BITS OF BALACLAVA.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 3956, 23 January 1900, Page 3

BITS OF BALACLAVA.

(By One of (ho "Heavies,” in the r 9B a ll Mall Gazette.”)

> es, sir you re right, it was queer time what with the cold and sickness and the want of proper- clothes and shelter; but I had one piece of luck, for just when the mud aud mess were worst I. was slopping about one day and something caught the heel of my boot. I .stooped' down and found it was a long piece -of cord, and at the other end of it .was a bag with a lot of money in it. Ail of it-was gold—mostly English, but sonic French,-.about a hundred pounds in all. T bought a warm coat and a pair of long boots, which were a fine protection at that lime. A few pounds i lent to a man who never paid me hack, aud a few more I lent to another who started a sort of store for whiskey, hums, and that sort of thing, but he always behaved honourably, lor he kept me .supplied with those tilings, and paid mo back tho'pounds besides,;' ami in tho cctirsc of time he made a lot of money, and is now a sort of squire at any rate he bought n farm and keens his carriage. “Oh, no) I have not; forgotten, about the charge of tho Heavies, i remember-it a!) clearly, and also what 'happened a 'night or two before it. Boveu Russian spies; came to sec exactly how'things were, pretending to sell (broad and needles to our men, anti (hoy did sell them. But they were rather sold t hemselvcH, tor a colour) saw them, suspedod their Tittle game, seal word to-tho authorities, had a drumhead court-martial, and .within an hour and a half of (be time whcnlhcy were first Aeon by the colonel tboso seven spies were not only dead, but buried. Yes, "it was prettquick work. Aud (hen the charge! ■ ] hear, as if I. was there this moment. Die rattle of tho heel;; in the stirrup-irons at 1 wc wore moving into line, for at a lime like that a man is just a bunch of nerves; but so soon as ever the 'Charge’ was sounded you thought no more about the danger, for you had enough to think about in,'keeping your sword-arm on.the move and your horse upon its legs, to say nothing of tryingitb dodge the lunges that were made at you! Yes, I got a wound in tho leg from a Russian lance, but 1 knew pothiug of il till the charge was over, and I found that one of my boots was full of blood. My marc —f colled her .‘Polly’—did ’.sell (hat day, and carriedwmo for some years after Gist. and. died about 1858 at Aldershot. Nlic was always playful, and one day she was dancing about over a gate and'broke her neck. That’s one of her hoofs that I had made into a .pincushion' to give my missus; and here’s the Crimean modal with its clasps; 'this is Tho Turkish, and that bit of ribbon is ail that I have left of the

Sardinian medal that I lost one diiuly day at Aldershot; and this last one is the Jubilee medal of 1887; for after my military service J beh/iiged to the Metropolitan Police for oiglit-aiuHwsuty years. "Well, to go natk to the charge, I well remember two nice young follows, brothers, who were in my regiment—the inniskiilings ;tho,y tvere very religious, and alwayi carried Bibles about them somewhere. No, the books did hot protect Iheia; they were (he first that 1 saw fall dead ih that charge. 1 see them now—-one lying here, the other there. No, I don’t see many o! cho oh), lot now, though there must be several in. Chcls.va Hospital, but I do see the bugler ol that day now and then, look; ing very well and very young i he did not grow too tall. The only comrade of those days that 1 saw much of in tho years to come was Bancroft, whom they speak ol in the books, because be killed so many axon with Ins. own hand*. After his discharge he lived in CheleiM, where ho owned a cab and drove it. _ il. lived in a nice house near where we’re talking notv, -and he and I vised to keep up the old days by meeting in the evening of (ho anniversary of Balaclava ami some other battles, and having a glass .or two together and talking over tne old times; but our meetings seem dko old times now, for lie died about ten

.’ours ago, if I remember rightly. You would think that men who had been through a. charge like that would stick together, but they didn’t ail scorn to fee) like that, for one of our men descried soon after that great day.and Joined tho Russian army, and one of our captains ‘spotted’ him among the Russian Rifles. You ask me if I ever heard of him again f Yes, I did, and saw him; for some years after —about 1859 or 1860, I should fancy—when ,vc were again in England, I was asked one day to go into tho guardroom and look if there was. anj body there whom’X had iver seen before. I went, in, and there was tho deserter. ‘Hallo, 'Biily!’ I said, where's that, fen, shillings which I ha tided you that Thursday just after Balaclava ii pay- for so and soU ‘I don’t know wha+ you mean/ said he; ‘you've made a greal mistake.' ‘Come, then, said I, Take off your cap and we’ll soon see’; for tho fact was that Billy, though a good soldier in lome ways, .was a dirty chap, and I Lad had a lot of trouble about his head/ and knew that T should find a mark or patch where I hud put on some stuff four or five years before. ‘You’re right,’ said he, for he saw the game was up, T am Billy, aud [ did desert.’ I think he bolted because, ,vo were rather down'on. 1 him for being lirly, and he fancied the Russians would nake no bother about that; but)he soon tired of the Russian service, top, and came home in a vessel full of hides, and,from hers soon started for Cue States, but after i time ho had enough of working there and came again to England;, ■ I believe, sir, that what sickened him of the Russian ser,’ice most was that black bread they -had ■ co.cat; and filthy stuff' it was. . - Why, log-biscuit is a king to it! Finding himself 1 in England again, Billy thought ho would enlist, and as he knew his drill all

right, ho was soon picked for foreign service and ordered out to India, hut Billy lid not like the job, and so he gave him;elf up as a deserter. After he. was identified he was tried by court, - martial and ordered to bo shot, but I heard them say that Her Majesty the Queen did. not like mch a disgrace to fall upon so lino a regiment as ours,’and so they, transported him for life instead; anyhow. I’ve never,,seen nor" heard of ‘Billy since'. , ’y. .