CHAPTER XX.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 7, 8 June 1883, Page 7

CHAPTER XX.

" Follow me, men 1 For the Russian guns 1 " he called aloud, as giving his horse free rein, and a quick spur ; and freeing his sword arm, he swept suddenly forward. Harold, prompted much by the same motives, spurred swiftly after to keep up with him ; whilst a score or more of the Inniskillings maddened by the manner in which they were torn and decimated, without being able to pay back a blow, broke away from the ranks, and with sword hilts burying themselves in their bleeding hands rode with equal speed after him. With heads bent down, much as men do when they face a fierce shower of hail on a summer's day, Maurice and his gallant band of followers flew forward. Nearer and nearer came the wreathing clouds of smoke ; redder and redder, and brighter and brighter grew the flash from the guns ; more distinctly grew the forms of the men working at them ; until all of a sudden their white faces and their long rammers became plainly visible ; and in a second more Maurice was leaping over the guns and tumbrils, followed by his men, sabring the Russian gunners at their posts as they thundered past. Some of the latter abandoned the guns in face of this determined onslaught, and sheltered themselves under the ammunition waggons, or retreated closely pursued by the Inniskillings, on the great mass of the Russian infantry behind. -J Wheeling around when he had cut his way to the rear of the uenV, Maurice rode back to them. He looked for Harold but he was nowhere to be seen. A gr£at many men and horses were lying entangled between the smoking guns, for in the few minutes the fight had lasted the Inniskillingß had lost heavily, not alone from the bayontes of the gunners, but from the incessant rifls fire of the masses behind. At that moment a regiment of Cossacks with their long lances rode forward to attack the handful of men that had ridden over and beyond the guns, whilst in front a division of Russian dragoons and infantry were swiftly deploying from the hills to intercept their return. The moment was critical. This mad and purposeless charge had been gallantly accomplished. There was not a moment to be lost if they were not to be surrounded and taken prisoners. Even already were the encircling columns of Russians barricading their retreat. Through the roll of musketry, the clash of aims, the vengeful cry of the English soldiers as their swords clove through the helmets of the Russians, the savage yells of the Cossacks as they ran full tilt against the little scattered bands of the Inniskillings, came the buglecall for retreat. At once the horsemen turned from their foes ; and once more leaping over the guns on his return, Maurice, sword in hand, faced backwards towards the foes that were gathering to bar his retreat. Side by side with and behind him came those that were still able to keep their seats and hold their swords firmly. The Russians from the hills on either side had nearly joined hands across the valley — but not quite. To the space thus vacant Maurice turned his horse's head. A troop of dragoons, with their colonel at their head, rode forward to intercept them. Maurice faced for the colonel. There was nothing else for it ; and though the Russian was a powerful man and powerfully mounted Maurice, confident in his skill, and moved with the desperation of the moment, rode straight at him. Before he had time to exchange a blow, a passing Cossack riding at full speed tilted at him with his lance, hurling him from the saddle with a heavy fall to the ground. A rush of the Inniskillings passed over him as he lay half-stunned, dashing wrathfully at the obstructing Russians. The conflict was of short duration. The superior skill and elan of the Inniskillings and the desperation with which their position nerved them, clove for them a pathway. As Maurice lifted himself to bis feet a Russian trooper aimed a sabre blow at him. A cry arose from behind which startled Maurice and he looked upwards only to perceive his danger. His sword had fallen from his grasp, and instinctively he raised his bare arm to protect himself. The Russian's sword waved in the air with the swiftness of a wave of light above his head, like a flash of lightning, searing his brain and heart. Maurice felt his hour was come. But a shot rang out at his ear, the flash of light blazed at his eyelid ; and before he knew what had happened, Maurice saw the sabre drop, point downwards, from the foreign officer's grasp and its owner reel in the saddle. A bullet had passed through his heart. " Mount, Maurice O'Donnell ! You have not a minit to lose. You'll never see Craighome again if you wait a heart's beat ov time. Mount 1" Without waiting to see who spoke to him, Maurice grasped at. the reins of one of the riderless horses that were rushing back ; seized his sword from the ground where it lay ; leaped with one swift bound into the saddle ; and flew forward throHgh the opening his retreating horsemen had made. His horse, flying at great speed, Btumbled over the dead body of a charger that had fallen, and he was flung heavily on the ground before yet he had gotten beyond the circle of his enemies. An immediate rush was made for him, and several Cossacks passed swiftly across from the main body with the points of their lances downwards. But just as his riderless horse, after recovering himself dashed past after the others, and before the advancing Russians had time to arrive and put their intention into execution, he felt, in his halfstunned state, a firm hand grasp in his collar, and he found himself dragged along the trampled surface of the ground with great rapi-

At the same moment the ground shook with the charge of the brigade of heavy cavalry, as they rode forward to cover the retreat of the remnant of the shattered brigade that' had ridden forth in all their bravery and magnificence a short half-hour before. The Russian guns, abandoned by their captors, opened a terrific fire on friends and foes where they were intermingled in the narrow valley. The hoarse cries of thirty thousand French soldiers who had watched with wonder and amazement the magnificence and daring of the charge — in enthusiastic admiration of its dauntless bravery, and wonder at its very madness and purposelessness— burst forth in applauding cheers for the survivors ; and in the midst of this whirlwind of war, uproar, and confusion, and while a dull sense of being much hurt and shaken pervaded his senses, Maurice heard his name called. " Can you stand, Maurice. Try if you can stand— if you can walk. We're in a very dangerous place here. The bullets are sweeping straight from their guns. Recover yourself ! Can yon stand ?." With a vague sense that the voice was familiar to him, with a dim consciousness that they were, as the speaker had said, in a position of deadly danger, but still unable to recall his scattered senses sufficiently to resolve on anything, Maurice leant against the pommel of his saddle, the grasp of the friendly horseman still on his collar. " Who is it ? " he feebly asked, the heavy fall rendering it difficult for him to hold up bis head. "Is it me, yon mane, Maurice ? Look at me. You can't, I see that. It was a heavy fall you got But it's me that's here ; it's Briney." " Briney 7 " said Maurice, rapidly gathering up his scattered faculties at the name. " tiorra wan else. But this if no place to be stayin. Come along, Maurice. Do yon see who's here.? " Maurice, with difficulty, looked upwards, To his infinite surprise — even in his semi-conscious state — he saw that Briney was dressed in regimentals, which did not at all seem so unsuitable to him as might be supposed from Ms dwarfish size ; and that he bore on the saddle, whilst he himself sat behind, the form of a wounded soldier. - Looking still closer, as his vision and mind grew clearer, he noticed that the wounded soldier was an officer, that the officer was Harold, and that he was seriously wounded and senseless. " Followed you through the smoke. Was hot foot behind you leapin' his horse over the cann«ns ; an' begorra, a Russian as big as the three ov us together gay himawipeof his soord, an' faix he went down between two of them guns athout a breath in him," said Briney in answer to the mute questioning of the other. "An ' faix, only I happened to be near at hand, be good luck, the sorra ever he'd have lifted his head out ov id, for there were fifty ready to fly their horses over the same path, af ther him, an' they'd have trampled him to death." " So it was you that saved me from the Russian ? " asked Maurice half-dazedly. "Ay coorse it was. Share you couldn't expect me to let yon be kilt by a devil of a Russian, or wan of these Cossacks, God betune us an' harm. It's bad enough to be killed by a dacent Christian, but be ene ov' these Tartars — paugh 1 But, Maurice, honey, here 1 there is a rein for you 1 " Briney grasped at and caught the reins of a passing steed, as he spoke. " Jump up an' come along. Look at that 1 If you don't hurry we'll never get back. Never. See ! " A shell burst at the moment within a few yards of them ; and in a moment after, a tremendous salvo of artillery from the heights announced that the French, the first astonishment and surprise over, and the cavalry free from the Russian guns, had opened fire upon the Russian positions, which the latter, in no way disheartened, began steadily to return. Maurice mounted the saddle with great difficulty and with but little of his former elasticity.