Hennessey went back to the Peninsula and began again the old life of
reckless daring, mixed with insubordination, drunkenness, and robbery.
At last, in one of the battles of the Pyrenees, a cannon-ball carried
off his head--a relief alike to his friends and foes, for the former
were ever in fear that death at the hands of the provost-marshal would
be his fate. The end of the brave Guibert is not less sad. Napoleon,
upon hearing of his humane and gallant conduct, bestowed the Cross of
the Legion upon him. Some man with better interest disputed the
drummer's right to the distinction, and obtained the cherished
decoration for himself. Guibert, enraged at his well-earned honour being
robbed from him, forgot his higher honour, tried to desert, was taken
and shot. What strange episodes of individual heroism dashed with human
nature's weakest traits does war hold in its vast tragedy! What extremes
of pathos and absurdity jostle each other daily along the road of
conflict! In the fight at Elvina Napier's bosom friend and comrade,
Charles Stanhope, was shot dead while leading on his men to support his
senior officer then under the French guns. The two men thus fighting so
valiantly had each a brother on Moore's staff--George Napier and Edward
Stanhope. Both these aides-de-camp long searched for their brothers amid
the dead and wounded. Stanhope's body alone was found, for Napier's
capture was not known for months after the battle, and he was reckoned
among the missing dead. The body of Stanhope was brought back to the
bivouac and buried there. His surviving brother was passionately
attached to him, and when the moment came to fill in the hastily-made
grave he leant over it to take a last look at the dead man's face. At
that moment a ball from the enemy struck him, but the thick folds of his
cloak, which was worn rolled across his chest, stopped the bullet, and
prevented Death from joining together in the same grave the brothers he
had shortly before separated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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