SOME FLOWERS OF HISTORY.

Otago Witness, Issue 1765, 19 September 1885, Page 26

SOME FLOWERS OF HISTORY.

Beyle (Stendhal) who was with the French army during the whole of the Russian campaign of 1812, ridicules the notion of speeches' on battlefields, and declares that he once saw a French colonel lead a gallant charge with apiece of ribaldry, adding, that it answered the pnrpose perfectly well. It is certain that most of those reported by historians wero ( nover made at all. " The Duke of Wellington did not say " Up Guards and at them \" at Waterloo ; he never took refuge in a square, and his " What will they say in England if we are beaten ?'' was

adressed to some officers of his staff, not to a shattered regiment. The best of his biographers, the Chaplain-General, relates that, in the battle of the Nivelle (November 1813) the duke rode up to tho 85th regiment and said in his (the subaltern's) hearing, " You must keep your ground, my lads, for there is nothing behind you.' 1 " Follow my white plumo," the traditional rallying cry of Henry IV., is quite consistent with Bran tome's description of him at Coutras, " With long and great plumes." Voltaire makes Coude throw his baton of command over the enemy's palisades at Fribourg. Other account's say " his marshall's baton." He was not a marshall ; he did not carry a baton ; and what he threw was his cane. A fine trait is told of Douglas, who, on his way to the Holy Land with Bruce's heart, took part with the Spaniards against the Moors, and lost his life in a skirmish :—: —

" When he found the enemy press thick round him, he took from his neck tho Bruce's heart, and speaking to it as he would have done to the king had lie been alive, he said, ' Pass first in fight as thou wert wont to do, and Douglas will follow thoD or die." He then threw the king's heartjamong tho enemy, and rushing forward to the pin co where it fell, was slain. His body was found lying above the silver case." For more than a century the authenticity of the pithy dialogue between the spokesmen of the French and English guards at Fonteney was generally allowed, Lord Charles Hay, hat in hand, steps forward, and says, with a bow, " Gentlemen of the French Guards, tire," M . d'Auterocho advances bo meet him, and saluting him with the sword, says, "Monsieur, we never fire first, do you fire." Unfortunately for this story, a letter (first brought to light by Mr Cavlyle) from Lord Charles Hay to his brother, Lord Twecddale, written or dictated less than three weeks after the battle, has been preserved, in which he says, "It was our regiment that attacked the French Guards, and when we came within twenty or thirty paces of them, I advanced before our regiment, drank to them, and told them wo were the English Guards, and hoped they would stand still until we came up to them, and not swim the Scheld as they did the Mayn at Dettingen. Upon which I immediately turned about to our own regiment, speeched them, and made them huzzah — I hope with a will. An officer (d'Auteroche) came out of the ranks, and tried to make his men huzzah; however, there were not above three or four in their brigade that did." This certainly puts a different complexion upon the matter, by converting a chivalrous intercourse of courtesy into " chaff."

Lord Maeaulay tells an anecdote of Michael Godfrey, the deputy-governor of the Bank of England, who was standing near King William ami under fire at tho siege of Namur. "Mr Godfrey," said William, " you ought not to run these hazards ; you aro not a soldier ; you can be of no use to us here." '• Sir," answered Godfrey, " I run no more hazard than your Majesty."' " Not .so," said William ; " T am where it is my duty to be, and I may without presumption commit my life to God's keeping ; but you ." While they were talking a cannon-ball from the ramparts laid Godfrey dead at the king's feet. Napoleon stated ab St. Helena that Desaix fell dead at Marengo without a word. Thiers makes him say to Boudet, his chief of division : " Hide my death, for it might dishearten the troops" — the dying order of the Constable Bourbon at the taking of Rome. The speech ordinarily given to Desaix, and inscribed on his monument, is confessedly a fiction. What passed between him and Napoleon, when they first met upon the field, has been differently related. One version is that Desaix exclaimed — " The battle is lost ;" and that Napoleon replied — " No, it is won : advance directly." That of M. Thiers is, that a circle was hastily formed round the two generals, and a council of war held, in which the majority were for retreating. The First Consul was not of this opinion, and earnestly pressed Desaix for his, who then, looking at his watch, said — " Yes, the battle i>s lost ; but it is only three o'clock ; there is still time enough to giiin one." For this again a parallel may be found. The Baron de Sirot, who commanded the French reserve at Rocroy, was told that the battle was lost. " No, no !" hq exclaimed, "it is not lost ; for Sirot and his companions have not yet fought." Desaix, it will be remembered, had turned back without waiting for orders on hearing the firing ; and M. Thiors thinks that if Grouchy had done the same at Waterloo, the current of the world's history might have boon r.eversed. He is welcome to think so; but the Hero of a Huudred Fights thought differently. A drawn battle and a short respite were the very utmost Grouchy's timely arrival could hare gained for his Imperial maste^