The hussars ran back to their horses; their
voices grew louder and more assured; the stretchers disappeared from sight.
“Well, lad, so
you’ve had a sniff of powder!” Vaska Denisov shouted in his ear.
“It’s all
over, but I am a coward, yes, I am a coward,” thought Rostov, and with a heavy
sigh he took his Rook, who had begun to go lame of one leg, from the man who
held him and began mounting.
“What was
that—grape-shot?” he asked of Denisov.
“Yes, and
something like it too,” cried Denisov; “they worked their guns in fine style.
But it’s a nasty business. A cavalry attack’s a pleasant thing—slash away at
the dogs; but this is for all the devil like aiming at a target.”
And Denisov rode away to a group standing
not far from Rostov
“It seems as
if no one noticed it, though,” Rostov thought to himself. And indeed no one had
noticed it at all, for every one was familiar with the feeling that the ensign,
never before under fire, was experiencing for the first time.
“Now you’ll
have something to talk about,” said Zherkov; “they’ll be promoting me a
sub-lieutenant before I know where I am, eh?”
“Inform the
prince that I have burnt the bridge,” said the colonel, in a cheerful and
triumphant tone.
“And if he
inquires with what losses?”
“Not worth
mentioning,” boomed the colonel; “two hussars wounded and one stark dead on the
spot,” he said, with undisguised cheerfulness. The German was unable to repress
a smile of satisfaction as he sonorously enunciated the idiomatic Russian
colloquialism of the last phrase.
Chapter 9
PURSUED by the French army of a hundred
thousand men under the command of Bonaparte, received with hostility by the
inhabitants, losing confidence in their allies, suffering from shortness of
supplies, and forced to act under circumstances unlike anything that had been
foreseen, the Russian army of thirty-five thousand men, under the command of
Kutuzov, beat a hasty retreat to the lower ground about the Danube. There they
halted, and were overtaken by the enemy, and fought a few rear-guard
skirmishes, avoiding an engagement, except in so far as it was necessary to
secure a retreat without the loss of their baggage and guns. There were actions
at Lambach, at Amsteten, and at Melk; but in spite of the courage and
stubbornness—acknowledged even by the enemy—with which the Russians fought, the
only consequence of these engagements was a still more rapid retreat. The
Austrian troops that had escaped being taken at Ulm, and had joined Kutuzov’s
forces at Braunau, now parted from the Russian army, and Kutuzov was left
unsupported with his weak and exhausted forces. The defence of Vienna
On the 28th of October, Kutuzov took his
army across to the left bank of the Danube, and then for the first time halted,
leaving the Danube between his army and the greater
part of the enemy’s forces. On the 30th he attacked Mortier’s division, which
was on the left bank of the Danube , and
defeated it. In this action for the first time trophies were taken—a flag,
cannons, and two of the enemy’s generals. For the first time, after retreating
for a fortnight, the Russian troops had halted, and after fighting had not
merely kept the field of battle, but had driven the French off it. Although the
troops were without clothing and exhausted, and had lost a third of their strength
in wounded, killed, and missing; although they had left their sick and wounded
behind on the other side of the Danube, with a letter from Kutuzov commending
them to the humanity of the enemy; although the great hospitals and houses in
Krems could not contain all the sick and wounded,—in spite of all that, the
halt before Krems and the victory over Mortier had greatly raised the spirits
of the troops. Throughout the whole army, and also at headquarters, there were
the most cheerful but groundless rumours of the near approach of the columns
from Russia
Prince Andrey had
been during the engagement in attendance on the Austrian general Schmidt,
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