A TRAGIC REMLNISCENCE.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 2712, 23 January 1892, Page 3 (Supplement)

A TRAGIC REMLNISCENCE.

At Melk, on the Danube, where tbe oldest Benedictine Abbey of Austria stands like a castle of old on a high rock rising straight out of the river, a monument (says a Vienna correspondent) was unveiled recently in presence of the staff of foe Russian Embassy and deputations from foe Austrian army. This monument oovers the ashes of about 200 Russian soldiers buried in Austrian ground in 1&05. They did not fall in battle, but died in a particularly tragical manner. In 1805 Austria, with Vienna and a considerable portion of Bohemia and Moravia, was occupied by the victorious French until after the decisive battle of Au«terlit.z a truce was made, and the French began to leave the country. They took away with them numerous prisoners of war whom they intended placing in French fortresses. Among these were Russian soldiers who had formed part of the corps which came to assist Austria under Kutusoff. On the 13th December, ISOS, a transport of Russian prisoners was brought to Melk, numbering not fewer than 5,000 men. The French oommander had 500 of these

quartered in the oonvent, where a terrible catastrophe was brought on by foe carelessness of some of the soldiers. It was terribly cold, and some few of the men crept into the cellar. Here they found some damp wood, which they lighted, although it produced much smoke. This found an outlet in the ceiling of the oellar, and entered the place where foe 500 soldiers were sleeping. The walls being very thick, and the doors double locked, all the efforts of the frantic men were useless, and when foe prison was opened in the morning all were found lying over each other in attitudes of despair. Many had been killed ; others were so far gone that they never recovered. In all, 200 men found their death in that luckless night. The unhappy victims were buried in a common grave in a field at the edge of the high road, and a cross was placed upon it to mark foe spot. Now* after SG years, foe Russian Government appears to have remembered foe sad incident, and has had a tall Greek cross of granite erected over it, with a Russian inscription the fact.