THE COMING OF NAPOLEON.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 22 May 1907, Page 4

THE COMING OF NAPOLEON.

(By Erckiuann-Chatrian). 'file Fem.li forces were encamped near .Urossgorachen. awaiting the attack of the 'allies, whom we thought to be far distant.

Before us stretched a vast marshy plain, intersected by the course of the Grunhaeh and the Flossgraben, two small sterams with uneven and hilly banks, while in the distance (lowed the river Ulster.

From the rear, the steeple of the church m (Irossgorchen was visible in the valley, and farther on the spires of five or six litte hamlets nestled in the hollows of the hills. The villages of Kaya, Eisdorf, Starseidel, Raima and Kleingorchen, which were destined to tie the scene of the bloody work of battle, were situated in a rolling country, the most distant being Kaya, the last upon the highroad leading past Lutzen to Leipsic, whither Marshal »y had folowed the F.mperor Napoleon. And over all lay the mists of early dawn.

Suddenly the bugles rang out; soldiers scrambled > muskets, officers hurried hither and t'dther, bringing older out of chaos; cannon and caisonh were despatched hastily to the top of the hill, whilst in the more distant villages all was excitement and disorder.

We were the first to meet the concerted attack of the Russians and Prussians, in a position which we had taken up the hillside. The enemy halted just out of range of our guns, their officers swarming around us by hundreds to reconnoitre.

The sight of these throngs of Prussians, blackening the borders of the Flossgraben, and already forming in columns, chilled my blood. I murmured to myself:

'"This is the end, Joseph. Fight for your lift! Spare no one. Fight for your life! Spare no one! Fight for

Just then General Chemmeau dashed across our front on horseback, shouting: "Form squares!"

Eight and left the other officers took up the order, ranging us at intervals in four different squares, of four battalions

A shower of bullets fell stinging into our midst. The enemies' artillery, posted on an adjacent hillside, thundered out a continuous fire—there seemed to be no ending to that belching devastation! They had at leaai ......y pieces, and you can imagine how these cannon decimated their ranks. The shells whistled through space, mowed down our soldiers, and embedded themselves in the ground, exploding with a hideous clamor and sending up showers of earth. •

Our own cannon kept up a continuous thunder, half drowning the roar of the enemies' artillery, but failing to silence their guns. The repeated command of our officer to "Close ranks! Close ranks!" jas man after man went down under that plunging fire from the hilltop only served to augment the dire impression caused by our own ineffectual fire.

I We were enveloped in a dense cloud of smoke long before we ourselves had discharged a shot. Just as the thought occurred to me that we should all be slaughtered without being given an opportunity to defend ourselves, the first of the Prussian columns debouched into the open plain between the two hills, advancing to the auack with a strange rusliing sound like that of a rising flood. Instantly three sides of our hollow square opened fire, the right and left ranks firing obliquely and the front shooting directly down upon (he enemy.

God aloue knows how many of the Prusisans fell under that storm of bullets but, instead of hesitating or halting they continued to advance, howling out their battle-cry like so many wolves: "Fatherland! Fatherland!"

They held their fire until they reached a point withiu a hundred feet of our square, where they paused for a moment and returned our fusiladc with n sheet of living flame.

Surging forward, they fell upon us like madmen, with bayonet and musketbutt, in a vain attempt to break through our ranks. All my life long I shall remember that Prussian -attalion, clubbing and stabbing at us, while we thrust back without leaving our ranks—and then its sudden annihilation as our cannon, some fifty paces in our rear, opened fire upo'i them.

This put an end to the hand-to-hand fighting. Dowu the hill the Prussians fled, while we loaded, fired, and re-loaded our muskets in the effort to extermnate them.

The Prussian cavalry was upon us, seeking to profit by the lanes their cannon had cut in our ranks. Arid over and above all, that never-ceasing rain of bullets kept mowing us down by the dozen. General C'hemineau was wounded in the thigh, and the end was already in sight when the order came to retreat.

We swept through the villages of We swept through the village of Grossgorchen, followed by the Prussians, exchanging shot for shot. Two thousand of our men who were stationed in the village checked the enemy's advance with a rolling fire from the windows of the houses, while we fell back upon Kleingorcheu. But the entire Prussian cavalry—hussars and dragoons—encircled us, trying to cut off our retreat and to force us to halt under their fire.

We were still retreating when from an eminence near at hand came the order to halt., and upon the instant our artillery raKed the pursuing hussars with terrific havoc, killing them by hundreds. The Girard division, hastening to our support from Kleingorehen, had posted sixteen cannon a little to our right. The effect was admirable; the hussars lied more swiftly than they had come. Six scpiares of the chard division combined with us in Kleingorschen to repulse the Prussian infantry, which advanced upon us, .three columns in the lead, followed further back by three others equally strong. We had lost Grossgorschen, but now. between l'ahua and lileingorscheu, the conflict promised to become even mors? appalling. As for me, I had but one thought - vengeance! 1 was mad with rage and indignation against these brutes, who were twenty to our one, and who sought our very existence. "Shoulder arms!"

The order echoed above the din of battle. The first three columns of the enemy had halted near Grossgorschen, awaiting the others, who came on with muskets levelled. The village in the valley that separated us was in flumes, the thatched roofs burning hungrily, the snioke rising in dense clouds. Then to the left, working its way through the farm lands, we caught sight of a long file of cannon, intended to take us on the Hank.

About noon the six columns resumed their advance, while the hussars and dragoons deployed on either side of Grossgorschen. Our own artillery, en trenched behind the squares at the summit of the eminence directed a merciless fire against the Prussian batteries, which in return belched viciously along ihc line.

I The roll of our drums warned us of the enemies' approach, their muffled, roar

sounding like the buzzing of n fly during the storm. And always from below, in the valley where the, Prussians were herded, tame that fierce: " Fatheralud! Falherla nd!"

Their fire as they scaled the hill covered us with smoke, for the wind was blowing in our direction. This prevented us from seeing them, but, for all that, we had alerady opened fire. cor at least a quarter of an hour we had been unable to see or hear anything, when suddenly we discovered I' - .? hus-

sars in the very heart of our billow square! How {hey had penctartcd our ranks 1 do not know, but there they were, a whirlwind of men and light horses, in our midst, chopping us down on all sides without quarter. We gave them blow for blow—thrust for thrust with our bayonets, shrieking at (hem—they answering with pistolshots. The carnage was terrible! "" Some twenty of us held together lacing those grim, hagagrd hussars, with their long moustaches, (heir small shakos held in place by chin-straps, their horses trampling on the dead. And oh, those fearful shrieks ill French and (lerma.'i that rose above the roar of battle! .

How we escaped I have never been able to recall. We plunged ahead through ' the smoke, the clashing of steel, and the discharge of musketry, until we stumbled upon one of those other squares that had come oil almost intact. We looked like butchers—so grimy and ensanguined we were. "Load!" commanded the sergeant. Then, as we obeyed, I noticed that my bayonet was covered with blood and matted with human hair.

"The regiment has been broken—those Prussian scoundrels have cut half of our men down; we'll join the other half later. Now wo must keep the enemy out of the village. Right about face; forward, march!"

We hurried down a flight of steps leading to a garden in the village of Klciugorsehen and catered a house. The sergeant barricaded the rear entrance with a huge kitchen fable; then pointing to the street door, he said: "There is our retreat!" *

Then we ran up to a room on the next floor, overlooking the road that led from the hill, where the enemy still kept up lan intermittent fire.

Our sergeant ilung the window open and began shooting at two or three Prussian hussars who were attempting to force an entrance into the village. The French troops were retiring in good order, some live or six hundred paces away, keeping up a constant lire from all four sides of the square against the surrounding Prussian cavalry. : Through the pall of smoke the colonel loomed, a fat little figure on horseback, his sword in his hand; and beside him the flag drooped, so torn that it was a mere rag fluttering from its standard. (To he continued).