THE RETREAT FROM MONS.
(To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") Sra,—While it is interesting to hear that some of the men whose lives were saved by the German halt at Mons are still alive, the Bishop of Durham might have illustrated his explanation of that halt (as due to a divinely sent mirage of British reinforcements) had he referred to Kinglake (Invasion of the Crimea, Fain. 6, III., p. 151 sq.). At the Alma the Russian Vladimir column—which had been specially blessed by the Archbishop of Moscow (p. 148)— was saved from punishment by a sudden cry among the English ; " The column is French. Don't fire, men; for God's sake don't fire!" and Colonel Chester, trying to correct the mistake, " was struck first by one shot, then almost instantly by another . . . and fell dead " (p. 151). But the English, in turn, were saved, for the column halted inexplicably in the middle of its charge (p. 152). Then a heavy column was seen to be marching upon our left flank, of which, however, Kinglake says: "The Russian accounts do not support this belief." Still, an unauthorized bugle twice sounded the " Retire," and, to the benefit of the Russians, our men reluctantly fell back (pp. 155-56), exposed to severe fire, which, however, the enemy strangely withheld (p. 157). The whole passage in Kinglake deserves study.
At the Alma, then, in four successive incidents, not less con- vincing than that at Mons, we have evidence of divine interven- tion alternately (as Kinglake, with a candour rare in such narra- tives, records) in favour of the enemy and of ourselves. The parallel is, indeed, striking, though the more recent seems the more remarkable mercy, for the horses of the German cavalry, mixed in the firing advance of their infantry, also appreciated the threatening mirage of British supports. The retreat of our men from the Russian redoubt corresponds (except in its im- munity from casualties and tactical loss) with our resumed retreat from Mons. In fact, Mr. Machen, in his romance, The Bowmen of Mons, seems to have been gifted, not with imaginative talent, but with prophetic instinct, for his story preceded all that the soldiers have said about the miracle.
These cases, of course, must be carefully distinguished from those in which the gods fought by the side of Homeric heroes, or the Twin Brethren for the Romans at Lake Regillus. Apart from the difficulty of admitting miracles worked for unbelievers, the credulity of the Greeks and Romans is notorious. But the Bishop of Durham himself draws a noteworthy distinction for us. In previously reported cases of divine intervention, including the earlier reports of Mons, the divinely sent delusion was seen by tho beneficiaries (at Mons, ourselves); in the instance for which be vouches the deluded were the losers—the Germans, whom the Ninth French Army stopped at the Marne.—I am, Sir, &c.,
HARSHISH.
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