The Child of Waterloo, or, The Horrors of the Battle-Field — page 150: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE CHILD OF WATERLOO. 147 beauty, Marie Mendelson, presented her husband with a child, It was born amid the clash of arms, and the din and horror of war; and his anxiety for fear he should be obliged to leave her, in consequence of his regiment being ordered forward, was so intense as nearly to render hit helpless through sickness brought ou by excessive mental anguish. Long before, under ordinary circumstances, she would have been declared fit to travel, the remnaut of the army was ordered forward in order to effect a junction with the new legions which the emperor had, with im- mepse perseverance, recently raised. Marie and her infant oc- cupied a luggage wagon, which was confided to the care of parties whom Colonel Rouselli could depend upon; and thus for some months longer she followed in the fortunes of the army, and was in the immediate outskirts of many a brilliant engage- ment. Suddenly, one day, when my son was sitting in bis tent along with his wife and child, a hand-grenade was thrown into the midst of them, and a loud voice cried: ‘ Vengeance for Sternholde ? With the ready tact of a soldier inured to danger, he threw himself upon his face, and forced his wife to do like- wise, with the child in her arms, close to the death- dealing missile. It exploded, but left them unharmed. The camp was searched, but no one answering the description of Sternholde, the Prussian, was discovered. From that hour, however, assas- sination of sentinels and officers became frequent, and most of the bodies had a placard pinned to their breasts, on which were the words: ‘i ‘ The vengeance of Sternholde against the nation of Rou- selli! : ‘‘ A superstitious fear seized upon the soldiery. They called this appearance the Battle Fiend, and the whole of that division of the army became impregnated with a kind of dread con- cerning him which it was wonderful brave men could give way to. ‘‘ But events were hurrying on, of a political character, which forced the emperor to make one grand effort for his own exist- ence asa monarch. The battle of Waterloo was near at hand— that terrible conflict, which has exercised, and will continue to exercise, so great an effect upon the politics of Europe. The division of the French army with which my son’s regiment was incorporated was not foremost in the field. Jt was not till after two o’clock, on that memorable day. that he and his regiment were called into action. It is well known to all who made them- selves acquainted with the details of that terrible engagement, that, toward the latter part of it, it was fought out by the artil- lery and cavalry. My son’s regiment, therefore, being a mounted one, came in for a full share of the affray. Marie was in the rear of the French lines; and, from time to time, Rouselli had managed to send her word that he was safe, by those parties who had the care of transporting the wounded to places of secu- rity. At last, these small detachments got so much in the habit of seeking her out, and saying ‘Colonel Rouselli is safe,’ that when something of a contrary nature happened, without any direction from any one, the fact was abruptly communicated to comicbooks. com