SOME NOT ABLE EVENTS AND PER, SONS,

Otago Witness, Issue 956, 16 May 1889, Page 32

SOME NOT ABLE EVENTS AND PER, SONS,

: . 2UBSHAI, fIE?,, • • Marshal .Ney, the most famous of Napoleon's .marshals, -was shot f»r treason in 1815, He was born in 1769, the -son of ..a cooper! and entered the army as a private; in 1787, ri3ing to the sank , of brigadieiNgeneral by 1796. He was made marshal in. 1,804, and bj his impetuous courage did much to aid Napoleon's, success. On the abdication of Napoleon, Ney entered the ar,my o| Louis XVIJJ, and on Napoleon's escape f ram Elba, marched against him,, promising to bring him back in an iron cage. Yet he went ove-p with his army to his old, commander, fought valianth at, ,Waterloo^ • and was „ arrested*, tried for treason, and shot a.ftey .the return of Lonis

.PUEfc BETWEEN A MAN AND POG. The most extraordinary duel, on record v that whioh topk place in 1361 on, Jle NotreDame, Paris, between a man and.a .'dog. II was of the form, of the judi.ciai,combat,in which the right; or wrong, o£ a, charge was supposed to be proved by the result of a fight for life. A French, gentleman, Aubry de Montdidier, had been murdered and his body buried in a forest. His dog stayed by the grave until forced I># hdnger to leave it, The peculiar^ actions, of the dog induced some persons to follow ,i<?,.and. the corpse o! th& murdered bah, was discovered. Some time afterwards the 'dog flew 1 at' 'the throat of a Cheavalier Macaire, " Suspicion being aroused, and the fact coming 1 ' to the knowledge of the king, the dog was brought to court, and here, from a crowtl of courtiers, it picked out Macair'e'and flew savagely at him. As Macaire denied the crime, ■ the king ordered that it should "be left' to the "Judgment of God," in a duel with the 1 dog. Tb« lists were prepared, Maoaire' was furnished with a large stick, and the dog with an empty cask to which •it could retire from assault. But the animal attacked Macaiw so fiercely as to get him by the- throat and fling him to the ground, whereupon he confessed the murder and begged for mercy.

WHY METZ WAS SUBBENDEBED.

■ The surrender of Metz to the German! took place in the Ootober of 1870. The city had the enormous garrison of 1 73,000 men and 6000 officers, f orming an important division of the French army, which had been shut up within the oity. . Its over-abundant garrison was the immediate cause of its surrenderee It was impossible to feed such a host, and it could hare been defended better with 20,000 men. Bazaine, the French general, *8S afterwards tried and condemned to death for surrendering Metz. This, .punishment was, commuted to .20, years' imprisonment. He was sent, December, 1873, to, the penal isle of St. Marguerite, from which he escape in August of, the he*t year, a.nd remained to the close of last year in Spain,, •

, PHBBJDAN'S VIOTQBY. , General Sheridan's famous "ride,* which took place in the October of 1864, was one of the events which was specially instrumental in bringing the civil war in America to & close. The general had.been to Washington, and had reached Winchester, 20 miles froffl the army, on his return. In the early morning the Federal soldiers were, surprised uj. their camp by a flank movement of General, Early's army, and put to rout. Sheridan, riding southward, heard distant artillery and pushed .his horse to speed. Beaching, the retreating army, he checked its flight,*3 formed the 'lines, and repulsed the 'victorious Confederates so severely that Early's arm? never afterwards made head in the valley.'

'SIB CHAELBS MACaEEGOE; For years Sir Charles M,acgregor was known, even .to, those, .who had no per* sonal knowledge of him, as , one Q\ themostrdistingulshedof English B° ld * el s and.ias 'likely to'.,p]sy\ a. very great part' in 'the' futore,. battle/df/ Armageddon 'p* tween 1 . England and Russiaj j,'se,i combined, in a manner \rare, bat turfortsnately by »9

aieans unexampled, the characteristics of the fighting and the reflecting soldier. The popular idea of the " desk officer " seems alLjgtiEOompatible withjthe nature of the man ■yyho,' at Jarwa Ghaut, killed four Sepoys in single' combat ', and the same, or a kindred, popular idea would certainly not expect that the man who led a couple of dofcen Sikh troopers against four or five times the number (some"say eight or ten) of Tartar horse in China, and was spearing a Mongol when another half blew his face off with a matchlock should be the most indefatigable of military writers, hardly letting a year pass from the time he joined without some study of tactics or the like, the compiler of a huge frontier Gazetteer, founded in great part on big own surveys, and the author of the famous " Defence of India," whish helped so powerfully to revolutionise prevalent ideas on that subject. But popular ideas are not always or often very sensible ; and, luckily, the anion of sabreur and student is getting jjiore and more common. One cannot help thinking with a sort of cold ra-?e ot regret how different matters would have been if gir Charles Macgreger hart been in command atMajuba Hill.— Saturday Review. THE POSSIBILITIES ffOK PRINCE ALBXANDEB, When nations are in death-grip^ they jo not think much of the history of their generals, but only, of their capacity of securing victory; and ifcis well understood that if the great war breaks out, the only possible generalissimo of the Balkans is Prince Alexander of Battenberg. The power of taming 300,000 drilled men into efficient soldiers is, when great battles are at hand, a power which overrides etiquettes and evon dynastic dislikes; and if he were once needed, the marriage with Fraulein I/ofainger would be more in Prince Alexander's way than the fact that he himself is only half royal by descent. He would be called on to fight, and if he fought successfully he would name his own reward, if it were the throne of Constantinople, or the recognition of his wife as Queen of Bulgaria and the equal of •Queen Natalie, the other lady in Europe who, born a subject of no high rank, has been acknowledged by all courts, and protected by at least two against her husband's oppression.— Spectator.