Ukranian Artist Oksanna Mas - Madonna Mosaic -in Easter Eggs

This morning's 8:30 A. M. Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church included John' Gospel account of the Miracle at Cana - Christ obeys his Mother's wish not to allow a young couple the embarrassment of running out of wine at their wedding feast.

Jesus asks his Mom - And Jesus said to her, "O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."

The Deal was done.

Great wine out of water and the young couple was saved an embarrassment.

Twelve years ago today, my beloved wife Mary went home to Christ and His Mother.

Our three children were raised by a notorious knucklehead and somehow became fine young people. God's Mother and Nora, Conor and Clare's mother have interceded for them for twelve years.

I pray the Memorare every morning and often throughout the day as well, Hell, I need all the intercessions I can get. I still manage to embarrass my kids; speak sharply to them; hurt their feelings and manage to make the poor things know that they have lost their dear mother.

Mary my wife and Mary my Intercessor - I am sorry for managing to make Eternity seem even longer with my folly.

A beautiful Ukranian artist Oksanna Mas has unveiled a stunning mosaic of the Madonna in painted wooden Easter eggs. I caught this story this morning after Mass.

Ukrainian artist Oksana Mas has created an unusual mosaic portrait of the Virgin Mary, using 15,000 painted Easter Eggs.

Unveiled yesterday, inside the gorgeous Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, the giant mosaic weighs 2.5 tons and is made out of 15,000 wooden Easter Eggs. Oksana Mas started working on her masterpiece nine months ago, painting the eggs all by herself, but later children from all across the country got involved and helped out with the painting.

The Easter-egg portrait of the Virgin Mary, by Oksana Mas, measures 7×7 meters.

Your In-Nation! County Kerry Urination DUI Defense Still Steams Ahead

P - Stands for Paddy, I suppose. Click auld post title for a great song by Cara Dillon!

Ripped from the Pages of The Kerryman

By KEVIN HUGHES
Wednesday January 13 2010
KERRY drivers charged with drink driving can still be saved by the steam of their pee after challenge to a controversial district court decision failed in the High Court.

Mr Justice O'Neill struck out a State appeal concerning two drink driving cases heard in Killorglin District Court on November 13, 2008. Those cases had been thrown out by Judge James O'Connor who had ruled that steam inhaled from urine during a recommended 20 minute observation period may have adversely affected an intoxyliser reading.

The High Court appeal was struck out after Counsel for the State accepted that it could not present proof that the High Court had jurisdiction to deal with the appeals. The State now has no means of further appeal to the Supreme Court.

Defended by Killarney solicitor Pádraig O'Connell, the cases will have a knock-on effect on several similar cases currently pending in Kerry's district courts. It will also affect future procedure in district court area 17 with Judge O'Connor previously indicating that the High Court decision would become common policy.

- KEVIN HUGHES

http://www.kerryman.ie/news/appeal-against-pee-defence-fails-2011412.html

Chicago's Voice Returns with Skinny and Houli on Avenue 950 WNTD AM

The only thing sadder than a fat girl playing the song Georgy Girl over and over again, is the sorry state of Chicago's Voice.

John Kass - solid pipes; Steve Rhodes at Beachwood Reporter ditto, but these lads are but rarely heard on the Radio airwaves or over the Idiot Box.

Well cheer up Boys and Girls, Skinny and Houli are coming to Chicago's airwaves!

Cant Free Radio Returns!



Skinny & Houli Show debuts on Avenue 950 WNTD AM


Avenue 950 Timeless Cool, a product of Sovereign City Radio Services, rolls out their much anticipated program, The Skinny & Houli Show, on Wednesday nights from 6-8PM beginning January 20.

James "Skinny" Sheahan, former Director of the Mayor's Office of Special Events and Mike "Houli" Houlihan, columnist for the Irish American News and former features columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, introduce listeners to the quirky characters and stories that give our city its unique charm.

This two hour, freewheeling talk radio dialogue features two of Chicago's most irrepressible personalities, discussing what's happening in the city each week. The hosts will dissect the news, politics, sports, and entertainment scene with their trademark wit and introduce a variety of community activists and neighborhood heroes.

The Skinny & Houli Show, in partnership with Special Olympics Chicago, will feature guests who are making a positive impact on the lives of Chicagoans plus a "Special Olympics Spotlight" on an athlete, coach or volunteer for outstanding achievement.

Tune in to Avenue 950 and hear a show that will make you proud to live in Chicago.
Click my post title for the sound of the current state of Chicago's Voice - get out the Hankies Girls!

John Kass Smotes Pat Robertson's Ass -inine Jeremiad

At minimum, once a week, John Kass goes Arepagetican* Greek on some creep.

- A Caliban of a corpulent cop marinated with Happy Cossack gets his booze Botox peeled back for ridicule after tossing a tiny Polish barmaid around while Blackberry armed cowards text the horror.
- An Entitled Patronage Poltroon pries pennies out the tax-payers to fill his swimming pool.
- A daffy Burgomeister wearing an Indiana Jones hat that makes him look like a toad stool with legs gums up the English Language while decrying the sorry state of student test scores

The parade of folly is longer than a Studs Terkel gush segment on WTTW.

Today, John Kass gives America's Brooks Brothers Elmer Gantry - Rev. Pat Robertson - a sound butt-gnawing over the Polecat Preacher Man's moronic exegesis on Haiti's horrible plague of woes.

Pat Robertson, a dedicated hypocrite of the Old School, sees God's Hand in the earthquake that killed tens of thousands of Haitians as recompense for Voodoo.

John Kass cuts to the quick of this slow-hearted opportunist.

It saddens me because Robertson's foolishness once again allows knee-jerk critics of Christianity to use his nonsense to paint countless Christian ministers and priests with the Robertson brush. But they're not in the angry smiting business. They're in the business of love and kindness, not hate and revenge.

I'm clearly no theologian. And the wrath of God against the sinners seems a common thread in the Old Testament.

But has Robertson forgotten about the New Testament, the new covenant, the one that's all about love and caring, even for the sinners?

Mr. Kass, give him one in the jewels before you move on - God told me to tell you that, John. Praise Jesus!



*

For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them.
As good almost kill a man as kill a good book: who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were, in the eye.
And though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play on the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously by licensing and prohibiting misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?
I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race, where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.

John Milton Areopagitica 1644 - A Defense of Free Speech - not moronic mouthings.

Kevin Myers Kills The Green Enviro-Nazis - with Common Sense! Carp A - Diem!

Ireland was a tree desert. Now, there are trees a-dying because the Peta-Patriots of Erin ban hunting in every manifestation in every election cycle - Ireland has no shortage of Nit-wits and Gutless Politicians.

Here in Chicago's Food Deserts one can not butt be overwhelmed by legions of Morbidly Porky Kids -quarting down a Slushie and a Jumbo bag of chips; yet, Systemic Racism and Nutritional Genocide keeps Pepsi and Frito Lay Alive and Well.

Today, Kevin Myers, the best Irish columnist since Flann O'Brien kicked the fatuous and fat-headed Fenians to the curb, gives it hard and steady to Irish Enviro-Nazis - their version of the Leftist Sierra Club brie nibblers and panic merchants.
Talk a Laugh!

The essence of good land management is murder. Forget that truth, and you do not have a cultured landscape of woodlands and pastures, but a brutal, meadowless and malarial wilderness, in which wide-eyed fawns are recreationally torn limb from limb by wild animals. And when death is not violent, it comes through age and hunger, and cold, when a huntsman's bullet, or the almost instant end wrought by a pack of hounds, is mercy itself.

The Office - Jody Weis (Dwight Schrute?) Talks Cops!

I caught Chicago's Top Cop ( Sporting Cheaters and a snappy Grey Poupon Mustard Van Huessan) chatting Crime Stats and Cops to Channel 2.

I thought I was watching The Office; instead, I was watching The Office! Click my post title to link to CBS Video Library and click then click - Schrute the Supe!

Gator Bradley cartoon to follow?

Iron Chef Obama - FLOTUS Fortified with Pulp!

Dig Mario's gravel agitators!

Iron Chef America the Food Network Show that copies the thoughtful and gracious Japanese Model decided to offer an homage to our First Lady and her concern for feeding America's Fat Kids homegrown vegetables.

To Kick it Up a Notch! Bam! Iron Chef America used FOTUS's home grown organic roots and vegetables. Not.

It's a dodge Clyde! The Rubes will eat up anything. Political manure that fertilized the Iron Chef America is what we smelled wafting from the kitchens.

BAM!

"Due to the production delay between the shoot at the White House and the shoot at Food Network, the produce used in Kitchen Stadium during the 'Super Chef Battle' was not actually from the White House garden," said Food Network spokeswoman Lisa Krueger in a statement to The Talk.

Instead, the chefs used replacement produce, though only the same types of fruits and vegetables picked from the White House garden.

Honey was the only ingredient that actually came from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The White House garden produce, Krueger said, was donated to a local pantry.

Birdseye frozen peas for me.

McCain Goats Palin: McCain Lost the Election Because He Quit

I went bollocks to the bulwark for John McCain starting in the Spring of 2007, through his summer of discontent, into the Primaries and all the way to the election of Barack Obama. Barack Obama ran a disciplined and masterful campaign and really wanted to win.

Barack Obama won the Presidency and John McCain quit the race on Sept 19th 2008. He quit on TV. He was being asked about the collapse of the American Economy, when all the Maverick wanted to talk about was "Service before Self."

Sarah Palin was fighting to win. John McCain, the man that Commies could not torture and make him go home early and abandon his Mates in the Hanoi Hilton, spit out the bit.

My daughter won the race in the 3rd Congressional District as a McCain Delegate. I wrote many articles and hundreds of Blog posts. I made Speeches for John McCain. Rang doorbells; stuffed mailboxes in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. I was glad to do so - until the last few days.

John McCain has allowed his Campaign to smear Sarah Palin.

If John McCain's Campaign ( Steve Schmidt et al) had done one tenth of the Black Bag work on Barack Obama that they have been doing on Sarah Palin and with one one thousandth of the energy - John McCain would have been POTUS.

Schmidt cited an ethics report on the then-Alaska governor from her home state on an investigation into whether she had improperly used her government position.

I read this in Politco.com the other day. McCain Campaign Manager Steve Schmidt ( a bald guy who puts his glasses on his forehead like he was William Kunstler - Hey, There's that Billy Ayers Magic! McCain tossed that one too.) is helping water-eyed Mark Halperin - a genuine weenie - sell is loathsome book. It is a tell-all Reality TV epic about the Campaign - I read some excerpts. Not much. This sparrow hearted turd Halperin is no Ted White, let me tell you.

Schmidt tossed out this crappy and gutless charge against Sarah Palin.

“She went out and said, you know, ‘This report completely exonerates me,’” Schmidt said. “And in fact, it — it didn’t. You know it’s the equivalent of saying down is up and up is down. It was provably, demonstrably untrue.”

That is pure unadulterated bullshit. An Alaskan Ethics report is the Up from Down?

I expect Sarah Palin to be spit at by the clowns, louses and losers - John McCain joined them.

Schmidt is a paid political sneak and doing his job. John McCain is a disgrace. I am sorry I voted for him.

I worked very hard for John McCain. I'm a Democrat. I knew that on Sept. 19th 2008 John McCain no longer cared to win the nomination - it was all over his face. The Economy tanked as did McCain's 'fire' and his campaign decided to make Sarah Palin the goat.

Jonathon Martin is one of the barbecue journalists who love the Maverick they created and play out of both sides of their mouths.

I voted early for and against Democrats here in Chicago, Illinois, yesterday. I will vote for Sarah Palin. McCain is no different from John Kerry - two men who never really wanted to win -it seems to me.

John McCain keeps lousy company, as far as I can tell. Mr. Schmidt, Mr. Martin and Mr. Halperin are indistinguishable and while I honor John McCain's military service I am disgusted by his crawfish political style.

I genuinely like and admire Sarah Palin. She is a happy, centered and good person.

I will work for and possibly even vote for Sarah Palin, if she runs for President - I rather doubt that she will do so.

I turn the channel when John McCain shows up. He is now as appalling to me as MSNBC - The Tool Shed.

For Homicide Detective William D. Higgins, CPD and All Who Die in Service- A Poem He Loved

Billy Higgins had the heart of a warrior and the soul of a poet. He was a Policeman - an Area 2 Homicide Detective - and a true civil servant. Shortly upon his retirement, Billy's great heart went quiet and his soul returned to Christ.

Billy Higgins died reading at his kitchen table, but had lived kicking down doors behind which armed enemies of civilization cowered from the Truth. They were our monsters - murderers. Billy and his partner Marty Tully brought these cowards to face the laws they violated - if not to Justice.

One of Billy's favorite poems that he had learned as little boy in St. Sabina's ( Cook Elementary School) parish was about the Irish Brigade of France.

Like most heroic poetry that has gone out of fashion in our tiny-hearted culture, the themes of Sacrifice, Honor, Fidelity, Gallantry and Courtesy became the foundation for a life of service to Policemen, Fireman, Soldiers, Sailors and all who labor to protect us.

BATTLE OF FONTENOY
by: Bartholomew Dowling (1823-1863)

BY our camp-fires rose a murmur
At the dawning of the day,
And the tread of many footsteps
Spoke the advent of the fray;
And as we took our places,
Few and stern were our words,
While some were tightening horse-girths,
And some were girding swords.


The trumpet-blast has sounded
Our footmen to array--
The willing steed has bounded,
Impatient for the fray--
The green flag is unfolded,
While rose the cry of joy--
"Heaven speed dear Ireland's banner
To-day at Fontenoy!"


We looked upon that banner,
And the memory arose
Of our homes and perish'd kindred
Where the Lee or Shannon flows;
We look'd upon that banner,
And we swore to God on high,
To smite to-day the Saxon's might--
To conquer or to die.


Loud swells the charging trumpet--
'Tis a voice from our own land--
God of battles! God of vengeance!
Guide to-day the patriot's brand;
There are stains to wash away,
There are memories to destroy,
In the best blood of the Briton
To-day at Fontenoy.


Plunge deep the fiery rowels
In a thousand reeking flanks--
Down, chivalry of Ireland,
Down on the British ranks!
Now shall their serried columns
Beneath our sabres reel--
Through the ranks, then, with the war-horse--
Through their bosoms with the steel.


With one shout for good King Louis,
And the fair land of the vine,
Like the wrathful Alpine tempest,
We swept upon their line--
Then rang along the battle-field
Triumphant our hurrah,
And we smote them down, still cheering,
"Erin, shanthagal go bragh."


As prized as is the blessing
From an aged father's lip--
As welcome as the haven
To the tempest-driven ship--
As dear as to the lover
The smile of gentle maid--
Is this day of long-sought vengeance
To the swords of the Brigade.


See their shatter'd forces flying,
A broken, routed line--
See, England, what brave laurels
For your brow to-day we twine.
Oh, thrice bless'd the hour that witness'd
The Briton turn to flee
From the chivalry of Erin
And France's "fleur de lis."


As we lay beside our camp-fires,
When the sun had pass'd away,
And thought upon our brethren
Who had perished in the fray,
We prayed to God to grant us,
And then we'd die with joy,
One day upon our own dear land
Like this of Fontenoy.

"Battle of Fontenoy" is reprinted from Historic Poems and Ballads. Ed. Rupert S. Holland. Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Co., 1912.

Terry O'Brien Gets Huge Boost from Schakowsky Endorsement of Preckwinkle

Jan and Bob "Felonious" Creamer beat the Salahis into the White House State Dinner and now Jan Has beaten Toni Preckwinkle's Cook County Hope Dreams into the Loam! Thanks Jan!
Terry O'Brien, President of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, got an early Ground Hog's Day Bonus from Jan "Slap the Help" Schakowsky!

The Illinois Legislator who was handed "her hat and what's her hurry" out of Springfield to fill the Congressional seat of Old Sidney Yates some years back has made just a swell career of begging Governor Blagojevich for President Obama's U.S. Senate Seat, making a bigger goof of herself on MSNBC and generally being a magnificent pain in the derriere, arse, ass, behind, buns, buttocks, hind end, hindquarters, keister, nates, posterior, prat, fanny, rear end, tooshie, tush, seat, fundament, backside, bottom, rump, stern, tail end, tail, rear, bum, can, butt and back of the front of herself, went the distance for Toni Preckwinkle!

Terry O'Brien should be fine and dandy. Thanks, Jan and warmest regards to Bob "The Felonius Hunk" Creamer.

Cook County Wins!

Rahm Emanuel - Sejanus ducitur unco: The Stuff of Satire

Good Lord, only two weeks ago, Rahm Emanuel was poised to usurp Daley as Mayor of Chicago; run for the U.S. Senate; Replace Jay Leno; Double Bill with Lady GaGa.

Today, Politico.com is waxing up his funeral board.

Rahm Emanuel is the new kind of king maker - flashy, foul-mouthed, fast and fierce.

I like the Old Timey Kingmakers - Avunucular and Anonymous. They are the guys only whispered about in the corridors of power - the elevators of Chicago City Hall and Cook County Building by awed suppliants - generally without actually moving their mouths so as no one could say that their lips were moving - "My guy says to call Mr. C- - - - - at 35 East Wacker on Friday at exactly 9 A.M. - I don't get ito work until 10 -you think I got problems, Mickey?"

That's a Kingmaker. Rahm Emanuel makes nice parlor game politics - (Mo Dowd, Daily Kos, MSNBC variety), but if you want signs up in your neighbors' yards without too much vandalism, call Mr. C- - - - - at exactly 9 A.M. on Friday - or whenever - if you don't want the signs up or to get elected.

Rahm is edgy, like the Goof on Entourage or whatever. Rahm Emanuel is smart. He is tough. So is a Bear lineman.

So was Sejanus. Sejanus" — commander of the imperial bodyguards under Tiberius (who was emperor a.d. 14-37). Tiberius withdrew from active government in a.d. 26, and for the next five years Sejanus gathered dictatorial power to himself, conducting a reign of terror in the last three of those years. For reasons unknown, Tiberius turned against him, had him arrested by a trick in October a.d. 31, and Sejanus was immediately executed. He is a figure for satire.

In Part III of Juvenal's Sixth Satire, which later was to become Samuel Johnson's Vanity of Human Wishes - the thirst for absolute power in politics is ridiculed:

quosdam praecipitat subiecta potentia magnae
invidiae, mergit longa atque insignis honorum
pagina. descendunt statuae restemque sequuntur,
ipsas deinde rotas bigarum inpacta securis
caedit et inmeritis franguntur crura caballis;
iam strident ignes, iam follibus atque caminis
ardet adoratum populo caput et crepat ingens
Seianus, deinde ex facie toto orbe secunda
fiunt urceoli pelves sartago matellae.
pone domi laurus, duc in Capitolia magnum
cretatumque bovem! Seianus ducitur unco
spectandus, gaudent omnes: "quae labra, quis illi
vultus erat!numquam, si quid mihi credis, amavi
hunc hominem. sed quo cecidit sub crimine? quisnam
delator? quibus indicibus, quo teste probavit?"
"nil horum; verbosa et grandis epistula venit
a Capreis." "bene habet, nil plus interrogo." sed quid

Translated:

Some men are hurled headlong by over-great power and the envy to which it exposes them; they are wrecked by the long and illustrious roll of their honours: down come their statues, obedient to the rope; the axe hews in pieces their chariot wheels and the legs of the unoffending nags. And now the flames are hissing, and amid the roar of furnace and of bellows the head of the mighty Sejanus, the darling of the mob, is burning and crackling, and from that face, which was but lately second in the entire world, are being fashioned pipkins, basins, frying-pans and slop-pails! Up with the laurel-wreaths over your doors! Lead forth a grand chalked bull to the Capitol! Sejanus is being dragged along by a hook, as a show and joy to all! "What a lip the fellow had! What a face!" — "Believe me, I never liked the man!" — "But on what charge was he condemned? Who informed against him? What was the evidence, who the witnesses, who made good the case?" — "Nothing of the sort; a great and wordy letter came from Capri." — "Good; I ask no more."

Satire is poetry that points out the choice of folly over virtue. Satire is not the stuff that HBO or Comedy Central pass off. That stuff is called Satire. Satire makes fun of the powerful - Bill Maher makes fun of the devout, the patriotic and the sincere. Kingmakers are most often virtuous Women and Men. Big Shots are generally flashy, foul-mouthed, fast and fierce. They hold sway for a while - while they are useful.

Kingmakers (and I have met a very few) are often very quiet and almost invisible to the public; they tend to be courteous, caring and careful. Kingmakers are useful - as long as you follow what they tell you - that is, after all, why you reached out to them.

It appears that Rahm Emanuel is getting to be useless to the Obama White House. WHo knows? Click my post title for the Politico Obituary Early Edition of Rahm Emmanual - Sejanus Ducitur Unco!

Democrat Maureen Kelly for MWRD # 7 on Your Ballot - Has My Early Vote Tomorrow!

I am voting early for the February Election. I am going to 22nd Chicago Police District on 111th Street in my Morgan Park Neighborhood.

I am voting for Maureen Kelly for Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. I have known Maureen and Jack Kelly for decades. Maureen Kelly has been Executive Director of Community & Government Relations at Saint Xavier University since May 2004 and prior to that was Special Assistant to U.S. Senator Dick Durbin. During her tenure with Senator Durbin (1997-2004), Maureen was responsible for Community Outreach for the South and Southwest suburban areas and oversaw constituent services. Before becoming a member of the Durbin Senate staff, Maureen worked as Director of Advance for the Durbin for Senate Campaign (1996). Previous to Kelly’s service with Durbin, she was an aide to Tom Dart while he was a State Representative.

Maureen Kelly is smart, tough and honest. God knows that woman is honest . . .and so do mopes like me who have tried to soft soap, dissemble or BS in the presence of Maureen. "Hickey, you are such a whiner get over it and do some work for God's sake." or my favorite, " Hickey, try and get some more of that sandwich in your mouth and less on your shirt." God raise up great women! Women keep us from wallowing in our own filth and cannibalism. They also keep us from doing very stupid things, like believing that Asian Carp is a good reason to flood Chicago.

Along with Kathleen Meany, Maureen Kelly will protect your drinking water ( 'potable' on Huffington Post and other faux-Green sites) and your home from flooding, because she reads the reports of Civil Engineers and not the theology of the environment.

Illinois, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago and all of us helots who live within the waterways maintained by (MRWD) is in the fight of its life due to a lefty agenda that now has Asian Carp as its Chicken Little Battle Cry.

Maureen Kelly reads carefully - she can read a BS Snow Job from miles away.

Vote for # 7 on your Ballot - Maureen Kelly! Click my post title for More Maureen!

Drink Safe and Stay Dry!

I am also voting for Terry O'Brien for Cook County Board President!

The rest of the stuff is . . .well, shall we say, private?

Rest in Peace Detective William D. Higgins, CPD -The Guard Dies But Never Surrenders

9 Jan 2010
Rest in peace:

William D. Higgins*
retired Detective Area 2 Homicide
one of best.

Det. Martin J. Tully, CPD (ret.) - Partner of Det. Billy Higgins, CPD (dec.)

Be in God's Peace and Warm Welcome, Office!

FYI - Billy Higgins and Marty Tully had the highest "closing" rate in the Detective Division of Chicago Police Department for many years.
Billy and Marty retired last year.
One time, Billy and Marty were leading the investigation of the murder of gang member around 81st and Calumet.
The man had been shot with a very high caliber automatic weapon and his body parts were all over the crime scene.
One of Chicago's more obnoxious Nitwit TV News Personalities was on-scene and was told with great courtesy but pith to remove himself and his camera man from crime scene.
This Newshound shoved his microphone in Billy's face - not a great policy - and demanded "Chicago wants to know what happened, Detective."
Billy calmed himself, " We suspect foul play."
God, I miss Billy.


* Waterloo June 18, 1815:

The Old Guard formed in squares to cover this retreat. Ney's division surrounded, made a gallant struggle--their brave leader still unwounded, though five horses had been shot under him, heading them on foot, sword in hand--but were forced to give way. The Old Guard held their ground against overwhelming numbers. Finally, when five squares were broken, the Emperor gave the order to "fall back." The cry "The Guard is repulsed" spread consternation through the French army and threatened to turn retreat into precipitate flight. Napoleon, seeing this, reformed the Guard in order to give a rallying point for the fugitives. Failing in this, he declared that he would die within the square, but Marshal Soult hurried him away. The heroic band, surrounded, was bidden to surrender. "The Old Guard dies, but never surrenders" is the reply popularly attributed to General Cambronne, and with the cry of "Vive l'Empereur!" the remnant of the Guard made a last charge upon the enemy and perished almost to a man.