A BUGLER'S BRAVERY. 547 column, composed of 2,000 infantry with eight guns and a few horsemen, led by General Oshima, gained the high ground further east and turned the enemy's right.

The advance was to be made under the cover of darkness. No orders were issued to the troops. They were allowed to bivouac under the impression that the advance would be made next day. At midnight they w-ere quietlyroused from sleep, and the columns fell in silently and without lights and began their march.

It was expected that there would be no fighting till dawn, but Takeda's column had a sharp skirmish in the dark about three a.m.

only by a few relations, he has died on the battlefield, praised by all his superiors. Hence his mother andIdo not mourn for him. We areglad our son has shed his blood for Japan."

The skirmish at the ford ended by the arrival of the main body, which pushed back the Chinese. As day broke, it was seen that Oshima had got upon the ridge on the Chinese flank, and his guns began to shell the enemy's works with good effect, the Chinese artillery making only a feeble reply. At half-past five both wings of the Japanese army advanced, Takeda's force against the enemy's front, Oshima's on their right. The Chinese at once abandoned tne ridge, Yeh retiring to the south-It had to move over very difficult ground. Twostreams were forded,which inplaces were so deep that the water came nearly to the men's shoulders, and a lieutenant and twenty men were drowned. Once the way was lost, and only found again with the help of some peasants whom the vanguard roused from sleep in their houses among the rice-fields. At the second ford, near the hamlet of An-song, the company that formed the vanguard, under Captain Matsusaki, was suddenlyfiredonat closequarters ward, pursued for a few miles by Oshima, while Takeda pished on to Asan, which was found to be desertedby the Chinese.

The trophies of the fight were eight guns, a large numberof standards,quantities of stores and ammunition, and some hundreds of prisoners. The enemy, according to the prisoners, was 3,000 strong,but only about half of these were actuallyengaged, Yeh having sent off the troops left at Asan as soon as he saw his right was turned and his line of retreat endangered. The GENERAL OsHIMA by asuperior force of Chinese,who were holding the hamlet and an embankment as an advanced post. Nosupport was at hand,and the Japanese, outnumberedand attackedin the darkness, were for awhile in a dangerous position. Matsusaki, though badly wounded, kept command of his men till another bullet killed him. His orderly, the Bugler Kiguchi, is rememberedin Japan as one of the heroes of the war. Mortally wounded as he stood beside his captain, he continued to sound the advance on his bugle till he died.

she story of his devoted valour when told in Japan called forth the same enthusiasm that the tale of the piper of Dargai evoked in England three yearslater. He wastheson ofpoorpeasants, and when the member for his district in the JapaneseParliament brought Kiguchi's father a money subscribed in recognition of the bugler'svalour,the old man, after thanking him, added,"My son had to die some time. Instead of fallingasleep in this miserable hovel,mourned Japanese reported theChinese loss at 500 killed and wounded— probably an exaggeration. The victors had lost six officers andeighty-two men killed and wounded.

Havinghardly any cavalry with him, Oshima could not make a vigorous pursuit, and he was anxious to get back to Seoul, whichmight soon be attacked by the enemy's force at Ping-yang.

The result was that Yell succeeded in getting away to the southward, and then, marching to the east, passed round Seoul and read ed Ping-yang by the inland road, with between 1,000 and 1,500 men. He was rewarded by his Government for this brilliant retreat, and to his reportshe described the fight at Song-hwan as a victory in which he had inflicted enormous loss on the Japanese.

The Asan campaign and the action at Songhwan were a thoroughly characteristic introduction to the war that followed. What the Chinese and the Japanese showed themselves