HERO OF WATERLOO. A Private is Credited With Saving the Day.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 402, 14 September 1889, Page 3

HERO OF WATERLOO. A Private is Credited With Saving the Day.

The Duke of Wellington was once asked who, in his opinion, was the biavcsb man at Waterloo. . 'I can't; tell you that,' he laid, ' bub 1 can tell you of one than whom lam sure there was no braver.' The following is the btoiy pub in the words of the writer, and republished by an exchange : — ' There was a private in the artillery. A farmhouse, with an orchard surrounded by a thick hedge, formed a most important point in the British position, and was ordered to .be held against the enemy at any sacrifice. The hottest of the battle raged around this point, bub bhe English behaved well and beat back the French again and again. 1 At last the powder and ball were found to be running short ; at the same time the hedges surrounding the orchard took fire. In the mean time, a, messenger had been sent to the rear for more powder and ball, and in a shorb time two loaded waggons came galloping down to the farmhou&e, the gallanbdefenders of which were keeping up a scanty h're through the flames which'surroundedtheposb. The driver of the firstw aggon spurred his struggling horses through bhe burning heat, bub bhe flames ros9 fiercely round and caught the powder, which, exploded, sending rider, hoises, and waggon in fragments in the air. For one instant the driver of the second waggon paused, appalled by his comrade's fate ; the i nexb, observing that the flames, beaten back for a moment by bhe explosion, afforded him one, desperate chance, he sent his horse at tho smouldering breach and, amid the cheers of the garrison, , landed his cargo safely within. ■ Behind him the flames closed up and raged more fiercely than ever. This private never lived to I .receive the, reward which his act mei'itcd, but later 'in the engagement he was killed, dying with the consciousness Uiat he saved the day,'