MARENGO: NAPOLEON'S WHITE CHARGER.

Otago Witness, Volume 23, Issue 2684, 23 August 1905, Page 70

MARENGO: NAPOLEON'S WHITE CHARGER.

The table furniture and belongings of tha Household Brigade of Guards (says a writer* in Modern Society) are well worthy of admiration, one or two specimens of old silver being practically priceless. Among those things whose value, on the contrary* is only a matter of sentiment, not an affair of £ s. d. is a hoof ofi Marengo, Napoleon's favourite charger. This hoof, set as a box, with silver gilt? mount ingSj is kept in the guard-room ot

St. James's Palace. The skeleton of the old war-horse" has be.en preserved, and is now to be eef-n in the United Service Museum at Whitehall. It is rather curious to note the interest ■whfch that rather pathetic bundle of bones never fails to evoke. The sight appeals to popular sentiment in a very straightforward way. There is no difficulty in understanding the meaning of a bit of history which is so neai our own time as almost to belong to our own generation. The soldiers who lean against the glass case to gaze at Marengo's bones know all about Waterloo and the great -'•General who xode that very horse from the field where he had met defeat at last. i Napoleon .had helped himself to the -• creature wHea he -encountered the Mame- • lukes on the banks of the Nile in 1798. - Superb as were the horses of these "knights -•ofiihe desert," * ne w hite charger with the "great black eyes, wide nostrils, clean -' limbs, and a brave ieart," as Ibrahim the : Bey described him, was the most splendid of tkem all. He was a small horse, only just over 14 hands, faultless in shape and \ dauntless ' in courage. Napoleon rode him at the siege of Acre, at the battles of .Marengo, Austeriitz, Jena, and Wagram. ■ JEe took him. to Moscow in that fatal campaign against> Russia, and rede him at Borodino and on the Beresiiia River. • When disaster had come, and Napoleon ■was banished to Elba, the favourite horse -was not permitted to accompany him. "I had rather I had shot him than that King Louis should possess nim," the fallen Emperor said ; and he laughed with grim eatisfaction when an equerry reminded him that the Bourbon King was himself too unwieldy to ride Marengo or any other horse ! Two years passed, and Napoleon was back in Paris. Tie turn of i\>riun-e's wheel liad "brought him to the top again ; Louis was a fugitive, and the Emperor was wildly acclaimed by the fickle populace, who but -a few weeks before had shouted for the King. Once more Marengo was led from his stable, once more the housings with the gilded bees were buckled on his shapely form. The hoi'se, old in years, and white as fresh-flaked snow, was as full of courage .as ever. His master's hand passed lovingly over his satin .skin as Napoleon mounted -him that fatal 18th of -June, when the .troops were forming up on the fields which tad been so fresh and green that morning, •and. where the lark's * sweet song^-was silenced by the first booming of the guns. The white charger- carried the as proudly 'as even; the wide nostrils sniffed the battle-clouds as they had often done before. "A musket ball struck the creatuie's fianks, and the white skin and golden bees ■were stained with, blood and dust. Late in the afternon Napoleon turned his horse's head from the field. The battle •was fought and lost. Only Marengo's fleetness, and tireless courage remained between j him and captivity. Nobly the old horse i respon-d-ed to his call. Away through the trampled corn, across the broken ground, j thrbust the a-nrful scenes of slaughter and the neaps of dead and dying ; away through the mercitul darkness of the sum-.-'v- "night; away towards Paris once i'uai was the last time Napoleon rode his favourite. Lord Petre found the poor beast, wounded and utterly worn out, at a roadside inn, where Napoleon had entered his carriage, leaving the horse behind. Marengo was Drought to England, and eventually sold to General Angerstein, of the Grenadiers. His old age was passed at Angerslein's place in Norfolk, where the horse — to the last ''beautiful as a picture" — attracted much notice. On his death the General presented one cf the hoofs to his old comrades of the Guards' Brigade, and another belongs to General Angerstein's family, at Weeting Hall, Norfolk.