THE REMINISCENCES OF A WAR CORRESPONDENT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 92, 13 March 1884, Page 2

THE REMINISCENCES OF A WAR CORRESPONDENT.

I .have seen jSEapoleou 111. at the pinnacle of his Hollow splendour. From the German picquet line on 2nd August, 1870, I heard the distant cheering of the yvSpichereuberg that greeted him and the" lad wh,qm he had brought from iletz to receive that day his "baptism of fire." Again I s>aw him on the morning after Sedan, as the broken man broken m power j m prestige, m, health, m spirits— Hat \viih Bismarck on th,e grass plot m front of the wearer* pot-t-age o\\ the Dqnchery rqad. J^ext morning-, I witnessed' hi» departure 'into his Wilbelmshohe Qaptivity, I haw seen him doddering aboukßtfitfV; ton and strolling under the beech trees that encirclo Chiselhuvst Common. •And fur the last time of all I saw that stolid careworn face, as it lay on the raised pillow of the bier m the. broad corridor of Camden Place, and when the face was no more visible I witnessed the coffin laid down m the little chape' a^ong : tl}e Ohisjelfyu-at ielm trees. I knew the boy of the Jfmpire when the shackles. oi\ the Empire had . fallen .from his limbs, and he waslno longe^ a buckram cteature, bu.t a JivelV, natural lad. My acquaint anoe endured into his manhoods When the twilight was .falling on the rolling veldt °of Zululund, and his day's work m the staff jent was done, he liked, as it seemeckta me, to. gossip »with ,. one. who knew , the other side of the picture, about the early days of the $YaucqGermafL.war— a wa,u that had, wrought at once his ruin and his emancipation. And, fi nail yj' poor gallant lad, I saw dimly through tear? the very last of him -as »he lay ;. : there dead on ithe blood-stained sward by the Ityotyosi River, with a calm, proud smile on bis face, and his body pierced by countless assegai stabs, M^ h.ayo. "called his death, ignoble. Petty as was the quarrel, wi etched as was the desertion that wrought his fate, I call him, rather, happy m the opportunity of his death. Had he, lived, what of artificiality, what of hollow unreality, might there not have heen m store for him. An it was, he had moved m the world a live ghosfc. Better than this, surely, to be a dead hero —to end the Napoleanic. serio-coinedy with his young face gallantly to his assailants, and his. li|6-bfp64 .dcawn by the cold sfeql ! — Archibald Forbps, m the Ji]ng)is!j JUU9trated* $£agas3ine,, ; >c .. ' /' .'■-. V- j