France as a glorious achievement of her armies, it had a most beneficial effect upon the tribes of Algiers, who looked upon the French as something more than human for having dared to attempt it.

As soon as the soldiers-carrying in their hands leafy branches, torn from the scattered palms, which counted their growth by cen. turies, and grew here and there among the rocks-issued forth into this lonely dell, they saluted with shouts of joy and welcome, that sun which they had completely lost sight of in the previous abyss, whose rays now almost blinded them. Here they halted for a space to rest, and under the influence of recollections, fresh and vivid, of the awful scenery which they had traversed, these brave men soon forgot all their fatigues in communicating to each other impressions made upon them by the wonders they had witnessed.

Militarily, to occupy or bar the Biban Pass would be impossible, since it can be turned, but for the light infantry to do so, would have required some days, when every minute was precious. The DUKE OF ORLEANS did everything that the military art teaches to get possession as soon as possible of the farther end of the defile, and thus, in a measure, to insure the safe passage of the column. Fortunately, all the measures which foresight indicated were superfluous. Not a single enemy showed himself. The expedition was favored with the finest weather, and nothing surpassed the joyous sense of relief in which the army passed the first evening out of this Brobdinagian trap.

The next day, the 29th October, the division which had bivouacked on the bank of the river Makalou, six miles north of El Biban, traversed an immense forest, and finally reached another beautiful valley, bordered by the chain of the Jurjura. Here Marshal VALEE derived intelligence, from letters seized upon captured messengers of ABD-EL KADER, that the Kalifa (Lieutenant) of the Emir had established himself on the plateau of the Fort of Hamza, in order to bar the road to Algiers against the advancing division.

To frustrate this movement, the division made a forced march on the 30th, through a country so destitute of drinkable water, and so abundant in salty, that the natives styled it the "Thirsty Way."

Meanwhile, the DUKE OF ORLEANS pushed ahead, with two or three companies of picked infantry, the whole of the cavalry, and two mountain howitzers, in the direction of Hamza. This fort occupies a position selected with judgment. During the period of the Turkish domination it was a place of such importance that the

Deys always maintained a strong garrison within its walls. This was by no means due to any military perceptions of their engineers, for the Romans, unsurpassed in their occupation of keypoints, built a fort there, named Auzea, coeval with their first invasion of the country, which was confided to a garrison of veterans. Tradition ascribes, however, the foundation of Hamza to a king of Tyre, who flourished nine centuries before the Christian era. The last account belongs to fable rather than history; but the French were only following the footsteps of the Romans, who won more than one signal victory under its ancient walls, which dominate a vast plain at the intersection of three valleys, the first leading towards Algiers, about fifty-five miles to the northwest; the second towards Bougia, from seventy to eighty miles to the northeast, and the third to the Gates of Iron (El Biban), from forty to fifty miles to the eastward. To the westward again, a road crosses through a depression, or "Col," of the Jurjurah to Medeah, fifty-five miles to the west by south on an air line.*

When the French column arrived on the heights of the Qued (Stream) Hamza, the hills on the opposite side were covered with mounted Arabs, who broke and fled without firing a shot as soon as they were charged by the French cavalry. This must be the action which, serves as the basis for the anecdote of Count ST. MARIE, for it does not appear that the Arabs had any artillery with them in the other actions in the open field in which the Duke was present, nor is there any account of warlike opposition at any previous time during the advance of the expedition: "One day, at sunrise, the rocks called the Iron Gates in the Bibans were covered with Arabs, defending the passage of the defile. The DUKE OF ORLEANS, enveloped in a brown burnous, appeared on horseback at the head of the first attacking column. In the midst of a shower of grapeshot, ordering the charge to be sounded, he was the first to reach the guns of the Arabs, which he compelled them to abandon in disorder."

The fort of Hamza was found deserted; 150 Arab regulars, thrown into it as a garrison, had abandoned it. The fort, which had been a square, with bastions at the corners-the French ex

* It is extremely difficult to locate places on the maps, for the reason that the different accounts not only disagree with each other, but with any map, and the maps themselves, English and French, and French and semi-official French, are not only discordant as to names, but as to locations.

pression is a "starry-square," (carré etoile)—was little better than a mass of ruins. The revetments had either fallen or were in a miserable condition, so as scarcely to hold together or sustain themselves. The interior constructions were nothing better than heaps of rubbish. Five cannon were found here, three of which were spiked.

Having completed the destruction of this once important stronghold, the French resumed their march, expecting to be attacked at any moment by the tribes which acknowledged the authority of ABD-EL-KADER, whose territories they had now entered. They did not meet with any resistance of the slightest consequence until, on reaching a plateau along one of the affluents of the Issen, they found themselves in face of a body of cavalry and quite a numerous array of infantry. The DUKE OF ORLEANS, having placed some companies in ambush, turned the Arabs with his cavalry, and drove them against the companies in reserve. These did not fire until the Arabs almost ran against the muzzles of their muskets. Then the French poured upon them such a slaughtering volley as put them to flight with quite a severe loss; a few shells from the mountain howitzers cleaned them out entirely. RAASLOFF calls this a brilliant affair, and adds, as if they constituted more formidable obstructions, that the column crossed a number of mountain streams, which in less favorable weather might have proved impassable. Some of these traverse the Biban Pass itself. One is an affluent of the Adousse, which empties into the Gulf of Bougia. All are capable of being transformed by a single heavy shower into raging torrents.

The same difficulties attended the march of the next day, 1st November, and it was late in the evening before the column, worn out by the terrible fatigues which they had undergone, reached the camp of Fondouck, where the division RULHIERE, sent out from Algiers to escort them in, awaited their arrival. Thus ended an excursion-which deserves the title of a "military promenade" rather than any more serious term-of seven days, through a country bristling with perils, inhabited by a population which had always inspired the previous rulers of Algiers with the greatest dread and caused them the liveliest disquietude for the stability of their power. The distance accomplished was not in itself so very great, ranging from 150 to 200 miles, but the natural difficulties overcome made it more trying and laborious than an ordinary march of

double the distance. The news of the successful arrival of the column in Algiers occasioned, not only in the colony but throughout France, the liveliest joy and enthusiasm, which, to comprehend, a man must appreciate the dangers which actually impended over it, verily, like the sword of Democles.

The route followed by this comparatively "little band" led through warlike and inimical tribes, from whom no assistance, in the shape of the necessaries of life, could be expected; but on the contrary, open hostilities at any moment. The whole of

the country traversed was in the highest degree difficult, and the unforeseen occupation of the "Iron Gates," or even a few heavy showers, might have proved the ruin of the division. The country itself, and its resources, were only known by report through the accounts of the Arab guides, who were little to be depended on. Such critical circumstances constitute the greatest charm, however, of war, and elevate the soldier, not only in his own eyes, but in those of his comrades and countrymen.

When the column arrived at Algiers, the enthusiasm was indescribable. The DUKE OF ORLEANS gave a grand banquet to the whole division in the square of Bab Azum. Thus, in the beginning of November, 1837, joy reigned in Algiers, and the future was forgotten-while the storm-clouds were gathering over the Colony, which burst with a suddenness and fury as terrible as unexpected. No one surmised that this apparent triumph was the forerunner of the greatest disaster. It is impossible, in such a work as this, to go further into anything like a historic consideration of the causes which led to the ensuing campaign, in which KEARNY was conspicuous, and made the American name glorious through his fortitude and his valor. ABD-EL-KADER - who knew that every action which tended to elevate the French in the opinion of the natives depreciated his own influence in an equal degree-had been waiting for a pretext, and was glad that an excuse was now given him for the resumption of hostilities, by this expedition through the "Gates of Iron." He held his forces all ready in the leash, and now he let them loose in all the fury of fire and sword upon that beautiful plain of the Metidjah, which embraces Algiers in its arc of luxuriant fertility, whose either extremity bathes its

verdure in the sea. No declaration of war preceded the inburst of devastation. Up to the very gates of Algiers swept the Arabian cavalry in the prosecution of what they deemed a “Holy War." The Emir's fury fell, not only upon the scattered garrisons beyond the reach of succor; upon the colonists who saw the fruits of years of patient toil disappear in a moment in flame; but also upon the native tribes who had submitted to the French and had refused to arm against them. Years afterwards, the sad mementoes of this erruption were still visible in the Metidjah, and the colonists had not yet recovered their confidence in the protection of the French government, for the political horizon could scarcely have seemed more serene, on the evening of the 30th November, 1839, and yet with the dawn of the next day the hordes of ABD-EL-KADER poured down from the Lesser Atlas, and, except within the lines of Algiers, left nothing behind them but corpses, ruins and ashes. All who survived were dragged into captivity. It is said that Marshal VALER was not disappointed at this turn in events; and if those who treat of the French Dominion in Algiers are correct in their judgment of his character, it was very likely that he was pleased at the opportunity of adding to his military renown by a successful campaign at the close of his life. The idea expressed. by RAASLOFF, the Danish eye-witness, is equivalent to this: "The Emir precipitated the hostilities which Marshal VALEE had invited." RAASLOFF's exact words are: "VALEE and ABD-EL-KADER wished to bring on the war.'

This chapter is the only one in the whole book which is not founded on original doenments, or well-known works. There is only one definite authority for it, quoted at the head of the Chapter, which is to be found at Page 290, Vol. 1: “Quatre Aus de Campagnes a l'Armee du Potomac, par REGIS DE TROBRIAND, Ex-Major-General au Service Volontaire, et Colonel au Service Regulaire des Etats Unis d'Amerique," Paris, 1868; which seemed sufficiently corroborated by rumor, intimations and references in letters. The subjectmatter of the residue of this biography is either founded on personal knowledge, publications, or information derived from actors in the events treated of. In almost every case, where practicable, the language of the original has been incorporated. Whether or no KEARNY accompanied the Duke of Orleans to Africa in the Fall of 1839, this chapter is nevertheless valuable, inasmuch as it serves as an introduction to the subsequent campaign, and more particularly as it presents an accurate account of one of the most brilliant expeditions of the French Army in Algiers. Although scarcely attended with any bloodshed, it is a notable example of what may be accomplished by audacious energy in an art or science in which success depends on what the Romans verified two thousand years ago, and Marshal SAXE formulized as a rule or principle of war, that victory depends more upon the legs than upon the arms of the soldiers. This all great Captains demonstrated to be the fact since we have any reliable accounts of military progress.