Page images
PDF
EPUB

over, the vizier turned suddenly, and coming up to Marshal Keith, took him cordially by the hand, and in the broadest Scotch dialect, declared warmly that it made him, "unco happy to meet a countryman in his exalted station." Keith stared with astonishment, eager for an explanation of this mystery, when the vizier added, "Dinna be surprised, mon, I'm o' the same country wi' yoursell. I mind weel seeing you, and your brother, when boys, passin' by to the school at Kirkaldy; my father, sir, was bellman o'Kirkaldy.”

What more extraordinary can be imagined, than to behold in the plenipotentiaries of two mighty nations, two foreign adventurers, natives of the same mountainous territory, nay, of the very same village? What, indeed, more extraordinary, unless it be the spectacle of a Scotchman turned Turk for the sake of honors, held on the tenure of a caprice from which even Scotch prudence can be no guarantee!

VETERAN CORPS.

During the American war, eighty old German soldiers, who after having long served under different monarchs in Europe, had retired to America, and converted their swords into ploughshares, voluntarily formed themselves into a company, and distinguished themselves in various actions in the cause of independence. The captain was nearly one hundred years old, had been in the army forty years, and present in seventeen battles. The drummer was ninetyfour, and the youngest man in the corps on the verge of seventy. Instead of a cockade, each man wore a piece of black crape, as a mark of sorrow for being obliged, at so advanced a period of life, to bear arms. "But," said the veterans, 66 we should be deficient in gratitude, if we did not act in defence of a country which has afforded us a generous asylum, and protected us from tyranny and oppression." Such a band of soldiers never before perhaps appeared in a field of battle.

NOBLE RETALIATION.

One of the finest actions of a soldier of which history makes mention, is related in the history of the Maréchal de Luxemburg. The Maréchal, then Count de Boutteville, served in the army of Flanders in 1675, under the command of the Prince of Condé. He perceived in a march some soldiers that were separated from the main body, and he sent one of his aids-de-camp to bring them back to their colors. All obeyed, except one who continued his road. The Count, highly offended at such disobedience, threatened to strike him with his stick. "That you may do," said the soldier with great coolness, "but you will repent of it." Irritated by this answer, Boutteville struck him, and forced him to rejoin his corps. Fifteen days after, the army besieged Furnes; and Boutteville commanded the colonel of a regiment to find a man steady and intrepid for a coup de main, which he wanted, promising a hundred pistoles as a reward. The soldier in

question, who had the character of being the bravest man in the regiment, presented himself, and taking thirty of his comrades, of whom he had the choice, he executed his commission, which was of the most hazardous nature, with a courage and a success that were incredible. On his return, Boutteville, after having praised him highly, counted out the hundred pistoles he had promised. The soldier immediately distributed them to his comrades, saying, that he had no occasion for money; and requested that if what he had done merited any recompense, he might be made an officer. Then addressing himself to the Count, he asked if he recognised him; and on Boutteville replying in the negative, “Well," said he, "I am the soldier whom you struck on our march fifteen days ago. Was I not right when I said that you would repent of it?" The Count de Boutteville, filled with admiration, and affected almost to tears, embraced the soldier, created him an officer on the spot, and soon made him one of his aids-de-camp.

FORTUGUEZE CHAMPION.

During the last campaign in Portugal, while the French were on the banks of the Zezere, a Portugueze peasant from the neighborhood of Thomar, of amazing muscular strength, became so annoying to them, that they offered a very high reward for his head. This man was accustomed to penetrate by night to their very encampment at Thomar. During one month he killed with his own hand upwards of thirty French soldiers, and carried off at different times, fifty horses and mules. He lived in a cave, in a retired and unknown part of the mountains, but regularly brought his booty to Abrantes, where he sold it. He was a man of most determined ferocious look, and of uncommon daring. The poor inhabitants of the neighborhood used to flock to his habitation, with the secret of which they were well acquainted, and then thought themselves in perfect security under his protection,

BOLD COUP DE MAIN.

The Great Condé speaking of the intrepidity of soldiers, says, that laying before a place that had a palisado to be burnt, he promised fifty louis to any one who should carry it by a coup de main. The danger was so apparent, that the reward did not tempt any one. "Sir," said a soldier more courageous than the rest, "I will relinquish the fifty louis that you promise, if your highness will make me sergeant of my company." The prince, pleased with the generosity of the soldier, who preferred honor to money, promised him both. Animated by the reward that awaited his return, he resolved to gain it, or die a glorious death. He took flambeaux, descended into the ditch, reached the palisado, and set it on fire in the midst of a shower of musketry, by which he was slightly wounded. All the army, witnesses of this action, seeing his return, cheered him, and heaped on him loud praises; when he perceived that he had lost one of his pistols. A sol

dier offered him others. "No," said he, "I will never be reproached that these rascals got my pistol." He went to the ditch again: exposed himself to a hundred discharges of musketry; regained his pistol, and returned in safety.

OBEDIENCE OF ORDERS.

A naval commander, in the reign of Queen Anne, was ordered to cruise with a squadron within certain limits on the coast of Spain. Having received information that a Spanish fleet was in Vigo, beyond his limits, he resolved to risk his personal responsibility for the good of his country; he accordingly attacked and defeated the Spanish fleet, with uncommon gallantry. When he joined the admiral under whom he served, he was ordered under arrest, and was asked, "If he did not know that, by the articles of war, he was liable to be shot for disobedience of orders?" He replied with great composure, that he was very sensible that he was, but added, "The man who is afraid to risk his life in any way when the good of his country requires it, is unworthy of a command in her majesty's service."

IRISH SOLDIER.

During the late war in Portugal, and while the army was on its march from Almendralejo to Merida, an Irish soldier having drank rather freely, quitted the ranks. He had scarcely done so, before he fell into a sound sleep, from which he did not awake till very late in the evening. Alone, and in an uninhabited part of the country, the poor fellow knew not whither to turn himself. He upbraided himself for his misconduct, and fancied himself already condemned by a court-martial, and the sentence ready to be carried into execution. To a village on his left, he directed his steps, to see if some friendly individual would plead for him at head-quarters. In this village he was informed there were two French soldiers concealed. A thought darted across his mind, that if he could get them secured, he would be able to carry them into Almeida as prisoners, and thereby procure his pardon. In an instant he loaded his musket, proceeded to the house where the Frenchmen lay, disarmed them, and in two hours after marched them off in triumph. Some officers of the 71st regiment seeing a British soldier with two Frenchmen, as prisoners, coming from the opposite side of the river, where none of the allied troops were at that time quartered, asked the soldier, "What men are these you have got?" The Hibernian replied, "By St. Patrick, your honors, I cannot tell, but I believe they are Frenchmen."

FRENCH TRUMPETER.

in the war on the Rhine, in 1794, the French got possession of the village of Rhinthal by a very curious ruse de guerre of one Joseph Werck, a trumpeter. This village was maintained by

an Austrian party of six hundred hussars. Two companies of foot were ordered to make an attack on it at ten o'clock at night. The Austrians had been apprised of the intended attack, and were drawn up ready to charge on the assailing party. On perceiving this, Werck detached himself from his own party, and contrived, by favor of the darkness, to slip into the midst of the enemy; when taking his trumpet, he first sounded the rally in the Austrian manner, and next moment the retreat; the Austrians, deceived by the signal, were off in an instant at full gallop; and the French became masters of the village without striking a blow.

GENEROUS INTREPIDITY.

In August, 1777, a vessel from Rochelle, laden with salt, and manned by eight hands, and two passengers on board, was discovered making for the pier of Dieppe. The wind was at that time so high, and the sea so much agitated, that a coasting pilot made four fruitless attempts to get out, and conduct the vessel safe into port. Bouissard, a bold and intrepid pilot, perceiving that the helmsman was ignorant of latent danger, endeavored to direct him by a speaking trumpet and signals; but the captain could neither see nor hear, on account of the darkness of the night, the roaring of the winds, and the extraordinary swell of the sea. The vessel in the mean time grounded on a flinty bottom, at the distance of thirty toises from the advance mole.

Bouissard, touched with the cries of the unfortunate crew, resolved to spring to their assistance, in spite of every remonstrance, the entreaties of his wife and children, and the apparent impossibility of success. Having tied one end of a rope round his waist, and fastened the other to the mole, he plunged headlong into the boisterous deep. When he had got very near the ship, a wave carried him off, and dashed him on shore. Twenty times successively was he thus repulsed, rolled upon flinty stones, and covered with the wreck of the vessel, which the fury of the waves tore rapidly to pieces. He did not however abate his ardor. A single wave dragged him under the ship he was given up for lost, but he quickly emerged, holding in his arms a sailor, who had been washed overboard. He brought him on shore motionless and just expiring. In short, after an infinity of efforts and struggles, he reached the wreck, and threw his rope on board. All who had strength enough to avail themselves of this assistance, tied it about them, and were successively dragged to land.

Bouissard, who imagined he had now saved all the crew, worn down by fatigue, and smarting from his wounds and bruises, walked with great difficulty to the light-house, where he fainted through exhaustion. Assistance being procured, he began to recover. On hearing that groans still issued from the wreck, he once more collected the little strength that was left him, rushed from the arms of those who succored him, plunged again into the sea, and had the good fortune to save the life of one of the pas

sengers, who was lashed to the wreck, and who, in his languid state, had been unable to profit by the assistance administered by his companions.

Mons. de Crosne, the Intendant of Rouen, having stated these circumstances to M. Neckar, then director-general of the finances, he immediately addressed the following letter to Bouissard, in his own hand-writing:

"BRAVE MAN,

"I was not apprised by the Intendant till the day before yesterday, of the gallant deed you achieved on the 31st of August. Yesterday I reported it to his majesty, who was pleased to enjoin me to communicate to you his satisfaction, and to acquaint you, that he presents you with one thousand livres, by way of gratification, and an annual pension of three hundred livres. Continue to succour others when you have it in your power; and pray for your good king, who loves and recompenses the brave."

ADMIRAL BLAKE.

The life of a British sailor may be said to be a life of enterprise; this character, however, belongs more particularly to some of our admirals, by whose noble daring, the most gallant exploits have been achieved, and the naval glory of Britian exalted to the highest pitch. Among those who, at an early period of our naval history, contributed much to this end, none was more distinguished than Admiral Blake, who made the English feared and respected in every quarter of the globe.

Blake's first naval adventure was driving the remains of the revolted fleet, under Prince Rupert, from the coast of Ireland, and then following it into the Mediterranean. On his return from this service in February, 1651, he captured a French man-of-war, of forty guns. Blake first hailed the French captain to come on board his ship; which being complied with, he asked him if he was willing to resign his sword? The Frenchman replied, that he was not; upon which Blake generously told him to return to his own ship, and fight as long as he was able. The captain took him at his word, made dispositions for action, and after fighting very bravely for two hours, struck. He then repaired a second time on board Blake's ship, and presented his sword to the victorious admiral.

In 1656, Blake having received intelligence that the Plate fleet had put into the harbor of Santa Cruz, in the Island of Teneriffe, he immediately proceeded thither; and on his arrival discovered six galleons, with other vessels, lying in the port, before which a boom was moored. The port itself was well fortified, being defended by a strong castle, well supplied with artillery, and seven forts united by a line of communication, well manned with musqueteers. The Span.sh governor thought the place so secure, and his own dispositions so excellently made, that when the master of a Dutch ship desired leave to sail, because he was apprehensive that Blake would attack the ships, the Spaniard answered with great confidence, "Get you gone, if you please,

and let Blake come if he dare." Blake reconnoitred the position of the enemy, and seeing the impracticability of bringing off the vessels, resolved to attempt to destroy them. Commodore Stayner was entrusted to lead this bold and desperate attack. With a small squadron he forced his passage into the bay, while some other ships kept up a distant cannonade on the castle and fort; and the wind blowing fresh into the bay, he was soon supported by Blake and the rest of the fleet. The Spaniards made a brave resistance; but all their efforts were unavailing, and they had the misfortune to see their whole fleet destroyed.

SIEGE OF ST. SEBASTIAN.

On the 31st of August, 1813, a little before noon, the columns of the British army advanced to the assault of St. Sebastian. The enemy on their approach exploded two mines on the flank of the front line of works, which blew down a wall under which the assailants were passing; luckily, however, the troops not being in very close order, few were buried, and they reached their point of attack with little loss. Many desperate efforts were made to carry the breach; but each time, on attaining the summit, a heavy and close fire from the entrenched ruins within destroyed all who attempted to remain, and those at the foot fell in great numbers from the flank fire. To supply these losses, fresh troops were sent forward with laudable perseverance as fast as they could be filed out of the trenches; and a battalion of Portuguese gallantly forded the Uremea, in face of the enemy's works; the whole of which were strongly lined with men, who kept up an incessant fire of musketry, particularly from a rampart more elevated than the spot where the breach had been formed. Sir Thomas Grabam (now Lord Lyndoch) seeing this, trusted to the well-known accuracy of the artillery to open upon that spot over the heads of the assailants. This they did with much effect; nevertheless two hours of continued exertion had fruitlessly passed away, and the troops were yet on the face of the breach falling in great numbers, without being able to establish themselves on its summit; when a quantity of combustibles exploded within, which shook the firmness of the defenders. They began to waver, and the assailants redoubled their efforts to ascend. The most advanced works were successively abandoned by the garrison; and ultimately the retrenchment behind the breach. The troops immediately pushed up in great numbers, assisted each other over the ruins, and descended into the town: after which every attempt to check them behind various interior defences were in a moment defeated, and the garrison were driven into the castle.

On the 9th of September heavy batteries of mortars opened on the castle of St. Sebastian; which being too small to admit of any cover being thrown up to lessen the effects of the shells, did not long resist. After enduring the bombardment for two hours, the garrison surrendered prieoners of war.

[blocks in formation]

THE Duke of Ossuna, Viceroy of Naples, passing through Barcelona, went on board the Cape Galley, and passing through the crew of slaves, he asked several of them what their offences were? Every one excused himself upon various pretences; one said he was put in out of malice, another by bribery of the judge: but all of them unjustly. The duke came at last to a sturdy little black man, whom he questioned as to what he was there for? "My lord," said he, “I cannot deny but I am justly put in here; for I wanted money, and so took a purse near Tarragona, to keep me from starving." The duke, on hearing this, gave him two or three blows on the shoulder with his stick, saying, "You, rogue, what are you doing among so many honest innocent men? Get you out of their company.' The poor fellow was then set at liberty, while the rest were left to tug at the oar.

CAPTIVES BEFORE CYRUS. Xenophon relates, that when an Armenian prince had been taken captive, with his princess, by Cyrus, and was asked what he would give to be restored to his kingdom and liberty, he replied, "As for my kingdom and liberty, I value them not; but if my blood would redeem my princess, I would cheerfully give it for her." When Cyrus had liberated them both, the princess was asked, "What think you of Cyrus?' to which she replied, "I did not observe him; my whole attention was fixed upon the generous man who would have purchased my liberty with

his life."

ESCAPE OF CAVADES.

When Cavades, King of the Persians, was deposed and imprisoned by his subjects, his queen, who alone remained attached to him in his misfortunes, never failed to bring him necessaries with her own hands, although she was not permitted to see him. One day while on this visit of conjugal affection, she observed that the keeper of the castle noticed her very particularly, and appeared affected at her beauty and misfortunes. She took advantage of the favorable impression, and soothed him so far as to be allowed access to her husband. Her visits were at length permitted to take place so free from observation, that one evening she managed to change clothes with her husband, who, thus disguised, stole out of the prison without being discovered. When the jailer entered, he found his supposed prisoner in bed; a few words inarticulately uttered indicated sickness as the cause; the jailer was satisfied, nor was the cheat discovered till some days had elapsed, and Cavades had escaped beyond the reach of pursuit. He fled to the King of the

Euthalites, by whose assistance he was afterwards restored to his throne and kingdom.

KING AGRIPPA.

When Agrippa was in a private station, he was accused by one of his servants of having spoken injuriously of Tiberius, and was condemned by the emperor to be exposed in chains before the palace gate. The weather was very hot, and Agrippa became excessively thirsty. Seeing Thaumastus, a servant of Caligula, pass by, with a pitcher of water, he called to him, and entreated leave to drink. The servant presented the pitcher with much courtesy; and Agrippa having allayed his thirst, said to him, "Assure thyself, Thaumastus, that if I get out of this captivity, I will one day pay thee well for this glass of water." Tiberius dying, his successor, Caligula, soon after not only set Agrippa at liberty, but made him King of Judea. In this high situation, Agrippa was not unmindful of the glass of water given to him when a captive. He immediately sent for Thaumastus, and made him comptroller of his household.

BAJAZET.

Tamerlane the great, having made war on Bajazet, Emperor of the Turks, overthrew him in battle, and took him prisoner. The victor gave the captive monarch at first a very civil reception; and entering into familiar conversation with him, said, "Now, king, tell me freely and truly what thou wouldst have done with me, had I fallen into thy power?" Bajazet, who was of a fierce and haughty spirit, is said to have thus replied: "Had the gods given unto me the victory, I would have enclosed thee in an iron cage, and carried thee about with me as a spectacle of derision to the world." Tamerlane wrathfully replied, "Then, proud man, as thou wouldst have done to me, even so shall I do unto thee." A strong iron cage was made, into which the fallen emperor was thrust; and thus exposed like a wild beast, he was carried along in the train of his conqueror. Nearly three years were passed by the once mighty Bajazet in this cruel state of durance; and at last being told that he must be carried into Tartary, despairing of then obtaining his freedom, he struck his head with such violence against the bars of his cage, as to put an end to his wretched life.

ST. LOUIS.

At an unfortunate battle of Damietta against the Saracens, Louis IX. was taken prisoner. He bore this reverse of fortune so nobly and so magnanimously, that his enemies said to him, "We look upon you as our captive and our slave; but

though in chains, you behave to us as if we were your prisoners."

The Sultan having sent one of his generals to the king, to demand a very considerable sum of money for his ransom; his majesty replied, "Return and tell your master, that a king of France is not to be redeemed with money; I will give him the sum he asks for my subjects that are taken prisoners; and I will deliver up to him the city of Damietta for my own person. And such were the terms on which the liberation of the King of France and his subjects was afterwards effected.

JOHN, KING OF FRANCE.

"This prince," says an old French chronicler very strongly, "vendit sa propre chair en l'encam," sold his own flesh by auction; for in order to ease his subjects from some taxes he was obliged to impose upon them to pay his own ransom, when taken prisoner by Edward the Black Prince, and confined in the Tower of London, he gave his daughter Isabella in marriage to Galeas Visconti, Duke of Milan, for a considerable sum of money. This alliance, though beneath the royal race of France, did honor to the sovereign, from the excellence of the motive, and could not disgrace the princess, as she became the fortunate instrument of contributing to the ease and happiness of her country.

John had left in England two of his sons as hostages for the payment of his ransom. One of them, the Duke of Anjou, tired of his confinement in the Tower of London, escaped to France. His father, more honorable, proposed instantly to take his place; and when the principal officers of his court remonstrated against his taking this chivalrous but dangerous measure, he told them, "Why I myself was permitted to come out of the same prison in which my son was, in consequence of the treaty of Bretagne, which he has violated by his flight. I hold myself not a free man at present. I fly to my prison. I am engaged to do it by my word; and if honor were banished from all the world besides, it should have an asylum in the breast of kings."

The magnanimous John accordingly proceeded to England, and became a second time a prisoner in the tower of London; where he died in 1384.

CAMPANELLA.

This celebrated Dominican Friar of Naples, distinguished himself in his youth in a public disputation with an old professor of his order. Irritated at having been foiled by a youth, the vindictive priest accused Campanella of treason and heresy; in consequence of which he was imprisoned twentyseven years, and put to the rack seven times, for twentyfour hours each time. By the power of abstraction, which his mind possessed, he bore the tortures inflicted upon him with the greatest fortitude. At length he was delivered from his confinement on the solicitation of Pope Urban VIII. in 1624; when he went to

[blocks in formation]

When Francis, after having performed prodigies of valor and of personal courage, and after having two horses killed under him, was taken prisoner at the battle of Pavia, he was conducted captive to the celebrated convent of Carthusian Friars, at Pavia. He sent to his mother, Louisa of Savoy, Regent of France in his absence, the melancholy news of his captivity, conceived in these dignified and expressive terms: "Tout est perdu, Madame, hormis l'honneur."

From Pavia, Francis was conducted to Madrid, where he was closely confined, and treated with great indignity, contrary to the advice given to Charles the Fifth by one of his counsellors, the Bishop of Osma, who advised his sovereign to present Francis with his liberty, with no other condition annexed to it than that of becoming his ally; urging that it would be an act of generosity worthy of so great a monarch.

Francis suffered extremely from his imprisonment, and would most probably have died from it, had not his sister, the Queen of Navarre, visited him in his wretched and solitary state. So much did this behavior endear his sister to him, that he always called her, "son âme," "sa mignon; " and notwithstanding his over strict and bigoted attachment to the Church of Rome, he permitted her to become a protestant, without interfering with her religious opinions.

When Francis was at length released from his imprisonment, and after he had crossed in a boat the small river Fontarabia, which divides Spain from France, he mounted a fleet Arabian courser that was brought him, and drawing his sword, cried out, in a tone of transport and exultation, "I am still a king!".

OFFENDING A KING.

The publisher of a Leyden Gazette, who had printed a satire on Louis XIV. was secretly seized in Holland, brought away from thence, and shut up in a cage at St. Michael, a convent and prison on a neck of land on the coast of lower Normandy. This cage was about nine feet long, six broad, and eight high; not of iron, but of strong bars of wood. It stood in the middle of a room, and as the prisoner could not possibly escape, it was evidently intended for punishment rather than security. On some of the bars were figures and landscapes, which are said to have been cut by this unhappy inan with his nails. After many years confinement, he died a victim of the cruelty of Louis le Grand!

BREAKING PRISON.

The prisoners in the same St. Michael, which was the scene of the preceding tragedy, once consulted John Knox, as to the lawfulness of at

« PreviousContinue »