and frail, but vigorous temperance through their doctrine, that education and science life gave him an iron constitution, evinced are the chief requisites of an officer. The by immense mental labors and the endu- history of Napier and other great soldiers rance of strange sufferings in every cli-will teach them, that the man who can mate. Early in life he was baptized in speak to a soldier's heart and read his peril and adventure, but amid the strange character, will lead and rule him better scenes he showed as a boy already the than one who, without this faculty, may fearlessness of the hero. He was but ten possess all the training of West Point and years old, when having caught a fish, he all the science of Jomini. From the class was surpised by the descent of a half-tam- to which this faculty is most common, must ed eagle of great size and fierceness, who ever spring the leaders and commanders settled upon his shoulders, covered him of victorious soldiers. with his immense wings, and took the fish out of his hands. Few boys would have stood their ground after that. ** Charles coolly resumed the rod, and when he had caught another fish, held it up, inviting the eagle to try again, holding up at the same time the spear end of the rod!

So much for the man, now for his deeds. Napier was eminently a man of action, like our Jackson. The spirit ever recognizes its own elements of action. It seveals its true strength and majesty only in front of its appointed work. Wherever a man is most true, most simple, there is his A longing for fame was with him the mas-appointed sphere, there he is himself. ter passion, and in childhood already he look-Jackson a professor at Lexington was not ed to war for it with an intense eagerness. the same as Jackson the Stonewall GeneAt school he foreshadowed his innate tal-ral in the Valley. So, a Napier with the tent for organization and command by form- breath of war in his nostrils, assumes his ing his schoolfellows into a volunteer corps noblest aspect. His stature now dilates, and ruling them with the spirit of a marti-his soul kindles, he throws aside all littlenet. An insurrection in Ireland gave him,ness and rejoices in his strength. Like the at the early age of sixteen, a taste of ac-war-horse in Job, "he saith among the tual and dangerous service in the adven-trumpets, Ha, ha! and he smelleth the battures of night marches and the pursuit of tle afar off, the thunder of the captains and outlaws, and thus, a warrior already in the shouting." spirit and temper, when he soon after entered the army, he brought with him to his career no slight experience in difficul. ty, in knowledge of resource and in familiarity with danger.

In the camp, the march, the bivouac, the battle, he is a true man, a great one. And yet, with that strange delusion common to us all, the hero, with his fiery aspirations and intense love of action is ever longing Once on the highway to distinction he for home and for peace. For the soul rose rapidly, not at first by daring deeds loves contrasts: the soldier, by his camp and bold exploits, so much as by unwaver-fire dreams of his home, his farm and his ing fidelity to duty whilst training for sol-fields; the scholar in his study reads of diership under the model soldier Sir John battles, and in his fancy follows some warMoore. like chieftain into the thickest of the fight. We are struck with two facts, which he In his 27th year Charles Napier, in comthere learned and ever after made the ru-mand of a regiment, followed his gallant ling precepts of his career. He tells us that he found the greatest secret of war to be discipline, and never forget it, being thus enabled to keep his men steady under temporary reverses, and to retrieve, with small bodies, the blunders of his superiors. The other lesson he then acquired, was that to know soldiers requires experience, touches of suffering, bloodshed and crueland that it is the most important part of ty. For, alas!' such is war at best. There, war. A truth which those would do well in the famous battte of Corunna, he tells us to learn who are ever thrusting forward himself, how he led his man, now urging

leader, Sir John Moore, in Spain on his advance, and was with him in his retreat when he ended his glorious life amid the fires of victory. The campaign is a little romance of war, vivid with daring deeds stirring adventures, bright with flashes of chivalry and heroism, shaded with dark

them on with his halberd, now waving and that of our Jackson-different as the two cheering them onwards from a wall; how men were in their heart and soul that he went to the left to look for his supports, both were for a time withdrawn from achow he returned to find his men gone and tive, military operations. Jackson's best himself alone, how, trying to carry off a years, after his brilliant success in Mexico, wounded comrade, he had his ankle bone were spent in the quiet retirement of the broken by a musket shot, picked up four Military Institute, Charles Napier was sent stragglers, was surrounded, tried to cut his to fill offices of civil administration. As way through, was stabbed in the back, soon as peace was made, he entered, in beaten by clubbed muskets, and would spite of his advanced years, as a student have been killed but for the interference at the Military College, adding to his exof a French drummer. How, being car-periences science and knowledge, and obried off as a captive, the party was met by taining in reward of a most successful ex. a private of his regiment, who, shouting amination, a claim to a high staff appoint out: "Stand away, ye bloody spalpeens, I'll ment. He was sent as inspecting field of carry him myself, bad luck to the whole of ficer, and afterwards as Military President yes!" he throws his arms around his com-to the Ionian Islands. As our Jackson mander and carried him to a French out post. Then followed some days and nights of cold, pain and misery, until Marshal Ney interferes and Napier is excharged on parole.

availed himself of his vacation to visit Europe and there to study the great battle fields, forming among others an opinion of Napoleon's strategy at Waterloo, which was years after confirmed by the admiraHe lias now a short period of forced rest, ble work of Seaborne, so Napier went to during which the campaign, with its stern Greece, marking the great scenes of the and terrible experiences, works its effects land as military, and fixing in his mind on the man. The change, visible to all, the base of possible operations and the was the mark of awakened genius; he had line of strategic movements. Returned to warred with and against men of mighty his islands, he enters on his command with energies, and thus becoming conscious of his usual spirit. "My predecessor," says ability, steeled his heart, while his counte- he, "is going home half dead from the lanance assumed a peculiarly vehement ear- bor, but to me it is health, spirit, every nest expression, which never left at again, thing. I live for some use now." Where and gave him a universally acknowledged was now the sighing for peace, the dream resemblance to a chained eagle. He soon of repose? Action was the life of the joined the army in Spain once more and man, power his aspiration. What he learn failed not to find his old luck. Wilfully ed here in the way of administrative expeand recklessly exposing himself on the rience, what he did by his strong will, heights of Busaco, he gets another fearful strong hand and just judgment is importwound, his jaw being shattered to pieces. ant to us only so far as it formed his charBut in spring, with his wound bandaged, acter as a great commander for his future the eagle must needs leave the uneasy exploits. He had stupendous work before eyrie again, and it was then, that riding him, to regenerate a people, almost ruined ninety miles, on one horse, in one course, by misrule and anarchy. He pushed it to reach the army, he met with his two wounded brothers. In the next campaign he had no independent command, but gathered wisdom and experience for after times. He was soon transferred to the West Indies and took part in the operations of the Chesapeake. Charles Napier and his regiment were always forward, but the circumstances were not favorable to the development of talent or soldier's life.

There is another feature of striking resemblance in the career of Napier with

forward with such a creative faculty, with so much subtle application of stimulants and strength of controlment, that an astonishing success attended all his measures. When he left his small government at the end of nine years, order had been estab lished, law enforced, the people were pros. perous, the island was productive, and commerce had revived. This was a work which might have sufficed as the sum of a life, of many lives. It was done by one man, in one epoch of an eventful life.

After this follow years of comparitive hang down, and whose knees droop, and obscurity no, not of obscurity for such a these pass away with unacted lives; but man would not, could not be obscure. We the men, who in expectancy and preparafollow him, with his wife and two children tion wait for their opportunity, as the Israresiding at different places in England and elites did, for the Exodus, with loins girded France; and then we see him bowed down, and feet shod, seldom fail to reach the goal under the bitterest of earthly bereave- and win the prize. Charles Napier was ments, the loss of his wife. The strong, one of these. He was the strong man rugged nature, which could not yield to armed, the good knight with his sword difficulty, opposition or deadly danger, loose in the sheath, his harness bright and bends now low. The 'strong man, with his heart full strung. From childhood up, God's hand upon him, is at all times a through dark and bright days, up to old solemn, sacred siglit, but his confessions, age, he had ever had within him an augury softened and chastened by affliction as he of command and success. He had never was, were inexpressibly touching. Then ceased to hope, never let the flame of his more years of plans, projects and disap-aspirations be darkened for a moment. pointed hopes. There was no field for the Now, in his fifty-ninth year, he sees the born warrior amid the peaceful lands. So vision of fame once more before him, and he went to work, for work he must, send- a wonderful sight he was, this man who ing out pamphlets, speaking at elections, after all his lifelong struggles, buffetings haranguing, proclaiming radicalism, beat- and strivings, riddled with wounds, broken ing O'Connel with his own weapons of by sickness, overcast by injustice, tried by sarcasm, smarting under neglect and in-cares, now casts off the dust and ashes justice, until at last, by a tardy recognition from his head, and rises up at the call, of his services, he receives the order of hopeful and confident as when he buckelthe Bath, and, having become by seniority ed on his maiden sword! a major general, is appointed to a command in the North of India.

"It was a noble theatre, too, to which he was called, for India has ever been the He was now in his 58th year, the time stage for rapid and brilliant exploit. Nawhen most lives decline towards inaction, pier went to this land fully conscious of when most men look towards the easy the grandeur, the vastness and tle luxurichair and the fireside, as their future rest-ance of its scenes and the rush of conquest ing place. Not so with him. He is still that had sweptover its picturesque regions; aspiring, hoping that his day is coming. He has nearly reached the span of human life, and yet is only on the threshold of achievement. What he has done is no thing to what he will do..

he went, his mind stored with the memory of the wondrous victories and pageant triumphs of Alexander, the whirlwind sweep of Genghis Khan, the magnificent rule of Mahmoud, and the no less wondrous The opportunity so long sought for, so achievements of Clive, and he determined wearily waited for, came at last, as it rare-in his heart, that, if an independent comly fails him who seeks it, for the soul, con mand should fall to him, he would act worscious of a destiny, seldom waits in vain thily of these great rulers. The command for a fulfilment. Who that saw our great came, when he was sixty. "I go to comJackson, on his way to the capital, when mand in Scinde," he wrote, "with no orhe had been offered the command of a ders, no instructions, no precise line of conregiment at the outbreak of the war, could duct given! How many men are there in have failed to read in the quiet fire that Scinde? How many soldiers to command? burnt in his blue eyes, the firm resolve that No one knows. They tell me I must form beamed in every feature, the consciousness and model the staff of the army altogether." that to him also had at last come the long In fact, nothing less was expected of him desired hour. The "village Hampdens" than to conquer a vast territory, densely and the "mute inglorious Miltons," are the peopled, to overcome armies, to take forfew among the children of men. There tresses deemed impregnable, and at the are those, whose hearts fail, whose arms same time, tɔ conciliate the people, to or

4

1

it carries us forcibly back to some of the most stirring and brilliant exploits in the history of the Arab conquest.

¡ganize a government and to develope the sun shining on its walls and high towers resources of a kingdom! The more he and surrounding it with the base of a had to accomplish. the greater apparently mirage. Alas! there is no watchman on his energy, the higher his spirit. He had the ramparts, not a shot fired in defiance. at last found his place and here, amid the The terror of Napier's name has gone be lights and shadows of Eastern policy, the fore him, the daring which led him to picturesque groupings of Eastern life, the venture on the desert has struck the enemy storn action and the gloomy catastrophe, with dismay, the place is evacuated. It first and foremost moves the grey bearded was destroyed, so that every trace of it warrior. His will resolves the destiny of vanished forever. It was battered to a people. atoms with ten thousand pounds of pow The campaign against the Ameers, who der-and beside the smoking ruins the old were to be conquered, began by forming warrior laid down to rest and dreamed of a strong point d'appui at the Northern line, his beloved mother, her beauteous face so as to cut them off from the hill country, smiling upon him. Strange power of the where they might in vain be chased from soul, thus to pass from the present to past ravine to ravine, and to compel them to or future, from realities to memory or the fight on their own ground, with no refuge ideal! The work done, he returned back save their desert fastnesses. The cold by nearly the same route. In a stragetic season was judiciously chosen, the men view, this march was a bold and brilliant and material were ready; the commander, stroke; as a military movement, it was with his strong heart and his camp equip-perfect in all its details. It is said to have age, consisting of a small valise, a pair of its equal only in that of Alexander on canteens, two camp-tables and a private Gedrosia, and of Marius against Capua: soldier's tent, the army well chosen and fully equipped, with a long line of solemn camels, their noses high up in the air, dragging nine-pounders tied to their tails as if But the effect upon the enemy was to they were feathers. The next step is to rouse them to fury. The veil of mystery cut the enemy off from their places of that had hung for centuries over their refuge in the desert, to stop the earths ere weired homes, had been rudely rent in the game is afoot. Thus he undertook a twain; the magic charm of a desert, in feat, not before recorded in military an- which neither man nor beast could live, nals, a march into a desert, a sea of sand, was shown to be a fable, their famous which no Eropean had ever crossed. He stronghold had been profaned by the in had only 350 men, mounted on camels, truder, nay, it had been blown to atoms. two soldiers on each, two 24lb. howitzers, So they caught up the word, "to fight for also with camel teams, and 200 of native Islam," and passed it, like the fiery cross, horse; provisions for fifteen days and water from tribe to tribe, until all the clans for four! With this handful of men, trust-gathered, all the princes were in arms, ing to his own skill, the courage of his and the whole race breathed war. At last troops, and that fortune which ever favors he meets them, in an intrenched position; the brave, that grim old warrior set out in the spies report they have twenty, thirty the beginning of the year 1843 to conquer thousand men. He takes into action 2,800, a kingdom. On they marched, day by day, of whom 700 only were British, with "through" sandy plains, over sandy hills, twelve guns. Let them be sixty or a where the camels fail and the old chief hundred thousand, I will fight," he says, helping himself the men run the guns and carries our mind to the hero-deeds of up with cheers, over vast regions, strewn fabled times. The ten thousand charging with shells and deeply covered with drifted at Marathon, Cortes with his stalwart sand, until on the seventh day, hot, thirsty Spaniards in Mexico, Lord Clive at Plassy and teilworn, yet strong and hopeful, this these memories rise before us on the little band of warriors see before them scenes on which this little warrior-band the famous fortress of Emaun Ghéer, stand-is moving. They march across the plain, ing in the midst of its sandy sea, with the swept by the guns of the enemy, in e'chelon

of battalions, and in spite of the galling fidence in himself and his men increasing, fire, the men keep touch and step, and until he felt quite at ease in the thickest of steadily look the foe in the face. Their fight, and could change his whole order of lines grow thinner, the fire hotter, when battle whilst the most terrific conflict was the fierce and enraged Beloochees throw going on all around him. Triumphi fole aside their guns and rush with sword and lowed triumph, and at last the whole of shield on their foes. Amazed and shaken Scinde was conquered, and Charles-Napier by the ferocity and masses of these swords-made its governor. But no time of rest men, the brave British give way under the came to him, nor did he desire it. The terrible pressure, when the grey old war-newly won kingdom was no sooner con⚫ rior appears in their front, raises his hat quered than it had to be defended, and and cheers; the cheer is taken up and on ever it was the conflict of a handful of they dash, impetuous and resistless. For men on one side and countless hosts of three hours the fierce combat endures; the natives on the other. The proportions fight is man to man and hand to hand, no gradually increased on both sides, and quarter is given or taken. At last, by a often, during the long years of fierce warbold manœuvre, the horse being ordered fare, Napier saw his early dreams fulfilled to ride down the river, the enemy's flank and himself at the head of a vast army. is turned and they are seen to retreat, not He overcomes all enemies, the foe before hastily or in a rout, but sullenly, ever turn him, the trials at home. For fever seizes ing defiantly and dispersing only when on him and his troops, prostrating their charged by cavalry or broken by grape-energies. Mutiny appears among new shot. The British troops reach the camp regiments, cholera spreads a deadly deso and the bloody field is won. A bloodylation and feat, sickness bears him down, field it was, and there were few wounded, domestic sorrow tries his heart, hostile “the slain had died well and quickly." Charles Napier won great renown by this hard earned victory; he showed through out the skill and courage of a soldier, and approved himself a leader of men.

measures disturb his policy, but the old hero, with the eagle countenance, grimly holds his own and overcomes them all.

After five years of unbroken, unheard of labor, he resigned to save his wife's But, better than that he rested not a life, and in the autumn of 1847, left Scinde. moment before gathering the fruits of his Strange must have been his feelings as he success. At day-break, whilst the panic looked his last on that land, the scene of defeat was still upon the Ameers, and where his boldest dreams had been real terror rife, he summoned the great city of ized, where laurels had crowned the grey Hydrabad to surrended. They demand head, where he had seen things such as terms. "Life and nothing else," was the few men see, and dared things which reply, "decide before mid-day, for the dead fewer men still dare and live, where he will then be buried and my men will have had buried his dead and won his great had their breakfast." Then was seen a fame. Soon he was once more in Eng. prócession slowly approaching, and the land, where he was met by the applause sixty-six chief Ameers enter the camp and of the nation, the love and honor of com> lay their jewelled swords at the conquer-rades, and, what he by no means valued or's feet. Beaten and dispirited, they aban- least, the praise of the Great Captain, thẻ don the defence, though the walls were Iron Duke. But a greater triumph than all high and built on solid rock, and a host of these was in reserve for lum. A great well armed men within the great city. Three days after the battle the British flag was flying from the towers of the old romantic city, British soldiers its masters, and the Ameers their captives, their for tress and fabulous treasure their prize,, -

But soon new armies are gathered by the enemy, and new battles have to be fought. Napier grows with every success, his con

crisis took place in India, the British arms met with a check, and the power of the Empire was threatened. A man for the emergency was wanted, and with one loud acclaim the people demanded Charles Napier. The Duke of Wellington sent for him, and in his laconic language told him: Either you or I must go." So he went, always obedient to the summons of duty,