The Mare Lisette 2/3
The second part of the thirty-fourth tale from The Animal Book
Thousands of Cossacks swarmed over the plain. The first who saw me acted like sportsmen who, when beating, start a hare and announce its presence to each other by shouts of “Your side! Your side!” but none of the Cossacks tried to stop me: first, on account of the extreme rapidity of my pace, and also probably because, their numbers being so great, each thought that I could not avoid his comrades farther on, so that I escaped them all and reached the 14th regiment without either myself or my excellent mare having received the slightest scratch.
I imparted to the officer of the regiment the order to quit his position and try to rejoin his corps. He pointed out to me that the enemy’s artillery had been firing on the 14th for an hour and had caused it such loss that the handful of soldiers which remained would inevitably be exterminated as they went down into the plain. Moreover, there would not be time to prepare to execute such a movement, since a Russian column was marching on him and was not more than a hundred paces away.
“I see no means of saving the regiment,” said the major. “Return to the Emperor, bid him farewell from the 14th of the line, which has faithfully executed his orders, and bear to him the eagle which he gave us, which we can defend no longer.”
The infantry eagles were very heavy, and their weight was increased by a stout oak pole on the top of which they were fixed. Without the eagle, the stick could not constitute a trophy for the enemy, so I resolved to break it and only carry off the eagle.
But at the moment when I was leaning forward from my saddle in order to get a better purchase to separate the eagle from the pole, one of the numerous cannonballs which the Russians were sending at us went through the hinder peak of my hat, less than an inch from my head. The shock was all the more terrible since my hat, being fastened on by a strong leather strap under the chin, offered more resistance to the blow.
I seemed to be blotted out of existence, but I did not fall from my horse. Blood flowed from my nose, my ears, and even my eyes; nevertheless I still could hear and see, and I preserved all my intellectual faculties, although my limbs were paralyzed to such an extent that I could not move a single finger.
Meanwhile the column of Russian infantry which we had just perceived was mounting the hill. Soaked with spirits, and in vastly superior numbers, these men hurled themselves furiously on the feeble remains of the unfortunate 14th, whose soldiers had for several days been living only on potatoes and melted snow; that day they had not had time to prepare even this wretched meal. Still, our brave Frenchmen made a valiant defense with their bayonets, and when the square had been broken, they held together in groups and sustained the unequal fight for a long time.
During this terrible struggle several of our men, in order not to be struck from behind, set their backs against my mare’s flanks, and she, contrary to her practice, remained perfectly quiet. If I had been able to move, I should have urged her forward to get away from this field of slaughter. But it was absolutely impossible for me to press my legs so as to make the animal I rode understand my wish. My position was the more frightful since, as I have said, I retained the power of sight and thought.
Not only were they fighting all round me, which exposed me to bayonet-thrusts, but a Russian officer with a hideous countenance kept making efforts to run me through. As the crowd of combatants prevented him from reaching me, he pointed me out to the soldiers around him, and they, taking me for the commander of the French, as I was the only mounted man, kept firing at me over their comrades’ heads, so that bullets were constantly whistling past my ear.
A French sergeant, having been attacked and wounded by several of the enemy, fell under Lisette’s belly and was seizing my leg to pull himself up. A Russian grenadier, wishing to finish him by a thrust in the breast, but too drunk to stand steady, lost his balance, and the point of his bayonet went astray into my cloak, which at that moment was puffed out by the wind.
Seeing that I did not fall, the Russian left the sergeant and aimed a great number of blows at me. These were at first fruitless, but one at last reached me, piercing my left arm, and I felt with a kind of horrible pleasure my blood flowing hot. The Russian grenadier with redoubled fury made another thrust at me but, stumbling with the force which he put into it, drove his bayonet into my mare’s thigh.
Her ferocious instincts being restored by the pain, she sprang at the Russian and at one mouthful tore off his nose, lips, eyebrows, and all the skin of his face, making of him a living death’s head, dripping with blood. Then hurling herself with fury among the combatants, kicking and biting, Lisette upset everything that she met on her road. The officer who had made so many attempts to strike me tried to hold her by the bridle. She seized him by his belly, and carrying him off with ease, she bore him out of the crush to the foot of the hillock, where, having mashed his body under her feet, she left him dying on the snow.
The End, Part Two