Through Russian Snows (31 page)

"It was noon when we started, and at nine o'clock at night, as we were
keeping along high up on the hills, I saw our bivouac fires. A minute or
two later, the colonel rode up.

"'There are your fires, lad,' he said. 'I don't fancy there is any
village between us and the spot where your people are encamped. However,
as there is a moon, you will be able to avoid one if you come upon it;
and seeing you are armed, any peasants you may meet will scarcely
venture to attack you within musket-shot of your own lines. Here is a
note I have written to the colonel of your regiment telling him of the
plight I found you in, and expressing a hope that what you have gone
through may be considered a sufficient punishment for your indulgence in
too much wine. Good-night.'

"Well, I got down safely enough. Of course, when I got to our line of
pickets, I was challenged, and sent in a prisoner. In the morning I was
taken before the colonel. He rated me soundly. I can tell you. When he
had finished, I saluted and handed him the note. He read it through, and
handed it to the major.

"'A letter from the enemy,' he said. 'It is from Trant, who must be a
good fellow as well as a brave soldier, as we know to our cost. Tell me
more about this, Rignold.'

"I told him.

"'I agree with the Englishman,' he said. 'You have had a lesson that
will last you all your life. I wish I had means of sending an answer
back to this English colonel, thanking him for his generous treatment.
If he ever falls into our hands, I will take care that this action of
his shall be brought to the general's notice. You can go.'

"Well, you see, that lesson has lasted all my life; and I am certainly
not likely to forget it here, where the peasants are every bit as savage
as the Spaniards. But as for the English, though I have fought with them
half a dozen times since, and have been beaten by them too, I have
always had a liking for them. That was one reason why I took to you,
youngster, from the first."

"They fight well, do they?" one of the other sergeants asked. "I never
was in Spain, but I thought from the bulletins that we generally beat
them."

"Bulletins!" growled Rignold, "who can believe bulletins? We have got so
accustomed to writing bulletins of victory that when we do get thrashed
we can't write in any other strain. Why, I tell you that we who have
fought and conquered in Italy and Austria, in Prussia and on the Rhine,
have learned to acknowledge among ourselves, that even our best troops
were none too good when it came to fighting the English. I fought a
dozen battles against them, and in not one of them could I honestly say
that we got the best of it. Talavera was the nearest thing. But we were
fairly thrashed at Busaco and Salamanca. Albuera we claimed as a drawn
fight, but such a drawn fight I never wish to share in again. The day
had been going well. The Spaniards of course bolted, horse and foot. But
at last matters cleared up, and we advanced against them in heavy
columns. Soult called up all the reserves. We had captured six of their
guns. Our columns had crowned the hill they held, and we cheered loudly,
believing that the battle was won, when an English brigade in line fell
upon us. Our guns swept them with grape, and that so terribly that for a
time they fell into confusion. But to our astonishment they rallied, and
came down on us. We were four to one, but we were in columns, and strove
in vain to form into line to meet them. Volley after volley swept away
the head of our formation. Soult exposed himself recklessly. Officers
and men ran forward, and we kept up a fire that seemed as if it must
destroy them, and yet on they came, cheering incessantly. Never did I
see such a thing. Never did any other man there see such a thing. They
came down upon us with the bayonet. We strove, we fought like madmen;
but it was in vain, and we were hurled down that hill in utter
confusion.

"We heard afterwards that of the 6000 British soldiers who began the
day, but 1800 stood unwounded at the end. They had with them 24,000
Spaniards, but, of course, we never counted them as anything, and they
did their allies more harm than good by throwing them into confusion in
their flight. We had 19,000 infantry, all veteran troops, mind you, and
yet we could not storm that hill, and drive those 6000 Englishmen off
it. We lost over 8000 men, and that in a battle that lasted only four
hours. Our regiment suffered so that it was reduced to a third of its
number. We fought them again at Salamanca, and got thrashed there; soon
after that we were sent back to France to fill up our ranks again, and I
for one was glad indeed when we were sent to the Rhine and not back to
Spain; for I tell you I never want to meet the English again in battle.
Borodino was bad enough, and for stubborn, hard fighting, the Russians
have proved themselves as tough customers as one can want to meet; but
the English have more dash and quickness. They manœuvre much more
rapidly than do the Russians, and when they charge, you have either got
to destroy them or to go."

"You are right there, comrade," another said. "I was with my regiment,
the 5th, at Badajoz. It was a strong place. Phillipson, who was in
command, was a thoroughly good officer. He had strengthened the defences
in every way, and the garrison was 5000 strong. We reckoned we could
hold out for three months anyhow. 15,000 men sat down before us on the
17th of March, and began to open trenches against a strong outlying
fort. We made several sorties, and did all we could to hinder them, but
on the 25th they stormed the fort. It was defended desperately, but in
an hour it was all over. Still, that was only an outlying work. Soult
was known to be advancing to our relief; but he waited to gather as
large a force as possible, believing, reasonably enough, that we could
hold out a month, while we still calculated on holding out for three.
The English worked like demons, and on the 6th of April they had made
two breaches. We had prepared everything for them. We had planted mines
all over the breaches. We had scores of powder barrels, and hundreds of
shells ready to roll down. We had guns placed to sweep them on both
flanks and along the top. We had a stockade of massive beams in which
were fixed sword blades, while in front of this the breach was covered
with loose planks studded with sharp iron points.

"Every man behind the stockade had half a dozen spare muskets. A legion
of devils could not have taken the place. They did not take it, but
never did mortal men try harder. Even when they felt that it was
absolutely impossible, they stood there amid that storm of shot and
shell, exploding powder barrels, and bursting mines. Two thousand men
were killed in that breach, and yet they still stood there. Our own
triumph was but a short one, for another British division had carried
the castle. While we were exulting in victory, the town was lost. Thus,
you see, they had in twenty days captured the fortress that we and
everyone else made sure we could defend for at least three months.
Fortunately we were exchanged a short time afterwards, and so I escaped
being sent to an English prison. I agree with you, Rignold. I am ready
to do my share of fighting, but I would rather do it against any one,
even against these Russians, than against the English; and I think you
will find that every man who has served in Spain would say the same."

"After all, comrades," another veteran said, "it seems to me that it
does not make much difference who you have got to fight against, for you
see the generals make things about even. If one of our generals finds
that there are say 50,000 Spaniards marching against him, while his
force is only 10,000, he gives battle. Well, he won't give battle to
50,000 Austrians unless he has got something like 35,000. I should say
that after Borodino he would like to have 40,000, at least, against
50,000 Russians. No doubt the English calculate the same way, and, in
Spain, we must admit that we always found them ready to fight when, as
far as numbers went, we outmatched them. So I take it that the
difference between the fighting powers of armies is not felt so much as
you would think by each soldier, because allowance for that is made by
the generals on both sides, and the soldiers find themselves always
handicapped just in proportion to their fighting powers. So you see
there is a big element of luck in it. The question of ground comes in,
and climate, and so on. Now, taking Spain, though 10,000 against 50,000
would be fair enough odds in a fight in the open, if a hundred of us
were attacked by 500 Spaniards among the mountains, it would go very
hard with us. And, again, though 1000 Frenchmen might repulse 3000 of
those Mamelukes if they attacked us in the cool of the morning or in the
evening, yet if we were caught in the middle of the day, with the sun
blazing down, and parched with thirst, we might succumb. Then, of
course, the question of generals counts for a great deal. So you see
that even supposing both sides agree, as it were, as to the fighting
powers of their troops, the element of luck counts for a lot, and before
you begin to fight you can never feel sure that you are going to win."

"Well, but we do win almost everywhere, Brison."

"Yes, yes; because we have Napoleon and Ney and Soult and the rest of
them. We have had to fight hard many and many a time, and if the battle
had been fought between the same armies with a change of generals,
things would have gone quite differently to what they did."

"You were with Napoleon in Egypt, were you not?" Julian asked.

"Yes, I was there; and, bad as this desolate country is, I would anyhow
rather campaign here than in Egypt. The sun seems to scorch into your
very brain, and you are suffocated by dust. Drink as much as you will,
you are always tormented by thirst. It is a level plain, for the most
part treeless, and with nothing to break the view but the mud villages,
which are the same colour as the soil. Bah! we loathed them. And yet I
ought not to say anything against the villages, for, if it had not been
for one of them, I should not be here now. I will tell you the tale. Two
hundred of us had been despatched to seize some of the leading sheiks,
who were said to be holding a meeting in some place fifteen miles away
from where we were encamped. We had a squadron of horse and a hundred of
our men. We afterwards found that the whole story was a lie, invented to
get us into a trap. We were guided by a villainous-looking rogue on a
camel, and beyond the fact that we were marching south-east, we had no
idea where we were going. Half the cavalry kept ahead. We had marched
four hours, when, on coming on to the crest of one of the sand-hills, we
saw about half a mile away a little clump of mud huts. Near the foot of
some high hills to the right were some tents.

"'There it is,' the guide said, pointing to the tents. And the cavalry
set off at a gallop, followed by the guide, who soon fell far into their
rear. Just as the cavalry reached the tents, we saw two great masses of
horsemen appear from behind the sand-hills on either flank, and with
loud yells ride down upon them. With a shout of fury we were about to
break into a run, but the major who was in command said, 'It is useless,
comrades. There is but one hope. Make for that village. We can hold
that; and there, if any of our comrades escape, they will find shelter.
Double, march.' Off we went, but it was against the grain. We could hear
the cracking of pistols, the shouts of our brave fellows, the yells of
the Arabs, and our hearts were there; but we felt that the major was
right. There must have been fully a couple of thousand of the Arabs, and
we should have but thrown away our lives. It was a terrible run. The
heat was stifling; the dust rose in clouds under our feet. We could
scarce breathe, but we knew that we were running for life. As we neared
the village, we heard yells behind us.

"'A hundred yards further, lads,' the major shouted. We did it, and when
we reached the first house we halted. Three hundred yards away were a
dozen of our troopers, followed by a mob of Arabs. The Major faced
twenty men about, and ordered the rest of us to divide ourselves among
the huts. There were but nine of these. The villagers, who had seen us
coming, had bolted, and we had just got into the houses when we heard
the rear-guard open fire. There was a young lieutenant with the
troopers, and, as they rode in, he ordered them to dismount, and to lead
their horses into the huts. A moment later the rear-guard ran in. We
felt for a moment like rats caught in a trap, for, in the hut I was in,
there were but two rooms. One had no light but what came in at the door;
the other had an opening of about nine inches square, and that not
looking into the street. In a moment, however, we saw that there was a
ladder leading up to the flat roof, and we swarmed up. These houses are
all built with flat roofs made of clay like the walls. Some of them have
a parapet about a foot high; some of them none at all. In better-class
villages some of the parapets are a good deal higher; so that the women
can sit there unobserved from the other roofs.

"The hut we were in had a low parapet, and we threw ourselves down
behind it. The street was full of horsemen, yelling and discharging
their guns at the doors; but when, almost at the same moment, a rattling
fire broke out from every roof, the scene in the street changed as if by
magic. Men fell from their horses in all directions. The horses plunged
and struggled, and so terrible was the
mêlée
that, had the houses
stood touching each other, I doubt whether a man of those who entered
would have got out alive. As it was, they rode out through the openings,
leaving some sixty or seventy of their number dead in the street. We had
breathing time now. The whole of the Arab horsemen presently surrounded
us, but the lesson had been so severe that they hesitated to make
another charge into the village. The major's orders, that we were not to
throw away a shot, unless they charged down in force, were passed from
roof to roof round the village. We were ordered to barricade the doors
with anything we could find, and if there was nothing else, we were,
with our bayonets, to bring down part of the partition walls and pile
the earth against the door. Each hut was to report what supply of water
there was in it. This was to be in charge of the non-commissioned
officer, or the oldest soldier if there was not one, and he was to see
that it was not touched at night. It was to be divided equally among all
the huts.