People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 April 1894 — Plucky Boy Soldier. [ARTICLE]

Plucky Boy Soldier.

In the recollections of “A Man of Letters Under the Empire and the Restoration” a story is told of a French poet, Marquis de Saint-Marc, which would do credit to some of the military heroes of history. When Saint-Marc was fifteen years old he was ensign of a troop of cavalry in the French army and took part in the battle of Fontenoy. The first charge of the English columns scattered and overthrew the first line of Saint-Marc’s regiment, and the boy, seated on his horse and unharmed, waa left alone. “In that terrible moment,” be said, speaking of it afterward, “I remembered nothing except that I had been told not to flinch, and always to hold my standard upright. I did that with all my strength. Then the second line rushed forward. Before I quite understood it I wa« surrounded with friends, who wrapped me up in my flag and carried me to Louis XV., who embraced me and made me lieutenant then and there.”