THE COMING OF NAPOLEON.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 23 May 1907, Page 4

THE COMING OF NAPOLEON.

! routined from last issue). Farther to the left the enemy deljouchell at a turning uf the read, advancing ujnii Kleingorschcn. Tlii-s column was directed to out oil' our retreat from tlie village, llt'.t hundreds of stragglers from tin 1 broken regiments, like ourselves. Docked lo the village, and nlhei'H eanie pouring in on all sides, some pausing every few steps to shoot at the enemy; others, severely wounded, dragging themselves to a plnce of shelter. Like ourselcs, they sought shelter in the houses, and. as the attacking column drew on, a terrible rolling lire (lamed out from every window.

This checked the advance, and the more effectually as at that instant the Hrenitr and Marshand divisions, sent by the Prince of Moskowa to our support, deployed on the hill to our rij»ht.

The Prussians balled at this place, and the firing stopped oil both sides. Our squares and columns climbed the hill facing Starseidel. and in the village men. abandoning the houses, scurried right and left to rejoin their regiments, which were gradually reforming. Unfortunately, the end was not yet in sight. The Prussians, overllowing with insolent pride at our retreat, were already (preparing to attack us again at Knya. They were constantly receiving fresh reinforcements, ami then army now numbered almost ft csSriietL thousand men.

As we were re-forming behind the Brenier division eighteen thousand veteran* of the Prussian guard advanced upon us at the charge, carrying the caps of our dead upon their bayonets in token oi vietory. At the same time the conflict raged near Kleiugorscheu and Starseidel.

The niass of Russian cavalry, whose accoutrements we had seen glistening m the morning sun endeavored to take us on the iiank, but the sixth corps had arrived in time to cover us, and the regiments of marines withstood the onslaught, solid as a wall The entire plain was swept with a pall or smoke, through which the glitter of helmets, cuirasses, and thousands of lances was dimy visible. We were still retreating when suddenly on oflieer dashed past like a Hash. 11 was Marshal Xey, who, hearing the roaring of the camion in the distance, had come galloping back with his stall' from the main army, which Napoleon had launched against Leipsic. I have never seen such a sight as tin marshal presented when with Hashing eyes and features convulsed with rage lie thundered among us.

In an instant he had swept down oui entire line and placed himself at the head of our column.

Regiment after regiment followed iu his wake, as if drawn by some miraculous power. Instead of retreattag. he hurled us against the Prussian ranks, and ten minutes later artillery and muskets were belching (lame from one end of the plain to the other.

But the enemy still offered an unbroken front to our attack. Believing themselves already masters of the field of battle, they had no thought or relinquishing their victory, the less so aa they were being constantly reinforced, whereas wc were exhausted by live hours of continuous fighting.

This time our battalion was iu the second line, and the bullets whistled over our heads, while the rattle of balls against the naked bayonets sounded like an appalling strain of music that could be beard afar.

Jn the midst of the shrieks, the vociferation of commands and the noise of the fusillading webeganto retrace our steps, trampling over piles of our dead, and our first division re-entered Kleingorsccn.

The battle raged around us. and we fought man to man. Th e main street was alive with swinging gun-stocks ami the flashing of swords. Generals joined in the fray like simple soldiers. This -lasted a few moments, when word ran through our ranks that we were gaining ground. But fresh troops had arrived on the Prussian side, and a second time we were driven back, and so rapidly, unfortunately, that a large number of our troops fled as far as Kava.

This village, alsl before Lutze>i,. was composed of detached houses separated by little gardens. If the enemy sucecded in driving us back that far our army would be cut in half.

Indeed the battle seemed to be lost, for Mashal Key himself, in the centre, of on of the squares, was lowly falling back. All round our soldiers, to escape from the carnage, retreated, Wring their wounded officers with them on litters formed of crossed muskets.

I leaped over a hedge- into one of the little gardens of Kaya and ran around the comer of the shed. Then I swung into the main street of the village, where 1 saw men, women and children scuttling into their dwellings to hide themselves in their cellars.

'The roar of battle grew momentarily in volume, and gusts of smoke hung lowering about the housetops; bits of slate from the roofs came crashing down here and there into the streets, and a storm of cannon balls went crashing through the walls, ripping the roof" beams loose with a deafening noise. All this time the soldiers, leaping over fences and hedges, and always tinning and turning to answer the enemy'.; lire, kept pouring into the village. There were men from every regiment-wound-ed, bleeding, hatless, in a frenzy of fury; and all of them lads, mere children liom fifteen to twenty years old, with never a moustache among them. JSut all Frenchmen are brave men.

The Prussians, guided liy veteran nfiicers with their never-ceasing "Forward! Forward!" piled in after us—at our very heels, as it were—like a pack of wolves driving us before them. Then some twenty or thirty of our men made a stand at an angle of a ham i pposile a pretty little garden, with a beehive and tali eheiry I:;- (in-! fragrant with llowfrs, and opened a galling lire on i!ie I'rusisan rogues as they attempted to scale the low wall in front of us and capture the viH^jt-, How many mounted that wall only to bite the dust I cannot say, but others followed always ill their stead. Hundreds of bullets whizzed past our ears. Hattening against the stones. We rushed back and forth, shooting and pausing only to tire again.

Five or six of our number had fallen, but we were in a passion of rage, and gave no heed. Then my turn came, and r dropped down, down into a black void, while my comrades kept shooting across my prostrate form.

Night was falling when 1 regained consciousness. The Prussians were running through the streets, overflowing into the ivillage from every side. Opposite me. in the garden, a big white-haired Herman general, who was none other than Mueller, was sitting his horse bare-headed. He was shouting orders, in a voice like n clarion, to bring up the aitillerv, and ■ " i ■ his officers sped away to execute orders, i Beside him. a surgeon, standing fin a bench, was dressing a wound in his arm. and behind I could see a slender yuunt;

Russian oflleer. And back of all. some live or six hundred yards down (he valley, our soldiois were re-forming inlo simares and columns.

The lire had ceased, Imt ii legible wailing, loud shouts, rough oaths. |hi> sound of heavy wheels, the cracking of whips, and Hie neighing of hor.-,cs came from somewhere between lxleiugorschen and Kiiyii. and preseuty two sixteen pounders, drawn liy six horses, thundered around the allele of the first home in the village, Jlounled arlillerym. n lashed the horses with (he Hats ol' their sabres, and the. wheels crushed over the heaps of dead as if they had been straw, ruthlessly crushing them. And I hence came that lerrilde wailing 1 had heard. My hair rose in horror ! "Here!" shouted the old (lei'imui. "Aim between those two houses near the fountain!*' Instantly lie.' eannon were wheeled into place, while caissons of ammunition were brought rapidly forward. I saw the old genera! with his arm in a sling go down the sheet, ami caught the words he addressed l'> the young Russian olli-

cer: "Notify the- I'.mperor Alexander thai I have taken Kaya. The battle is w..r. if they send me reinforcements. I'.tii no delay! Napoleon is at hand, and I hat means a furious attack. I'osl what il may, I'll hold out against him. but for God's sake don't lose an instant."

The young Russian promptly set spurs to his horse, and was soon lost in the distance.

The continued slaughter grew fairly sickening. Here a sergeant of the French dropped beside a Prussian grenadier stretched out beneath a hedge with a bayonet-thrust in his stomach: there another fell bade, cursing with his lasl breath, and on all sides the piteous clamor of the dying rose above the sounds of conllict and carnage. The enemy had fairy entrenched themselves in the houses and gardens by six in the evening. The two cannon, and several others that had beeu mounted on the walls, sent shot after shot hurtling over the town, and with each explosion a quick Hash illuminated the main street, where Russians and Prussians crowded together; and from every window a musket spoke But this was naught as compared with the decimating lire from the French ranks. There, at the foot of the hill, the Young (iuards, in crowded ranks, wailed, the order to charge, while captains, colonels, and generals, on horseback. Ilockc-d in the midst of the bayonets, brandishing their swords. The

entire atmosphere was gray with Hashes of light playing across from second to second, emitted by the eighty cannon which Napoleon had thrown forward in it single battery to support the movement.

The eiies of "Long live the Emperor!" came nearer and nearer. Behind us the walls of the barn, tottered and the roof caved in, hut we had no thought for it, and the crash was lost in the terrific roar of the battle.

I, craning forward, saw Napoleon gdl lop forward through the hail of bullets With hat drawn close on his great head, his grey cape flowing wide, a broad red ribbon stretched across His vest of white, he advanced, cool, calm, self-possessed, and Humiliated, as it were, by the reflection of the-bayonets. All gave way before him. The Prussian artillerists

abandoned their guns, despite the pi ••>■ tests and commands of their ollicers, and fled, and their ollicers too, lied before the coming of Napoleon. These things 1. saw, and they are graven in letters of lire on my soul. lint from that moment I lost all recollection. I was as one dead in the midst of the dead in the moment of that wild hope of victory that surged within me with the coming of the Emperor!