Equality in Danger

: Soldiers.

The French General, Cherin, was once conducting a
detachment through a very difficult defile. He exhorted his soldiers to

endure patiently the fatigues of the march. "It is easy for you to talk,"

said one of the soldiers near him; "you who are mounted on a fine

horse--but we poor devils!"--On hearing these words, Cherin dismounted, and

quickly proposed to the discontented soldier to take his place. The latter

did so; but scar ely had he mounted, when a shot from the adjoining

heights struck and killed him. "You see," says Cherin, addressing his

troops, "that the most elevated place is not the least dangerous." After

which he remounted his horse, and continued the march.





Marshal Suwarrow in his march to the attack of Ockzakow, proceeded with

such rapidity at the head of his advanced guard, that his men began to

murmur at the fatigues they endured. The Marshal, apprized of this

circumstance, after a long day's march, drew his men up in a hollow square,

and addressing them, said, "that his legs had that day discovered some

symptoms of mutiny, as they refused to second the impulses of his mind,

which urged him forward to the attack of the enemy's fortress." He then

ordered his boots to be taken off, and some of the drummers to advance with

their cats, and flog his legs, which ceremony was continued till they bled

considerably. He put on his boots again very coolly, expressing a hope that

his legs would in future better know how to discharge their duty. The

soldiers after that marched on without a murmur, struck at once with the

magnanimity of their commander, and the ingenuity of his device to remind

them of their duty.