LITERATURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 3539, 14 August 1879, Page 3

LITERATURE.

WITHIN AN AGE V OF DEATH.

(Chambers' Jwrnal.)

We propose to offer to our readers a few instances of hairbreadth escapes, by which various human beings have been saved from death. Colonel Gilmore, relating the story of a fight in which he figured, says in his Four Yeart in the Saddle—" Turning halfround in my saddle to call on my men, I received a sudden shock and felt deadly sick, and at the tame time saw a man trail his gun und run off ; I killed him before he had gone three steps ; his ball had passed through two coats and stuck in a pack of cards in my leftside pocket ; they were quite new," the wrapper »ot even having been broken open ; the suits were each distinct ; the bullet had passed through all, stopping at the last card, which was the ace of spades." Such another literal illustration of the phrase " Within an ace of death " is not upon record ; but hairbreadth escapes are common in war ; at the battle or Laon, Steffenß saw a shell strike the horse of a Prussian officer ; entering near the shoulder, it caused the poor animal to make a convulsive spring and throw its rider; the fragments of the shell being projected on all sides, while -the rider jumped up from the ground unhurt. — During the Crimean war, Colonel Wyndham, despatched to find out how matters were going in the first attack on the Redan, saw a soldier walking along the trench two or three yards ahead of him. Presently, a round-shot came flying over the parapet, and the man was hidden from sight by the dust. When it subsided, the colonel "was astonished to find himself beside a living man, whose countenance presented a curious admixture of fright and joy, as scratching his head, he exclaimed,

" Why, dash my buttons, but that was amaaing nigh ! "

" Ay, ay, my boy," responded the colonel ; " we'd much better be digging trenches at threepence a rod in Norfolk ! "

To which his fellow-countryman only replied : " What ! Are yew tew from Norfolk?" Amazingly Digh death, although in blissful ignorance of the fact, was the Confederate staff officer marked down by a Northener's rifle, and only saved by the officer commanding the platoon happening to recognise in him a client of the insurance office of which he was secretary 5 and Btriking up the levelled weapon with — 11 Don't shoot: we've got a policy on him !" »■■•-••

De Brydon, the sole English sUPvivoi 4 of the retreat from Cabul, duriDg the last Afghanistan war, was quite aware of the nairownesa of his escape, but never could understand how it carr.e about After a long and terrible ride, ho was jusfc congratulating himself upon having at last got clear of the enemy, when he found himself pursued by a solitary horseman. He had btyt a broken sword wherewith to defend himself, and with this — • najrod to intprpapt a cut at his head. directed with ... ■ (Ueft on ly the hift, the base of the blade *- i... which the doctor hurled in a.. face, and the next moment the Afghan v,..'.' through Brydon's head-piece and the magazine he had that morning placed inside it. Unarmed, half -stunned, And hopeless, he mechanically stooped to recover his fallen rein, when, to his surprise and relief, his foe turned away and galloped off, leaving the doctor to drag himself to Jellallabad. The sword" of justice is not always rightly directed, and sometimes come near perpetrating murder. : A young New-Yorker named Wells went one evening to Booth's Theatre. Taking with a fit of coughing, he left the theatre intending to go home ; bub after going some little distance it came on snowing so fast that he retraced his steps. As ho strode along two men came rushing down the street, one of them dropping a gold watch and chain, which Wells picked up, and then went after the .loser, running into the arms of a policeman, marched him off to the station to explain matters. Presently a messenger arrived in hot haste, saying the thief was wanted at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Wells was taken there, and brought face to face with a man lying on a lounge covered with blood.

" Is this the man who stabbed you ?" asked the officer.

" It is," said the poor fellow, falling back never to speak again.

Wells was tried for the murder, found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged; and hanged he would have been if, a fortnight before the day fixed for kis execution, a prisoner in Sing-Sing had not confessed on his deathbed that he had robbed the man of his watch, then stabbed him and ran off, afterwards dropping the watch as he ran. : Among the Communists tried at Versailles was Jean Baptiste Pigorre, charged with commanding the firing-party who shot the hostages at La Eoquotte. He protested he knew nothing of the dread 'ul business, and was not aware that the hosipges had been shot until after his arrest, ilia >lenial went for nought. He had been denounced by members of his own party ; three of them on trial with him declared he was at La Roquetto. M. Chevrieu, a prisoner there at the timo, said he saw Pigerre from his cell, dressed as a National Guard, trailing a scabbard after him; his face was fixed in his memory ; and Soisson, a police-officer, asserted emphatically — " That's the man."

Only one voice was raised in Pigerre's behalf, that of the Communist judge Genton. ." You can shoot me if you like." exclaimed he ; " but Pigerro 13 innocent ; ho had nothing to do with it." The prosecutor summed up, insisting upon Pigerre'a conviction with the rest ; the advocates for the accusod gaid their ineffectual •-':."" "■ .'.■■•■■ t-i — ««»»a«. Aumn say ; and then came an mwn Ui , named Jarraud, whom everybody agreed was implicated in the murder of the hostage*, and who was supposed to have been killed by the soldier*, was brought into court. Pigerre was ordered to stand forward.

11 ThaSs not the man who commanded," said Jarraud; "oh, no; the leader of' the band was Sicard."

[ The proceedings were suspended, and that same evening Sicard was found in one of the Erisons. It was evident he had not long to Ye, but they carried him to Versailles, to testify to Pigerre's innocence, and convince all the witnesses, save the threo Communists, that they had been misled by the extraordinary resemblance between the two men. The prosecutor at once demanded that the accusation he had formulated against Pigorre should be withdrawn ; and so terminated what might have proved a fatal case of mistaken identity. Yet -more singular was the escape of a young Shropshire young lady from an ignominious death. Staying in Paris during the Bcign of Terror, she was dragged with other unfortunate "aristocrats" before one of the tribunals. She pleaded that she was an Englishwoman, but was on the point of being hurried out to the waiting tumbril, when one of the judges asked her what Province in England she was a native of. In her fright she exclaimed " Salop," a reply greeted by a general shout and clapping of hands, followed by an order to let her go, and amid cries of •' Salope ! Salope ! " the dazed girl was hustled into the street, to run home, wondering that hor head was still on her shoulders, little thinking that by uttoring the word " Salop " oho had effectually rebutted the notion of her being one of the hated aristocrats, thanks to "Salopo" being a word then used to designate one of the most depraved of her sex.

Major Duncan Vouches for the truth of the following tale. In 1837, the Christino general Escalera was murdered at Miranda by the mutineering regiment of Sogovia, .< About two months later, Espartero and hie army arrived atMirarida ; and on Oct. 80 the whole force was .paraded outside the town, the regiment :r ri-jvr ■ i . •■■■■■

up the namesoininilsim^ B^a^BflßH|llj T trice he made the appeal, and silence was the only answer. Espartero then ordered the regiment to be numbered off from the right, and every tvrenlieth man to be brought to tbo front and prepared for immediate execution. At this a sergeant stepped forward and named ten men as the actual murderers of Escalera. These were marched off and placed in a line with their, backs to a broken wall, one onl # y protesting his innocence as he was dragged to the end of the line. Before the fatal volley was fired, he darted nimbly round the corner of the wall and ran along the front of the troops ; but was recaptured, and taken back to bis allotted place. A voice from the ranks cried out that they had the wrong man, the real criminal being a soldier of the came name in hospital at Burgos. Espartero ordered the man to be removed, while the rest received their deserts. Upon inquiry being made at Burgos, the guilty one w:is found there, taken from the hospital, and shot, his namesake of course being set free. A snake once prevented a thief committing something worse than theft. A woman of Oudo and her daughter once alighted at tLe station at Hurdui, and hired a conveyance to take them to their village. When they had gone half a dozen miles on their way, the driver, pulling up in a lonely spot, demanded their jewellery, and, upon their demurring, tied the pair to the vehicle and seized the trinkets. Then, bethinking himself that dead women could tell no tale?, the ruffian drew out his knife, but, slipping from his grasp, it fell into a ditch. He plunged his hand into the water to recover the knife, and as he clutched it a black snake fixed its fangs in the would-be murderer's hand. He Buccumbed to the poison, and in ten minutes was past hurting anybody. The women were discovered by some villagers and released, but the corpse of the driver was left alone until the police,, coming to the scene, removed the body to thepolice station. Of all the wonderful canons or gorges ol Colorado, the Grand Canon of the Arkansas, with almost perpendicular walls, in some places several thousand feet high, is the most wonderful; the gorge of this canon used I® be impassable except in winter, until railway operations were commenced and paths of a sort cut in tho sides of the precipices; wishing to see how the- said operations were progressing, Professor Mallet and a party of friends set out one afternoon from Canon City ; as long as they kept to the horse trail, all went well, but upon reaching apoint just beyond it, Mrs M&lfet's horse stumbled and fell. The lady contrived to disentangle herself from the animal,, and dropping some ten feet, caught with her fingers the end of a narrow shelf of rook, and there held on, dangling in the air above the rapid, rolling Arkansas ; and to make matters worse, the horse, following its mistress, had fallen or slipped on the same ledge, Where it Btood oloee to tbe wall and almost as motionle?a ac tho rock itself. The horrified party hastened to the rescue j and the professor, after some anxious minutes, had his wife safe and sound by his tido. To help the horse was a more difficult matter ; and anhonr elapsed before men and ropes could be got from the nearest oamp ; and all that time the poor croftturo, seemingly aware | t-hit ho was not io be left to his own resources, Btood quietly on the narrow shelf, ' hardly appearing to draw breath ; nor did he attempt to use his limbs until he found himself upon the sure footing of the pathway above.

On Oct. 14, 1877, Mis? Lizzie Wise wade her twentieth balloon ascent at St Louis. She had no companion, and soon after starting found it advisable to throw out ballast. The balloon shot up half a mile, but only to ; descend a» quiokly again ; and the aeronaut determined to make a dart for earth. " Now," says she, "camo the most trying of all my bau'oon experiences. I could not ■ml a thine on /w" tb > and tho b ttUoon »?■»• sec a . umg on o». fa fl crashing fearful plages throw .tv {reeg ifc wen | and cracking the limbo m . y^ toA up BflTOra i along. All of a sudden I w»» . 1y t £ pi unge feet above the tree-tops, bnfc OK, • -if trees, down more suddenly between the v.. -} f where the balloon became hedged in, m>v partly made up tny mind to havo a nighfcV lodging there. In another moment I heard voices and called out for help, to which came the pleasant response — " Whero are you ? " I eried — "Up here in the tree-top; help me down, please ! " Mr Sheva asked how he should do it ; and I threw him a rope, and he pulled and pulled, but could not get the balloon low enough. My car was now partly bottom up, when ho bade me slide down into his arms. Ho was big and strong. I slid down head foremost into his arms, and thus reached tho earth unhurt.

Astonished as the deliverer of the distressed damsel must have been at coming upon a lady up a tree, bis surprise was not greater than that of the wheel-examiner at Rugby when he saw a man's leg protruding from under one of the carriages of an express train, and found that it belonged to a sailor coiled round the break-rod, who had adopted that risky mode of travelling for want of the wherewithal to pay his fare ; and was quite uninjured, after a journey from Euston, a distance of eightytwo miles, accomplished in a couple of hours ; although when the engine while at full speed took in water from the between-rail took, there were only six inches between him and the trough — a striking example of the foolhardiness of Jack. Not but what railway servants are just as reckless as Bailor? , putting their limbs and lives in jeopardy without the slightest necessity, and so swelling the tale of railway disaster ; for they are not always bo lucky as the Ettingshall signalman who, attempting to cross the line in front of the " Flying Scotchman," was caught by the buffer of the engine and sent whirling over the embankment — nearly twenty yards deep — to come down on his feet unharmed.