animal, also mortally wounded, reared, and in falling covered his master.
The regiment, being commanded to charge, had rushed impetuously on the guards of the Corsican. It had already broken their ranks, and our brave fellows were cutting them down without mercy. They had no time to think of what was behind them. Prodigious masses of cavalry and horse-artillery followed to support the regiment, and such of the fallen as had not been killed outright were now trodden and trampled to death.
For days and weeks I delayed the communication of this melancholy intelligence to the unfortunate Mimili; and yet it was a duty that must be performed some time or other. At length I sat down, with a heavy heart, to write to her old neighbour, with a view that he might break the matter to her by degrees, when a letter from him was put into my hands.
Mimili was ill. Anxiety for the safety of William, from whom she had not heard so long, and grief together, had broken her heart. It was very doubtful, so the old man wrote, whether my answer would find her among the living; but yet he entreated me to communicate such information as I possessed, be it ever so unfavourable; it would serve to smooth her passage to the grave, and, of course, be a real benefit conferred on her.
