BITS OF BALACLAVA. One of the "heavies," in the Pall Mall Gazette.)

Otago Witness, Issue 2389, 14 December 1899, Page 56

BITS OF BALACLAVA. One of the "heavies," in the Pall Mall Gazette.)

" Yes, sir, you're right, it was a queer time, what with the cold and sicknes.s and the want of proper clothes and shelter; but I had one piece of luck, for just when thrt mud and 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 tlis other end of it was a bag with a lot of money in it. All ,of it was gold — mostly English, but some French, about a hundred pounds in all. I bought a warm coat and a pair of long boots, which were a fine protection at that time. A few pounds I lent to a man who never paid me back, and a few more I lent to another Avho started a sort of thing, but he always behaved honourably, for he kept me supplied with those things, and paid me back the pounds besides; and in course of time lie made a lot of money, and is now a sort of squire — at any rate he bought a farm and keeps his carriage. " Oh, no ! I have not forgotten about the charge of the Heavies. I remember it all clearly, and also what happened a night or two before it. Seven Russian spies came to see exactly how things were, pretending to sell thread and needles to our men, and they did sell them. But they were ' rather sold themselves, for a colonel saw them, suspected, their little game, sent word to the authorities, had a drumhead court-martial, and within ai hour and a-half of the time when they were first seen by the colonel those seven spies were not only dead, but buried. Yes, it was pretty quick work. And then the charge ! I hear, as if I was there this moment, the' rattle of the heels in the stir-rup-irons as we were moving into line, for , at a time 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 aboul in keeping your sword-arm on the move and your horse upon its legs, to say nothing of trying to dodge the lunges that were made at you. \'es, I get a wcund in the leg from a Russian lance, but I knew nothing of it till the charge was over and I found that one of my boots was full of blood. Al-y mare — I called her 'Polly' — did well that day, and earned me for some years after that, and died about 1858 at Aldershot. She was always playful, and oue day she was d dicing 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 medal with its clasps ; vhis is the Turkish, and that bit of ribbon is all that 1 have left of the Sardinian medal that I lost one dusty day at Aldershot; and this last one is the Jubilee medal of 1887 ; for after my military .service I belonged to the Metropolitan Police for cight-and-twenty years.

" Well, to go back to the charge. I well remember two • nice young fellows, brothers, who were in my legiment — the Inniskillings; they were very religious, and always carried Bibles about them somewhere. No, the books did not protect them ; they were the first that I saw fall dead in that charge. I see them now — one lying here, the other there. No, I don't see many of the old lot now, though there must be several in Chelsea Hospital, but I do see the bugler of that day now and then, looking very well and very young ; he did not grow too tall. The only comrade of these days that I saw much of in the years to come was Bancroft, whom they speak of in the books because he killed so many men with his own hands.. Alter his discharge lie lived

in Chelsea, where he owned a cab and J drove it. • He -lived in a nice house near where we're talking now, and he and I used to keep up the old days by meeting in the evening of the anniversary of Balaclava and some other battles, and having a glass or two together and talking over the old times ; but our meetings seem like old times now, for he died about 10 j/ears 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 all seem to feel like that, for one of our men deserted soon after that great day and joined the Russian army, and' one of our captains 'spotted' him among the Russian Rifles. You ask me if I ever heard of him again? Yes, I did, and saw him ; for some years after — about 1859 or 1860, I should faney — when we were again in England, I was asked one day to go'into the guardroom and look if there was anybody there whom I had ever seen before. I went in, and there was the deserter. ' Hallo, Billy ! ' I said, ' where's j that ten shillings which I handed you that I Thursday just "after Balaclava to pay for so and so?' 'I don't know' what you! mean,' said he; 'you've made a great mis- ] take.' 'Come, then,' said I, 'take off your] cap and we'll soon see ; ' for the fact was ] that Billy, though a good soldier in some ways, was a dirty chap, and I had had a lot of trouble about his head, and knew that I should find a mark or patch where • I had put on some stuff four or five years j before. ' You're right,' said he, for he saw , the game was up, ' I am Billy, and I did ! desert.' I think he bolted because we were rather down on him for being dirty, and he fancied the Russians would make no bother about that ; but be soon tired cf the Russian service, too, and came horns in a vessel full of hides, and from here soon started for the States, but after a time he had enough of working there and came again to England. I believe, sir, that what sickened him of the Russian service most was that black bread they had to eat ; and . filthy stuff it was. Why, dog-biscuit is a ! king to it! Finding himself in England •- again, Billy thought he would enlist, and as he knew his drill all right, he was soon picked. for foreign service and ordered out to India, but Billy did not like the job, and so he gave himself up as a deserter. • After he was identified he was tried by ] court-martial and ordered to be shot, bui, I heard them say that her Majesty the Queen did not like such a disgrace to fall f upon so fine a regiment as ours, and so ' they transported him for life instead ; any- , how, I've never seen nor heard of Billy -since." \