is
dangerously narrow. According tc
d stone cross, seen by Victor HUI
90 in 1861, a merchant, walking
along this depressed road was
crushed to death there by a carr
| in 1887. It's sides rise almost Writ
ically.
Il This road, only rut concealed
, in the soil on the crest of tn
plateau, is not in the master plan
, For Napoleon, it should not have
existed.
, Victory flashes from the En-
, CONTINUED ON PAGE FIVE.
. peror's eyes as he rises in hi
, lstirrups and gaze at the deserted
knoll. is face is immobile as III
, turns to his peasant guide. La
=, lcostc, and speaks.
u could there possibly be an 90
, lstacle on the MONTH"
Emphatically, Lacoste shake
his head. The course of world his
. tory is set.
The Emperor straightens him
self and reflects.
Then, abruptly, he turns in hi
addle and dispatches at full spee'
an express to Paris to ANNOUNCE
that the battle is won.
Now the command for action
He gives the order to Milhaud'
cuirassiers to carry the plateau
z Of Mont-Saint-Jean.
There are three thousand, five
hundred of them, all gaints, OF
colossal horses, twenty-six squad
ron. and behind them, Desnou
cites division of hand.picked gen
darmes, the light calvery of tn
guard and the lancers.
The air is filled with the bias
!, of trumpes and the rumble o
fifteen thousand pounding hoofs
. Marshall Ney, his sword drawn
z leads them.
They plunge down the inclin
: into the valley, disappear into tn
sulphurous battle smoke, reap
} pear as grey, weaving mass, thun
dering up the slope of Mont. Saint
! loan The colossal trampling i
2 audible through the dusk. The,
/ p:ung on and upward, irresistabl
! land invulnerable in close-rank file
Suddenly the unexpected hap
pened, The head of the column
of cuirassiers on the right reare'
} |up with frightful Glamour OF MOI
ror and confusion. But it is to-
late. The fury of assault grips TN
} |entire mass. There is no stopping
z The yawning trench, or grave,
} There. The front line OF rider
: plunges downward. The third III
} bushes the second in. the tourtI
file the third. Those who are no
cstapulted in from their own 1ul
; liCuS momentum are hulleu Ia y
those behind them.
It is a chaos, a mad blenolns
of screams of broken horses VIII
B The cries of crushed cuirasslers
And there is no hating, no re
4 treat The whole column IS 9
Igantic projectile, hurting for"ar'
IL into the death-trap revine.
And the revine can ylelo OH ON;
when filled. orses and riders roi >
} in pell nell, crushing ana gllho
: ing each other, forming one tang
/ led mass of writhing flesh IN
black gulf. e,u on,
.ha roef march over them ant