Victoria Cross

“ On the 26th, her Majesty presided over one of the most interesting functions of her reign—the first distribution of the Victoria Cross, or Cross of Valour, to the men who had earned it by personal prowess in war. It is a curious fact that till this period no English sovereign ever decorated an Englishman for being brave. Courage in England is so common and cheap, said Mr. Bright once, that it can be bought easily for less than a shilling a day. ”

“ One thing more the Queen planned to do for her soldiers, and that was to give a badge of special honor to those who had been especially distinguished by some deed of rare bravery. This badge was the Victoria Cross, which was then bestowed for the first time. With it went a pension of fifty dollars a year. More than one hundred thousand people assembled in Hyde Park to see the sixty-two chosen heroes receive their Crosses. The Queen was now in the scarlet jacket of the army. Prince Albert rode on one side of her and Prince Frederick William on the other side. ”

“ She lives in a phantom Court, believing herself still Empress of Mexico, and that the Emperor will soon come home from the wars to her and the throne.
There was this summer a memorable show in Hyde Park, when Queen Victoria on horseback, in her becoming military dress, pinned with her own hands on to the coats of a large number of heroes of the great war the coveted Victoria Cross. Ah! they were proud and she was prouder. She is a true soldier's daughter; her heart always thrills at deeds of valor and warms at sight of a hero, however humble. ”

“ And if at times we read of a Victoria Cross being sold (almost invariably for a large amount) to some collector, we may be sure that another V.C. hero has joined the great majority. The instances in which a recipient of the Cross has parted with his decoration in his lifetime are very rare, and this despite the most tempting offers for the same that are known to have been made. For no medal that can be won by the officers and men of either Service is so highly prized when gained as the little bronze Maltese cross bearing the golden words, “For Valour.” ”

“ For this reason the Victoria Cross is jealously guarded, and if there be suspicion that the man is playing to the gallery or out pot-hunting for medals, as they call it, he is often left to head his charges and rescue his wounded all over again as a guarantee of good faith.
In the Great War there was very little suspicion, or chance, of gallery-play for the V.C., because there was ample opportunity and, very often, strong necessity, for a man to repeat his performances several times over. ”

“ But then, as the private soldier had no chance of displaying any quality in war save courage, it was obvious that the new Order must seek a basis in individual heroism alone. The Queen, struck by the episodical incidents of the Crimean War, was strongly of opinion in 1856 that exceptional deeds of personal valour should have more distinctive recognition than the war medal which every man received, however slight might have been his share in the campaign. In that year, therefore, she instituted, by the Royal Warrant of January 29th, 1856, the Order of the Victoria Cross. ”

“ Since that time we learn from the London Gazette that the Victoria Cross has been awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel McNeill, of the 107th Regiment; to Assistant-Surgeons Temple and Manley, and Lieutenant Picquard, of the Royal Artillery; and to Ensign Down and Drummer Stagpoole, of the 57th Regiment, in recognition of gallant deeds done in New Zealand. The bestowal of the Cross on Assistant-Surgeon Temple, R.A., was a tardy act of justice ”

“ His left arm is suspended in a sling, his black hair does not quite cover the mark of a sabre-cut as well as his black beard conceals the lower part of his face—he wears five medals on his breast—but more than these he bears that which none but the brave with the brave can share, the noblest decoration the nineteenth century has seen—one beyond the reach of ordinary knights-bachelors—the Victoria Cross. ”

“ THE QUEEN says of Victoria Cross’s “Six Women”:
“What is so marked in these stories is the beauty of the writing. Her atmosphere is delightful. The Eastern stories are full of the colour and the atmosphere of the East. No one can do anything but envy the author’s touch in the description of Eastern buildings and gardens. It makes no difference to Victoria Cross whether she is writing of India or Damascus or Omdurman, she invests them all with an atmosphere which is not only enchanting but carries the stamp of truth on it.”
LITERARY WORLD:
“Full of powerful writing and fertile imagination.” ”

“ When our soldiers come to value their crosses at threepence each, the price they will fetch at a marine store, we shall not long survive as a nation. But there is little danger of such an eventuality. There are things—God be thanked—which we do love and value more than life itself—things which gold can not purchase. The Victoria Cross is one of them; and we are about to relate how three gallant officers of one of our most distinguished regiments came to be decorated with the priceless meed “For Valour.” ”

“ The Badge is an eight-rayed star bearing (on one side) the Royal Cypher and (on the other 293 side) “For faithful service,” surrounded by a wreath of laurel and surmounted by the Crown.
The Victoria Cross, of bronze, was instituted by her late Majesty Queen Victoria in 1856, to render honour to “conspicuous bravery” in actual conflict, by sea or land. This Cross, No. 440, is worn on the left breast, attached to a blue ribbon for the Navy, and to a red ribbon for the Army. A Bar is attached to the ribbon for every additional such act of bravery as would have won the Cross. ”

“ The Great War has, however, as we have seen, thoroughly rehabilitated the Victoria Cross, for though there certainly are hundreds who with better luck would have received it, yet those who have obtained it have set a very high standard of gallantry in face of the enemy.
The Cross itself is familiar to all. It is a plain bronze Maltese Cross, with a Lion standing on a Crown in the centre, and the words “For Valour” inscribed beneath. The actual cost of the Cross is 214threepence. The ribbon is red for all branches of His Majesty’s Service whether on sea, or land, or the air. ”

“ The extreme danger, the delicacy of the operation of obtaining connection with a helio, the time consumed, the composure required, these things combined to make the action as brave as any which these or other pages record. [A proposal has recently been made, to give the Victoria Cross to native soldiers who shall deserve it. It would seem that the value of such a decoration must be enhanced by making it open to all British subjects. The keener the competition, the greater the honor of success. In sport, in courage, and in the sight of heaven, all men meet on equal terms.] ”

“ Political considerations ought to have no influence in deciding the claims of those who aspire to this honour; where all are equally brave, all ought to be equally rewarded. But it was not so in this case. It was in vain that his friends remonstrated, and Sir Stephen Lushington wrote thus strongly in his favour:—“It is still my opinion that Mr. Wood deserves the Victoria Cross as much as any one that I recommended at the same time, not excepting his gallant chief, the late Sir William Peel ”

“ Should a man obtain the Victoria Cross, and again be adjudged worthy of the same distinction, a bar is added (like a clasp) to the riband, and so on for every other act of bravery. Warrant and Petty officers and seamen of the Navy, and Non-commissioned officers and men 444of the Army receive an annuity of £10 for the Victoria Cross, and £5 additional a year for every bar they may obtain. ”

“ For his conduct at the assault of the Redan and for devoted heroism in sallying out of the trenches on numerous occasions, and bringing in wounded officers and men, he was awarded the Victoria Cross (ib. 24 Feb. 1857) , and was decorated by the queen in person at the review in Hyde Park to inaugurate the newly instituted honour on 26 June 1857. ”

“ Of the other Royal personages who attended the funeral of Queen Victoria, the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovitch of Russia, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, and the Crown Prince of Sweden and Norway were appointed Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, and [319] Prince Charles of Denmark was made an Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order and an Honorary Lieutenant in the British Navy. ”

“ I was struck with the great contrast it presented to the form of Viola, which was so wonderfully ethereal, so divine in colour and design. Every line in it was long and tapering, never coming to a sudden stop, but merging with infinite grace into the next, and the dazzling, immaculate whiteness of it all made it seem like something of heaven. It suggested the vision, the ideal, all that man longs after with his soul, that stirs the celestial fires within his brain, not merely the flame of the senses. ”

“ Every graveyard in Quebec, whether it be in the Laurentides section, clear against the sky with the Saint Lawrence a panorama at its feet, or whether it be some Indian graveyard, boasts its handcarved wooden head-and-foot pieces and, of course, the big central wooden cross.
These wooden memorials of the graveyard are frequently very artistic. The figure of an Angel in silhouette and life-size, with shoes and stockings, encountered in one cemetery, appears especially adapted to the Paradis it would have the passing world remember. ”

“ I returned, "but I hardly think it is. Theoretically, Lucia has belonged to me the past four years. An idea, a habit of the mind, is full grown and has some strength at four years of age."
My father said nothing, but lapsed into the silence of defeat or of contempt, and we pursued our breakfast.
"Will you let me have the victoria this morning?" I said, after a long silence. "She wants me to drive her to the Academy."
"Of course; I'm glad you can find something to do here. I'm afraid of its seeming dull to you after Paris."
I looked up with elevated eyebrows. ”

“ In the palace a light behind one of the mushrabeared windows was extinguished; there was the sound of the scurry of feet, and then a long wail came out from the building, rending the pink-hued twilight.
"Buldoula is dead!" remarked Dilama simply, as the lovers crouched together between the wall and the roses. It meant nothing to her, enclosed in the happy warmth of her lover's arms; death had no meaning for her yet, hardly seventeen years' journey distant from birth, and full of all the sap and great leaping fires of life. Death was something so far away, so impossible to realise. ”

“ But the insidious charm of Ahmed's personality worked on all the pulses of her body; pulses that know not fidelity, though her brain kept telling her that Murad would be waiting for her in the garden. But that night Murad did not come. The garden stood cool and fragrant, full of perfume and rosy light, full of the music of birds and the tints of a thousand flowers—all the invitations to love, but love itself was absent. Dilama searched the garden from end to end, and walked in and out among the roses by the buttressed wall, but the garden was empty and silent. ”

“ It riveted my eyes this line—this channel of colour burnt fiercely beneath my lids.
I could see nothing but it; it seemed everywhere, to fill the room, to scorch into my brain, this palpitating, throbbing, crimson line. That terrible impulse of blind excitement was rapidly drawing me into itself—the impulse that counts nothing, knows nothing, reckons nothing but itself; that will buy the present hour at any sacrifice—that accepts everything, ignores everything but that one moment it feels approaching. This impulse urged me, pressed me, strained violently upon me. ”

“ Life, with its glare of colour, its triumphant music, its crash of sound, was far behind me, almost forgotten; like clouds of indefinable tint, piled up on some distant horizon, rose the memories of its loves, its woes, its crimes. ”

“ It is more beautiful than music, than the sunset skies, than the golden light on the palms, than the play of the moonbeams; and it is like them all. Bright as the sunlight, mysterious as the ocean, wonderful as the fragrance of the rose, that is what they call love, and I have it, I have found it in its perfection. What happiness! ”

“ And the roses seemed to quiver and bend lower over her to hear the answer: "Love is not love alone, but indeed is known by many names; it is unbridled violence; it is unslaked thirst; it is intolerable anguish; it is unbounded joy; it is endless lamentation," and as a breath stirred in the garden the trees seemed to throw high their blossoms on the scented breeze in a wild and gay response: "Whatever it is, good or ill, we wait for it, worship it, live for it, die for it." ”

“ A linen tunic clasped round the base of her throat fell almost to her ankles, caught lightly in at the waist by a scarlet cord; loose sleeves falling from the shoulder half-concealed her rounded arms; but her lovely face, with its arching brows and liquid eyes, looked out unveiled from her frame of cloudy hair, and drew the Sheik's heart towards her. Wrapt in the enthusiasm of the holiest of all loves, that of sister for sister, tense with the ardour of her sacrifice, a light shone out from the tender soul within that fired all her beauty, making it burn like the sun, and intoxicate like wine. ”

“ Is it surprising that when the moon is past so few have anything but utter satiety to show for it?—that the wonderful flame of love that lives on excitement, danger, privation, romance, difficulties, should for ever be quenched and put out?—leaving the travellers to wander on down the narrow lane of marriage without its sparkling, radiant light to guide them in its dark places. ”