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far to fatigue. The guides alone had their eyes always on the alert. At last the day appeared; a light smoke was seen. Alas! it was but a deception; the enemy's fires were burning out; the regulars had departed. Hope, which had hitherto sustained the strength of the soldiers, suddenly abandoned them, and nothing was heard but complaints and grumblings against the General. A halt being called in a hollow ground, whilst the soldiers were, in a scrambling manner, appeasing their hunger, the beaters of the country announced that quite fresh traces of the enemy's battalion, even of the night itself, had been discovered. General Tempoure hesitated for a second, but only for a second, and the order for continuing the pursuit was given. An unusual murmur then arose in the bivouac. "He is leading us all to be slaughtered," cried the soldiers; "for seventy hours we have had but a few moments rest." Nevertheless, their obedience was prompt. After an hour, the traces diverged to the south, where there was no certainty of finding water. We pushed on notwithstanding; the traces became fresher and fresher; here was an abandoned horse, and a little further a donkey. "We have them at last, the robbers," said the soldiers, and they recovered all their

alacrity. Finally, towards eleven o'clock, whilst the column was passing through a deep ravine, the guides perceived a thick smoke behind a hill. This time the enemy was really there. All fatigue disappeared, as if by magic, and in a second, at the General's order, cloaks were rolled up, primings refreshed, girths tightened, the troops drawn out in battle array, and all was ready. Three hundred infantry were to support three columns of cavalry, the centre being commanded by Colonel Tartas of the 4th. Just as the movement was beginning a musket shot was heard. One of our guides had surprised a vidette. At this moment an Arab galloped up the hill, brandishing his burnous, whilst the drums of the regulars were beating the general. A thrill ran through our ranks. The cavalry advanced at a trot. The infantry, forgetting its forced marches, followed at double quick, and from the top of the hill one might see the two regular battalions, unable to reach the opposite crest, pause in the middle of the plain. The cavalry, from a trot, drawing their sabres, broke into a gallop. A discharge of musketry from the enemy brought some down, but nothing could arrest the avalanche; every obstacle was swept before the sabres of the chasseurs, and the

Arabs fell in masses on all sides Several of their horsemen endeavoured to fly either to the left or straight on before them. In the pursuit Caid Osman rolled from his horse from a blow on the head; but M. de Caulaincourt, admirably mounted, followed the chase up with better success one of the Emir's cavaliers fell under a stroke of his sabre to rise no more. Having outridden, however, his chasseurs, and being thus quite alone, he was surrounded by the enemy. But he neither lost courage nor selfpossession. Spurring his horse, and rising in his stirrups, he cut his way dashingly through them, and was just rejoining his troop when a shot from an ambushed Arab hit him close to the eye. His horse bore him boundingly along, nevertheless, and with his flesh hanging down on his cheek, and the blood streaming over his face, he reached his chasseurs, and was immediately carried on a soldier's back to the field hospital. The scene of action was truly a field of the dead. Five hundred corpses were strewn over its narrow space, nearly all of them frightfully mutilated by the sabres of our chasseurs. Many of the flying cavaliers were stopped by the rocky heights already mentioned. Some dismounted, let their horses go, and clambered over the hill.

One

alone, whose white vestments, with the splendid caparison of his horse, pointed him out as a chief, moved slowly along the wall of rocks. The Maréchal de Logis Siquot, a brigadier of chasseurs, and Captain Cassaignolles, followed him. The ground here was very heavy, and full of impedi ments. Laboylaye, the brigadier of chasseurs, was the first to come up. As the head of his horse touched the crupper of the Arab's, the cavalier turned calmly round, took his aim, and shot him dead. At this moment Siquot arrived, and having wounded the Arab, was shot through the left arm by a pistol ball, which killed afterwards Captain Cassaignolle's horse on the slope of a hill a little lower down. The superb horseman then having raised himself upright in his stirrups, and struck Siquot with the butt of his massivė pistol on the head, received at the moment a ball right through his heart from Brigadier Gerard of the Chasseurs, who had just reached the spot. The horse of the chief had received a wound in the shoulder, which alone prevented the noble animal from carrying his master safe out of danger. "Look whether this Arab be blind," said Captain Cassaignolles. On examination it was found that he had lost an eye. "Then it is Sidi-Embarek; cut his head off!" and when this operation had

been performed with a knife Girard had in his pocket, that the Arabs might be convinced of the death of their chief, the rally being sounded, all returned to the bivouac.

The Maréchal de Logis Siquot and M. de Caulaincourt were both in the bivouac hospital. There were hopes that the life of the latter might be saved. All the officers of the chasseurs came to shake him by the hand, and cheer him up; but of this he had no need, for his firmness never forsook him. "Never mind, Lieutenant," said his orderly, who quitted him neither night nor day, in his German accent, "but we have not a chance; your grey horse is wounded; the black one is ill, and you, you are half . No, certainly, Lieutenant, we have not a chance!" Nevertheless, despite what brave Laubeinburger said, his master had a very happy escape from death in recovering from so horrible a wound. All who saw M. de Caulaincourt at that time, will attribute this recovery in good measure to his own stout heart.

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The hunt over, and the regulars routed, General Tempoure lost no time in returning to Mascara, and a month afterwards many received what the Arabs call the testimony of blood-the cross of honour-the glory of the French soldier.

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