INTERESTING HISTORICAL EVENTS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 465, 15 May 1912, Page 7

INTERESTING HISTORICAL EVENTS.

THE GALLOP FROM QUATRE BRAS TO WATERLOO. On June 17, 1815, Wellington gave orders for his army to leave its position at Quatre Bras and retire to the ridge in front of Waterloo, which seemed (and which subsequently proved to be) ths best defensive position for covering Brussels and awaiting Blucher's arrival. Lord Uxbridge and his cavalry were instructed to cover the retreat, which was so skilfully effected that when Napoleon learnt of the movement—from a prisoner captured by his vedettes—the bulk of the British army had already left, and the horsemen alone remained. Napoleon,, who had hoped to head off the whole British army and cut its communications with Brussels, resolved at least to endeavour to capture this mounted rearguard. Followed by his cavalry and horse artillery, he personally led the pursuit. It was 2 p.m., and the heavy clouds northwards announced a coming storm, when Uxbridge saw the silhouette of Napoleon and his escourt clear cut against the brighter southern sky. He called to his horse artillery, '"Fire, and aim straight !" Napoleon in his turn brought forward his guns. Their discharge broke the clouds and brought dowr the blinding rain, under cover of which the British gunners limber-ed-up and joined their cavalry. Ther came a veritable steeplechase. Napoleon, on his swift grey mare, galloped at the head of his troops tc force the pace by his example. His thin grey coat was drenched and dripping, and the sodden flaps of his cocked hat hung over his face and neck. "Quicker ! quicker !" cried Uxbridge. " Gallop, or you are cut off !" In the narrow street ol Genappe the British Life Guards momentarily checked the French cavalry. The village passed, however, the mad gallop recommenced ; but soon the sodden >fields checked the speed of both parties. It was 6.30 wher Napoleon reached the upland of Ls Belle Alliance, and the rain had ceased. Through the damp and misty atmosphere he could perceive what seemed something more than a mere rearguard, and made a reconnaissance with cavalry and artillery. The thunder of a hundred guns replied, and revealed to him that Uxbridge's troopers had now rejoined the main body. The attack had to be postponed to the morrow— the historical day which sealed the Emperor's fate.

THROUGH THE RAPIDS IN A STEAMER. "A notable character produced by the dangers and the peculiar navigation of the Niagara River was Joel R. Robinson, who piloted the steamer Maid of the Mist through the rapids on June 15, 1861. The boat had been built in the gorge just below the falls, where she plied for a time. Proving unprofitable, her owner sold her on the condition that she should be delivered at Niagara town, near the mouth of the river, a point she could not reach without navigating the whirlpool—a thing never yet attempted. Robinson, however, had for years believed the trip could be safely made. The Maid of the Mist was 72ft. long, 17ft. in the beam, and Bft. in the hold, with an engine of one hundred horse-power. A man aamed Jones volunteered for the trip as engineer and fireman, and a second man named Mclntyre agreed to go and give what help he could. So the little steamer started from hsr dock some two hundred yards above the whirlpool rapids. When she passed into the rapids Robinson found he had miscalculated the split of the current and he was forced to the outer instead of keeping to the inner, or shorter side, as be bad wished. When a third of the way down the rapid, the boat was beaten so furiously by the water that her smoke-stack was carried away by the force of the blow, and she heeled over frightfully. Robinson was throw.i flat on his back, Mclntyre was jammed against the wheel-bouse with such force as to break it through, and down in the hold poor Jonc-s, the engineer, fell on his knees and prayed fervently. Robinson never lost his presence of mind. He was on his feet instantly and at the wheel. Mclntyre was bewildered or stunned by his fall, and did not rise. Robinson with both hands on the wheel, succeeded in putting his foot on McIntyre's breast, and thus kept him from rolling down the slanting deck. The boat in the next instant slid over into the whirlpool, and was for a moment on an even keel. With his foot still on the prostrate Mclntyre, Robinson steered to the right of the large pot in the pool, then turned, and passed directly through the neck of it into the smoother though turbulent water beyond. Thence they swept quietly on to their destination. Robinson was said to have aged twenty years during the trip, he abandoned ' the water thereafter, and advised his sons to keep away from the rapids.

CHARLES I.'s LAST BATTLE

On June 14, 1645, at Naseby, a village near Market Harborough, in, Northamptonshire, Charles I. fought the last battle in which he engaged against his Parliament, for, partlyowing to the rashness of his impetuous nephew, Prince Rupert, he there received a decisive defeat from the forces commanded by Oliver Cromwell and Lord Thomas Fairfax. The King's forces, consisting of about 3,500 infantry and 4,000 cavalry, were far outnumbered by the

Parliamentary army, which included 14,000 men, who were, moreover, carefully trained, long accustomed to victory, and wild and fierce with religious and political enthusiasm. Fairfax assigned his right wing to Cromwell and the left to Henry Ireton, commanding the centre himself. Notwithstanding their inferiority in numbers, it was the Royalist army that commenced the attack, Rupert rushed to the charge with 1,000 cavalry, routing and pursuing for a . long distance Ireton's division, but consequently too late to resist the total overthrow of the King's infantry by the other two Parliamentary loaders. In this defeat, so disastrous to the King's cause, he had SOO of his followers slain and 5,000 taken prisoners while the Parliamentary party lost nearly 1000. This battle was f-.dljw-ed by fresh misfortunes for the King, who retired to Oxford, as the. outplace where he thought he could be safe, until at last, when many ,;f his best and most loyal friends thought it safest to make their peace with the conquerors, he threw himself upon the good feeling and fidelity of his Scottish army, then lying before Newark, which had hitherto withheld from surrendering. But when he joined them, on May 6, 16-16, they basely purchased peace by betraying him to the Parliament at Westminster for £IOO,OOO, to defray past expenses incurred in his defence. Thenceforth Charles I. was a prisoner until beheaded at Whitehall, London, on January 30, 1649.

ASSASSINATION OP THE KING AND QUEEN OP SERVIA. On June 10, 1903, .King Alexander and Queen Draga, at Belgrade, met a similar fate to that of many previous Servian Sovereigns—death by the hands of assassins. A military conspiracy had evidently been in existence a considerable time. It seemed that the officers in Belgrade offered the throne of Servia to Prince Peter Karageorgevitch, who was residing in Geneva, and on his acceptance they proceeded to the Kornik Palace with the 6th Infantry Regiment. The guard, after a conflict, in which several soldiers and gendarmes were killed, were overpowered. The conspiritors blew open a door with a dynamite cartridge, and a t once proceeded through the reception-rooms to the Royal apartments on the first floor, killing all who resisted their progress. They found no one in the Royal apartments, the King and Queen, who had anticipated the attack, having fled to a hidingplace in the bathroom. There after a long search, they were found, and after shooting the King the assassins literally hacked the Queen to death with sabres. Finally they dragged the bodies to a front room and flung them from the windows en to the lawn, where they are said to have lingered for some hours in agony. The houses of the Ministers were next surrounded, and the Ministers despatched as they appeared. Queen Draga's brothers, including Colonel Lungevica, who was to have been Heir-Presumptive, were slaughtered in the officers' clubroom, together with one or two others whe had expressed their intention cf defending the King.