In the great battle which finally broke the power of Napoleon, William
Havelock had been acting as aide-de-camp to baron von Alten, who had
succeeded to the command of general Craufurd's division. We are told
that William 'had done the baron a service' during the engagement, and
that the general was anxious to prove his gratitude. The special
'service' the young soldier had rendered is not mentioned, but we may
take it for granted that William Havelock had in some way saved his
life. However, in answer to the general's offer of reward, William said
that he had all he could possibly wish for, and so the matter ended for
the moment. But when he came home, and found Henry with all his plans
changed, and not knowing how to set about making a career for himself,
the baron von Alten's words flashed into his mind.
'You were always fond of soldiering,' he said to Henry one day, 'and I
believe you could describe the battles I have fought in almost as well
as I could. If the baron can give me a commission for you, will you take
it? I am sure you would make a splendid soldier.'
Henry's eyes beamed. Somehow he had never thought of that. At the
Charterhouse he had been laughed at for his love of books, and called
the 'Phlos.'--short for 'Philosopher'--by the boys. He had always, too,
been very religious, and after his mother's death (which occurred when
he was about fourteen) had gathered four of his special friends round
him once or twice a week in the big dormitory where they all slept, in
order that they might read the Bible together. Yet there was in Havelock
much of the spirit of the old crusader and of his enemy, the follower of
Mahomet the prophet, and though, unlike them, he did not deal out death
as the punishment of a rejected faith, still he positively delighted in
fighting, and indeed looked on it as a sacred duty.
So the commission was obtained, and Henry, now second lieutenant in the
Rifle Brigade, then called the 95th, was sent to Shorncliffe, and
captain Harry Smith was his senior officer. The Boer war has made us
very well acquainted with the name of this gentleman, for in after years
it was given to the town of Harrismith in South Africa, while his wife's
has become immortal in 'Ladysmith.'
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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