HORSES IN BATTLE.

Thames Star, Volume XVI, Issue 5071, 16 April 1885, Page 2

HORSES IN BATTLE.

War-horses, when hit in battle, trem\ ble ia every muscle and groan deeply while their eyes show deep astonishment. Daring the battle of Waterloo, some of the horses, as they lay upon the ground, having recovered, from the first agony of their wounds, .fell to eating the grass about them, thus surrounding them selves with a circle of bare ground, the limited extent of which showed their weakness. Others were observed quietly grazing on the field, between the two hostile lines, their riders having been shot off their backs, and -the balls flying over their beads, and the tumult behind before, and around them caused no interruption to the, usual instinct of their nature. It was also observed that when a charge of cavalry went past near to any of the stray horses already mentioned, they would set off, form themselves in the rear of their mounted companions, and though without any riders, gallop strenuously along with the rest, not stopping or flinching when the fatal shock with the enemy took place.' At the battle of Kirk, in 1745, Major Macdonald having unhorsed an English officer, took possession of his horae, which was. very beautiful, aud ira> mediately mounted it. When the Eng* lish cavalry fled, the horse ran away with its captor, notwithstanding all his efforts to restrain him; nor did it stop until it was at the head of the regiment of which' apparently its master was commander. The melancholy, and at the same time ludicrous, figure which Macdonald presented when be saw himself the victim of his ambition to possess a- fine horse, which ultimately cost him his life upon the scaffold, may be easily conceived.