SOME BRAVE DEEDS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVI, Issue 11152, 29 December 1896, Page 6

SOME BRAVE DEEDS.

[By Archibald Pokbes.] That was cool daring on the part of a rough Irish private in the Peninsular war who, when a 13in shell fell in the crowded work, knocked out the burning fuse with a blow of his spade, picked up the shell and carried it to his officer with the quaint remark, “There she is now, your honour. She’ll do nobody any harm now, for it’s mesilf has knocked the life out av the crature!” Who does not remember the noble stoic courage and discipline of those recruits who stood in tfieir ranks on the deck of the Birkenhead troop ship, waiting for the inevitable death that was imminent, while the women and children were being saved ?

T have seen Skoheleff dash into the turbulent heart of half a dozen actions, conspicuous above all men by the white coat he wore and the white charger he bestrode, and I have seen him stand on the parapet of our earthwork for an hour at a time, the target for a heavy fire. Those things seem to savour of sheer recklessness, but they wore done in the intensity of devotion to a purpose, tha't purpose being to gain prestige, to inspire his men with confidence to follow whither ho led, to stimulate them to daring by the force of example. But much as I admire that singularly brave man, there was in my heart a warmer glow on that summer afternoon on the plain of IJlundi, when I saw Lord William Beresford wheel his pony and gallop hack to tho succour of a fallen trooper around whom tho Zulus were already poising their assegais; saw him alight, hustle tho wounded man up into his saddle, fending oil the Zulus with the revolver grasped in his spare hand, clamber up behind his man, and with a dig of the spurs, set the game little beast a-going after the other horsemen.

1 That was pure, unselfish, devoted, galI lant chivalry, concerning which, as bei bovod a self-respeeting soldier, he kept silence. It was because I went and told the story to Sir Evelyn Wood that Berssford got the Victoria cross; and, indeed, lie declined the honour were it not accorded also tho soldier who had aided him in keeping tho wounded man in tho saddle during the retreat. Some instances of serviceable exposure to danger in cold blood, undertaken without any incentive beyond the impulse to avert calamity, are in my memory, and one of them 1 may relate. Tho scene was General TchermiisfE’s head quarter camp at Deligrad, in Upper Servia, in the summer of 187fi. j The huts of tho camp surrounded a I square area, through one corner of which I passed a small stream. It was-.near dusk, aud tho staff, having finished dinner in, the school-room, which served as messroom, were sitting- smoking on the rear verandah. .Suddenly there came a loud cry of “ Eire! ” and men wore seen running away in all directions. Wo all hurried through to the front, tho rush led by a couple of Englishmen. In, j tho centre of tho open space stood a i wattled hut, roofed in with a flat covering !of wattled hurdles. Would it bo believed ! that this structure was the powder magai zinc of the Deligrad force P Vos, during- tho day I had seen men at work filling the powder bags to bo used ;is charges for the cannon—filling them from open"powder barrels, which, when tl) e work was done, were simply covered loosejiy with canvas. Besides the powder in the barrels, and in the charge bags, there was a quantity of Remington cartridges, partly in cases, partially in loose heaps. There was not even a sentry on the hut. I remembered thinking it the most dangerous place I had ever seen.

And now sparks, carried by the wind from some cooking fire, or swept from one of the innumerable cigarettes constantly being smoked, had fallen on the roofing hurdles, and they, as dry as tinder, were kindling into isolated blazing tongues ! The two Englishmen were running towards the hut at top speed. Then they diverged. One headed for the water, the other held straight for the hut, clambered up its wattled side, reached the roof find I set about beating out and throwing down, ! as far away as possible, the blazing hurdles. I His comrade had filled a bucket and was i swiftlylearrying it to the man on the roof of the but. The Russian officers of Tclierna.ieft’s headquarters caught up the idea, ran toward the stream, "and formed a chain, but the long link next the hut was allowed to be constituted by the comrade of the man. on the roof. His danger, spite, of the. buckctsf ul of water which reached him from time to time, seemed imminent. I With every hurdle thrown down, his- ( footing became the more precarious. Sparks dropping from the wattling had 1 ignited the cartridges, which were popping I oil with the noise and smoko of a rospecti able skirmish. It seemed impossible , but 1 that the bags and barrels should .catch a I spark, and then—well, there could bo but one ending. | The trousers legs of the man on the roof I were smouldering, but still ho worked on. j A few moments more and half of him dis- ! appeared; his nether limbs had gone | through- the thinned roof ; but he held on to the top of the wattled wall and poured down bucket after bucket. At length he succeeded in quenching the fire and stopping the explosion of the cartridges. The door was opened and more water poured in. Then the man on the roof caine down therefrom, barelegged to the thigh, his hands, arms and lower limbs a good deal burned and studded with blue powder marks. The comrades declined the Takooa cross tendered by Tchex-naieiT, and asked mo not to write about the<episode. I am sure ! they would not like that I should now i mention their names.