A THRILLING SCENE.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 69, 16 March 1877, Page 3

A THRILLING SCENE.

A correspondent of the Ledger, who was present at a review of the Austrian cavalry, narrates the following incident: —It is a grand sight—twenty to forty thousand horses, where each and every horse knows and understands the slightest note of the bugle, sweep over a broad plain, and changing positions like an enormous machine guided by an unerring master hand. It must be seen to be appreciated. Words cannot reproduce the picture. On a certain occasion an event transpired which lent an interest most thrilling to the military scene. It was at a review, held in Vienna, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the military order of Maria Theresa. Not far from 30,000 cavalry were in line. A little child—a girl—of not more than four years, standing in the front row of spectators, either from fright or some other cause, rushed out into the open field just as a squadron of hussars came sweeping around from the main body. They had made the detour for the purpose of salut ing the Empress, whose carriage was drawn up in that part of the parade ground. Down came the flying squadron, charging at a mad gallop—down directly upon the child. The mother was paralysed, as were others, for there could be no rescue from the line of spectators. The Empress uttered a cry of horror, for the child's destruction seemed inevitable—and such terrible destruction —the tramping to death by a thousand iron hoofs! Directly under the feet of the horses was the little one— another instant must seal its doom—when a stalwart hussar, who was in the front line, without slacking his speed or loosening his hold, threw himself over by the side of his horse's neck, seized and lifted the child, and placed it in safety on his saddle-bow ; and this he did without changing his pace or breaking the correct alignment of the squadron.