A CRIMEAN VETERAN.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXIX, Issue 7243, 31 July 1907, Page 1

A CRIMEAN VETERAN.

The Newcastle Chronicle-publishes tlio following Crimean incident : When the Light Brigade were preparing for action the butcher of the 17th Lancers, who had just been performing his oifice—• slaughtering oxen—made his..appearance on the field, without coat or waistcoat, his shirt sleeves rolled up, and his arms and face .besmeared with blood—a grotesque and terrible figure. He mounted a powerful charger and rode up to his troop. He had no business there, but the prospects of the fray were too strong to bo resisted. He seized two sabres, examined the temper and: edges of the blades ,and selected tlio sharpest;. He then, with equal coolness, took oul a short black pipe, charged and lighted it, placed it in his mouth, and setting himself in the saddle, rode with the " Six Hundred " into the " Valley of Death." This mau was seen amongst the Russian batteries, sabring the gunners right and left, slaying with his own hand six of tho enemy at least, cutting his way in the retreat through the swarms of Russian cavalry wlndi'vainly sought to intercept the remnant of tho gallant band; and, wonderful to- relate, he rod© bnek smoking his pipe as coolly as if nothing happened, without having received a single scratch.