He seemed to be dead;--at least,
R------ thinks that he did not really see him, fixedly as he appeared to
gaze. The officer held his sword in his hand, and R------ tried in vain
to wrest it from him, until suddenly the clutch relaxed. R------ still
keeps the sword hung up over his mantel-piece. I asked him how the dead
man's aspect affected him. He replied that he felt nothing at the time;
but that ever since, in all trouble, in uneasy sleep, and whenever he is
out of tune, or waking early, or lying awake at night, he sees this
officer's face, with the clear bright eyes and the pleasant smile, just
as distinctly as if he were bending over him. His wound was in the
breast, exactly on the spot that R------ had aimed at, and bled
profusely. The enemy advanced in such masses, he says, that it was
impossible not to hit them unless by purposely firing over their heads.
After the battle, R------ leaped over the rampart, and took a prisoner
who was standing unarmed in the midst of the slain, having probably
dropped down during the heat of the action, to avoid the hail-storm of
rifle-shots. As he led him in, the prisoner paused, and pointed to an
officer who was lying dead beside his dead horse, with his foot still in
the stirrup. "There lies our General," said he. The horse had been
killed by a grape-shot, and Pakenham himself, apparently, by a
six-pounder ball, which had first struck the earth, covering him from
head to foot with mud and clay, and had then entered his side, and gone
upward through his breast.
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