Literary Extracts: There is a very pretty story which I shall read to you, and which, to my mind, is a complete instance of the beautiful in morals.”At the siege of Namur by the Allies, there were in the ranks of the company commanded by Captain Pinsent, in Col. Frederic Hamilton’s regiment, one Unnion, a corporal, and one Valentine, a private sentinel. There happened between those two men a dispute about a matter of love, which, upon some aggravations, grew to an irreconcilable hatred. Unnion, being the officer of Valentine, took all opportunities even to strike his rival, and profess his spite and revenge which moved him to it; the sentinel bore it without resistance, but frequently said he would die to be revenged of that tyrant They had spent whole months thus, one injuring, the other complaining; when, in the midst of this rage towards each other, they were commanded upon the attack of the castle, where the corporal received a shot in the thigh, and fell. The French passing on and he, expecting to be trampled to death, called out to his enemy, “Ah! Valentine, can you leave me here?” Valentine immediately ran back, and in the midst of a thick fire of the French, took the corporal upon his back, and brought him through all that danger as far as the Abbey of Salsine, where a cannon ball took off his head; his body fell under his enemy whom he was carrying off. Unnion immediately forgot his wound, rose up, tearing his hair, and then threw himself upon the bleeding carcass, crying, “Ah, Valentine! was it for me who have so barbarously used thee, that thou hast died. I will not live after thee.” He was not by any means to be forced from the body but was removed with it bleeding in his arms, and attended with tears by all their comrades who knew their enmity. When he was brought to a tent, his wounds were dressed by force; but the next day, still calling upon Valentine and lamenting his cruelties to him, he died in the pangs of remorse and despair. It may be a question among men of noble sentiment, whether any of these unfortunate persons had the greater soul—he that was so generous as to venture his life for his enemy, or he who could not survive the man who died in laying upon him such an obligation?” These are the beautiful feelings which lie hidden in every man’s heart, which alone makes life worth having, and prevent us from looking upon the world as a den of wild beasts thirsting for each other’s blood. — Sydney Smith’s Lectures:
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