Nemours, "happy are they who are not wounded to the death (or mortally); they will live to enjoy the triumph-i. e., or reap the rewards." Then he withdrew to his tent, and the next day the army had to deplore his decease. VALEE received the prize due to DAMREMONT, just as too many in our late civil war assumed the laurels which ought to have been hung on the tombstones of the dead.

For the capture of this African stronghold-the prize of so much blood and suffering-VALEE was raised to the dignity of Marshal of France, and made Governor-General of Algiers. His power was despotic, and his disposition did not move him to use his authority with gentleness. W. VON RAASLOFF, a distinguished representative of the Danish Artillery, afterwards Minister or Political Agent from Denmark to this country, hereinbefore quoted, who made the campaign in 1840 under him, and another under BUGEAUD, would seem to represent him as one of the most severe and most unfeeling of men. If his character is not overdrawn by this writer, he might almost be styled pitiless.

RAASLOFF relates two anecdotes of VALEE, the first of which occurred while he was serving in Spain during the time of NAPOLEON; of the second of these the Danish Volunteer was an eye-witness. The one proves that VALEE had no generous appreciation of the nobility of manhood, the other that he had no sympathy for the grandeur of that fortitude which NAPOLEON declared to be the first of military virtues. KEARNY himself related another incident, which shows such a hard heart, that it is to be hoped that memory has been treacherous. Upon one occasion an hospital had been established in a position which the Marshal bad selected for his headquarters, or else the cries of the wounded disturbed him. He at once ordered them to be removed out of earshot; and that night the Arabs made a dash, or stole within the lines, and cut off all their heads. This, however, was about the substance of the story. Whether this be true or not, the old Marshal was a pitiless disciplinarian. His Napoleonic contempt for human life, as RAASLOFF styles it, would not be tolerated by our soldiers in this country.

Yet it was, perhaps, well that KEARNY saw his first real service under such a man, who, with all his faults, was a commander of very great ability, and the "creator of the French Artillery" of his day. It taught him the difference between the true and the sham,

the "Man of Iron" from the want of appreciation of men, and the "Man of Iron" from the inexorable demand of the hour, the latter the man for the crisis of a nation. He could apprehend all that was great in VALEE and lay it to heart as an example to be followed, and appreciate all that was unworthy of imitation, as exemplified by his speech to the DUKE OF ORLEANS, when the young Prince bade adieu to his troops after the expedition through the "Iron Gates." Amid the profound and general emotion, VALEE was heard to exclaim: "Now it is time to die. After having counted three sons of the King in my army, and having seen two under fire, nothing is left for me but to quit (dechoir)."

ABD-EL-KADER, which signifies "Servant of the Almighty," and refers to his saintly extraction and religious education and claims, a true representative of Arab ability, was a politician of no mean capacity, and a General well adapted to develop and direct the warlike and fanatic tribes which acknowledged his authority. His personal appearance was alone sufficient to inspire respect. The writer had ample opportunities of judging of this. He was introduced to him in 1851, had rooms adjacent to him in the same hotel in Marseilles, and saw him again in 1852 at Avignon. At this time he was about forty-seven years of age. No portrait begins to do justice to his beauty-if such a term can be applied to a man; although it is just in his case, for very few women could surpass him in the delicacy and regularity of his features. Select the handsomest portrait ever exhibited of this Arab Chieftain, and it falls far short of the original in the prime of manhood, since no painting could give any idea of the gentle expression of his eyes and countenance in repose, nor of its fire when aroused.

AS KEARNY's report of his experiences in Algiers, made to MajorGeneral SCOTT, on his return in the fall of 1840-although diligent search has been made in former years, and even after this was partly written-is not to be found among the archives of the War Department nor elsewhere, and as all documents, letters, and memoranda relating to his service in Africa appear to have been destroyed, therefore a tenacious memory, the narratives of cotemporaries, and a series of first-class works on Algerian affairs, are the sources from which the following chapters or narratives have been compiled. That KEARNY went to Algiers with the DUKE OF ORLEANS was always understood; that he passed the Gates of Iron with that Prince is stated by a military historian; that he was at the storming of the

Pass at Mouzaia is testified by the Prince DE JOINVILLE, brother of the DUKE OF ORLEANS that he displayed great gallantry and fortitude is borne witness to by his immediate commander and comrades. Many of the incidents can be corroborated from the reminiscences of the writer, who had them from KEARNY himself, from references in letters, and from conversations in Europe and Africa with participants in the campaign of 1840. The descriptions of the operations themselves, and of the localities are from the best historical works upon the subject, or from the narratives of volunteers who took part in the events which they describe. The operations in the fall of 1839, and of the spring and summer of 1840, were among the most glorious for the French arms in Africa. In October, the Duke of Orleans achieved a moral military triumph which will ever be coupled with his name the passage of the "Iron Gates of the Atlas." The marvelous cleft threaded by the French column was justly considered impracticable for an army, much more so for one carrying with it any kind of artillery or material. The natives were almost justified in believing that no armed opposition was necessary to render it unfortunate, since nature itself had done all that was requisite to make it dreadful and perilous, and a single shower could not only render the bold adventure impossible, but utterly destructive. . The belief that the Roman Legionaries— those universal and irresistible conquerors, who have left traces of their iron-handed occupation throughout Northern Africa, in whatever quarter the French have penetrated-had never achieved the passage of these "Iron Gates," must have been a great incentive to the Duke and to his troops. To accomplish what the Romans had not, was indeed a superlative honor. At all events, the fact was well established, that if the Roman Eagles, at some unknown date, had gone through the "Iron Gates," no other military ensign had passed through except the Gallic Cock, eleven years afterwards, to be superseded by the Imperial Eagle.

In the ensuing year the same young, gallant Prince achieved even greater fame by a purely military triumph at the Pass of the Mouzaia, since the Gates of Iron were not defended; whereas the Col de Mouzaia, scarcely less strong by nature, was held by a strong force of ABD-EL-KADER's best regular troops, likewise an army of irregulars, admirable sharpshooters, all inspired with the courage of fanaticism, which, in such a natural fortress, could not have been overcome but by the discipline of picked veterans win

CHAPTER VII.

THROUGH EL BIBAN!

"Il visita ensuite l'Algéric ou il obtint d'occompagner le Duc D'ORLEANS, comme aidede-camp honoraire, pendant la campagne des Portes dé Fer."

DE TROBRIAND, 1, 290. "To traverse the Black Mountains from Neustadt to Freyburg, it is necessary, for the space of two hours, to travel along a narrow valley between perpendicular rocks. This valley, or rather this crevice, at the end of which runs a torrent, is only a few paces wide, and is named the Valley of Hell. By this terrible defile the greater part of the French army (under MOREAU, in 1796,) traversed the Black Forest, with an enemy (the Austrian army) on its front, on its flanks, and in its rear. It was of this valley that Marshal VILLARS, in 1700, wrote the following concise note to the Elector of Bavaria, who pressed VILLARS to cross the Black Forest and join him: This Valley of Neustadt, which you propose to me' is the road which the people call the Valley of Hell.' Well, if your Highness will pardon me the expression, I am not devil enough to pass through it.”—Campagnes de Moreau; Cust's "Annals of the Wars," § 43, 1, 5, 56. Compare MURRAY'S "Handbook for Southern Germany," 397.

—“ behold black Acheron ! Once consecrated to the sepulchre."

-CHILDE HAROLD.

"Come on, we'll quickly find a surer footing, And something like a pathway, which the torrent Hath wash'd since winter."

-MANFRED.

In the summer and early fall of 1839, the despatches from the Generals in Algiers to the Home Government plainly demonstrated that hostilities, sooner or later, were inevitable. ABD-EL KADER seemed to look forward to a renewal of the war as the only method of maintaining his authority over the Confederation of Tribes, which he had labored so long to bring about and consolidate. Marshal VALEE, Governor-General of the French possessions, was perfectly willing to accept the gage of defiance, and was even willing to provoke the Emir to throw it down that he might take it up.

This state of affairs soon became known in the army, and thus, at an early date, KEARNY became apprised of what was going on in Africa. He at once applied to the French Government for permission to accompany an expedition into the interior, and make a campaign under generals who had already won a reputation where

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ever a soldier's name was known and respected. His request was acceded to, and whether as an honorary aid on the staff of the DUKE OF ORLEANS, or as a supernumerary officer attached to the finest light cavalry regiment in the service, he had an opportunity to acquire, under the best conditions, a practical military knowledge, and learn the utmost which a soldier is called upon to endure. These gratifying appointments gave him a delightful position and protected him against the prejudices entertained by the aged commander-in-chief against foreign officers, whose presence in his camp was extremely distasteful to him. They annoyed and bored him. Such, at all events, was KEARNY's opinion. And armed with despotic power, and gifted with an unamiable disposition, it is not likely that he would have made the American volunteer's service particularly agreeable to him, had the young transatlantic dragoon been forced to come in direct contact with him, or without the intermediation of powerful and willing protectors.

In the fall of 1839 an expeditionary corps was assembled in the province of Constantine, whose constituents were brought thither partly in transports, direct from France, and partly from Algiers.

The command-in-chief was assumed by Marshal VALEE. Under him the DUKE OF ORLEANS had a fine division. To the staff of the latter Lieutenant PHILIP KEARNY was attached as an honorary aidde-camp.* The Marshal and Royal Duke privately resolved to undertake with this eorps the somewhat adventurous march from Constantine, along the Akkaba precipices, through the Jujura (Djordjora) to Algiers-adventurous, indeed, for if ABD-EL-KADER, or any of his dependents (which latter, at that time, the French had no longer any right to trust), with a mere handful of their people, had undertaken to bar the way, at certain defensible points, the French column, totally destitute of any resources except those which it carried with it, would have been placed in a most desperate position; nay, more, if only a few days of rain had occurred, the principal defile would have become totally impassable. When all these risks are taken into consideration, this march seems like a bravado, since no real advantages could be obtained through it, while, on the contrary, as long as ABD-EL-KADER had not ratified the Convention of Tafna, which regulated the boundaries of the French and his own jurisdiction, and had not publicly acknowledged

* DE TROBRIAND'S "Quatre ans de Campagnes, etc,' '1, 290.