Sevastopol Read online

that was a star; but it darted down ...there, it has burst now. And that big star yonder, what is it called?It is just exactly like a bomb."

  "Do you know, I have grown so used to these bombs that I am convincedthat a starlight night in Russia will always seem to me to be allbombs; one gets so accustomed to them."

  "But am not I to go on this sortie?" inquired Galtsin, after amomentary silence.

  "Enough of that, brother! Don't think of such a thing! I won't let yougo!" replied Kalugin. "Your turn will come, brother!"

  "Seriously? So you think that it is not necessary to go? Hey?..."

  At that moment, a frightful crash of rifles was heard in the directionin which these gentlemen were looking, above the roar of the cannon,and thousands of small fires, flaring up incessantly, withoutintermission, flashed along the entire line.

  "That's it, when the real work has begun!" said Kalugin.--"That is thesound of the rifles, and I cannot hear it in cold blood; it takes asort of hold on your soul, you know. And there is the hurrah!" headded, listening to the prolonged and distant roar of hundreds ofvoices, "A-a-aa!" which reached him from the bastion.

  "What is this hurrah, theirs or ours?"

  "I don't know; but it has come to a hand-to-hand fight, for the firinghas ceased."

  At that moment, an officer followed by his Cossack galloped up to theporch, and slipped down from his horse.

  "Where from?"

  "From the bastion. The general is wanted."

  "Let us go. Well, now, what is it?"

  "They have attacked the lodgements ... have taken them ... the Frenchhave brought up their heavy reserves ... they have attacked our forces... there were only two battalions," said the panting officer, whowas the same that had come in the evening, drawing his breath withdifficulty, but stepping to the door with perfect unconcern.

  "Well, have they retreated?" inquired Galtsin.

  "No," answered the officer, angrily. "The battalion came up and beatthem back; but the commander of the regiment is killed, and manyofficers, and I have been ordered to ask for re-enforcements...."

  And with these words he and Kalugin went off to the general, whither wewill not follow them.

  Five minutes later, Kalugin was mounted on the Cossack's horse (andwith that peculiar, _quasi_-Cossack seat, in which, as I have observed,all adjutants find something especially captivating, for some reasonor other), and rode at a trot to the bastion, in order to give someorders, and to await the news of the final result of the affair. AndPrince Galtsin, under the influence of that oppressive emotion whichthe signs of a battle near at hand usually produce on a spectator whotakes no part in it, went out into the street, and began to pace up anddown there without any object.

  VI.

  The soldiers were bearing the wounded on stretchers, and supportingthem by their arms. It was completely dark in the streets; now andthen, a rare light flashed in the hospital or from the spot wherethe officers were seated. The same thunder of cannon and exchange ofrifle-shots was borne from the bastions, and the same fires flashedagainst the dark heavens. Now and then, you could hear the tramplinghoofs of an orderly's horse, the groan of a wounded man, the footstepsand voices of the stretcher-bearers, or the conversation of some of thefrightened female inhabitants, who had come out on their porches toview the cannonade.

  Among the latter were our acquaintances Nikita, the old sailor's widow,with whom he had already made his peace, and her ten-year-old daughter."Lord, Most Holy Mother of God!" whispered the old woman to herselfwith a sigh, as she watched the bombs, which, like balls of fire,sailed incessantly from one side to the other. "What a shame, what ashame! I-i-hi-hi! It was not so in the first bombardment. See, there ithas burst, the cursed thing! right above our house in the suburbs."

  "No, it is farther off, in aunt Arinka's garden, that they all fall,"said the little girl.

  "And where, where is my master now!" said Nikita, with a drawl, for hewas still rather drunk. "Oh, how I love that master of mine!--I don'tknow myself!--I love him so that if, which God forbid, they shouldkill him in this sinful fight, then, if you will believe it, aunty, Idon't know myself what I might do to myself in that case--by Heavens, Idon't! He is such a master that words will not do him justice! WouldI exchange him for one of those who play cards? That is simply--whew!that's all there is to say!" concluded Nikita, pointing at the lightedwindow of his master's room, in which, as the staff-captain wasabsent, Yunker Zhvadchevsky had invited his friends to a carouse, onthe occasion of his receiving the cross: Sub-Lieutenant Ugrovitch andSub-Lieutenant Nepshisetsky, who was ill with a cold in the head.

  "Those little stars! They dart through the sky like stars, like stars!"said the little girl, breaking the silence which succeeded Nikita'swords. "There, there! another has dropped! Why do they do it, mamma?"

  "They will ruin our little cabin entirely," said the old woman,sighing, and not replying to her little daughter's question.

  "And when uncle and I went there to-day, mamma," continued the littlegirl, in a shrill voice, "there was such a big cannon-ball lying in theroom, near the cupboard; it had broken through the wall and into theroom ... and it is so big that you couldn't lift it."

  "Those who had husbands and money have gone away," said the old woman,"and now they have ruined my last little house. See, see how they arefiring, the wretches. Lord, Lord!"

  "And as soon as we came out, a bomb flew at us, and burst and scatteredthe earth about, and a piece of the shell came near striking uncle andme."

  VII.

  Prince Galtsin met more and more wounded men, in stretchers and onfoot, supporting each other, and talking loudly.

  "When they rushed up, brothers," said one tall soldier, who had twoguns on his shoulder, in a bass voice, "when they rushed up andshouted, 'Allah, Allah!'[G] they pressed each other on. You kill one,and another takes his place--you can do nothing. You never saw suchnumbers as there were of them...."

  [G] A The Russian soldiers, who had been fighting the Turks, were soaccustomed to this cry of the enemy that they always declared that theFrench also cried "Allah."--AUTHOR'S NOTE.

  But at this point in his story Galtsin interrupted him.

  "You come from the bastion?"

  "Just so, Your Honor!"

  "Well, what has been going on there? Tell me."

  "Why, what has been going on? They attacked in force, Your Honor;they climbed over the wall, and that's the end of it. They conqueredcompletely, Your Honor."

  "How conquered? You repulsed them, surely?"

  "How could we repulse them, when he came up with his whole force? Theykilled all our men, and there was no help given us."

  The soldier was mistaken, for the trenches were behind our forces; butthis is a peculiar thing, which any one may observe: a soldier who hasbeen wounded in an engagement always thinks that the day has been lost,and that the encounter has been a frightfully bloody one.

  "Then, what did they mean by telling me that you had repulsed them?"said Galtsin, with irritation. "Perhaps the enemy was repulsed afteryou left? Is it long since you came away?"

  "I have this instant come from there, Your Honor," replied the soldier."It is hardly possible. The trenches remained in his hands ... he won acomplete victory."

  "Well, and are you not ashamed to have surrendered the trenches? Thisis horrible!" said Galtsin, angered by such indifference.

  "What, when he was there in force?" growled the soldier.

  "And, Your Honor," said a soldier on a stretcher, who had just come upwith them, "how could we help surrendering, when nearly all of us hadbeen killed? If we had been in force, we would only have surrenderedwith our lives. But what was there to do? I ran one man through, andthen I was struck.... O-oh! softly, brothers! steady, brothers! go moresteadily!... O-oh!" groaned the wounded man.

  "There really seem to be a great many extra men coming this way," saidGaltsin, again stopping the tall soldier with the two rifles. "Why areyou walking off? Hey there, halt!"

  The soldier halted, and
removed his cap with his left hand.

  "Where are you going, and why?" he shouted at him sternly. "He ..."

  But, approaching the soldier very closely at that moment, he perceivedthat the latter's right arm was bandaged, and covered with blood farabove the elbow.

  "I am wounded, Your Honor!"

  "Wounded? how?"

  "It must have been a bullet, here!" said the soldier, pointing at hisarm, "but I cannot tell yet. My head has been broken by something,"and, bending over, he showed the hair upon the back of it all clottedtogether with blood.

  "And whose gun is that second one you have?"

  "A choice French one, Your Honor! I captured it. And I should not havecome away if it had not been to accompany this soldier; he might falldown," he added, pointing at the soldier, who was walking a little infront, leaning upon his gun, and dragging his left foot heavily afterhim.

  Prince Galtsin all at once became frightfully ashamed of his unjustsuspicions. He felt that he was growing crimson, and turned away,without questioning the wounded men further, and, without looking afterthem, he went to the place where the injured men were being cared for.

  Having forced his way with difficulty to the porch, through the woundedmen who had come on foot, and the stretcher-bearers, who were enteringwith the wounded and emerging with the dead, Galtsin entered the firstroom, glanced round, and involuntarily turned back, and immediately raninto the street. It was too terrible.

  VIII.

  The vast, dark, lofty hall, lighted only by the four or five candles,which the doctors were carrying about to inspect the wounded, wasliterally full. The stretcher-bearers brought in the wounded, rangedthem one beside another on the floor, which was already so crowded thatthe unfortunate wretches hustled each other and sprinkled each otherwith their blood, and then went forth for more. The pools of bloodwhich were visible on the unoccupied places, the hot breaths of severalhundred men, and the steam which rose from those who were toilingwith the stretchers produced a peculiar, thick, heavy, offensiveatmosphere, in which the candles burned dimly in the different partsof the room. The dull murmur of diverse groans, sighs, death-rattles,broken now and again by a shriek, was borne throughout the apartment.Sisters of charity, with tranquil faces, and with an expression not ofempty, feminine, tearfully sickly compassion, but of active, practicalsympathy, flitted hither and thither among the blood-stained cloaks andshirts, stepping over the wounded, with medicine, water, bandages, lint.

  Doctors, with their sleeves rolled up, knelt beside the wounded, besidewhom the assistant surgeons held the candles, inspecting, feeling, andprobing the wounds, in spite of the terrible groans and entreaties ofthe sufferers. One of the doctors was seated at a small table by thedoor, and, at the moment when Galtsin entered the room, he was justwriting down "No. 532."

  "Ivan Bogaeff, common soldier, third company of the S---- regiment,_fractura femoris complicata_!" called another from the extremity ofthe hall, as he felt of the crushed leg.... "Turn him over."

  "O-oi, my fathers, good fathers!" shrieked the soldier, beseeching themnot to touch him.

  "_Perforatio capitis._"

  "Semyon Neferdoff, lieutenant-colonel of the N---- regiment of infantry.Have a little patience, colonel: you can only be attended to this way;I will let you alone," said a third, picking away at the head of theunfortunate colonel, with some sort of a hook.

  "Ai! stop! Oi! for God's sake, quick, quick, for the sake a-a-a-a!..."

  "_Perforatio pectoris_ ... Sevastyan Sereda, common soldier ... of whatregiment? however, you need not write that: _moritur_. Carry him away,"said the doctor, abandoning the soldier, who was rolling his eyes, andalready emitting the death-rattle.

  Forty stretcher-bearers stood at the door, awaiting the task oftransporting to the hospital the men who had been attended to, and thedead to the chapel, and gazed at this picture in silence, only utteringa heavy sigh from time to time....

  IX.

  On his way to the bastion, Kalugin met numerous wounded men; but,knowing from experience that such a spectacle has a bad effect on thespirits of a man on the verge of an action, he not only did not pauseto interrogate them, but, on the contrary, he tried not to pay any heedto them. At the foot of the hill he encountered an orderly, who wasgalloping from the bastion at full speed.

  "Zobkin! Zobkin! Stop a minute!"

  "Well, what is it?"

  "Where are you from?"

  "From the lodgements."

  "Well, how are things there! Hot?"

  "Ah, frightfully!"

  And the orderly galloped on.

  In fact, although there was not much firing from the rifles, thecannonade had begun with fresh vigor and greater heat than ever.

  "Ah, that's bad!" thought Kalugin, experiencing a rather unpleasantsensation, and there came to him also a presentiment, that is to say, avery usual thought--the thought of death.

  But Kalugin was an egotist and gifted with nerves of steel; in a word,he was what is called brave. He did not yield to his first sensation,and began to arouse his courage; he recalled to mind a certain adjutantof Napoleon, who, after having given the command to advance, gallopedup to Napoleon, his head all covered with blood.

  "You are wounded?" said Napoleon to him. "I beg your pardon, Sire, I amdead,"--and the adjutant fell from his horse, and died on the spot.

  This seemed very fine to him, and he fancied that he somewhat resembledthis adjutant; then he gave his horse a blow with the whip; and assumedstill more of that knowing Cossack bearing, glanced at his orderly, whowas galloping behind him, standing upright in his stirrups, and thus indashing style he reached the place where it was necessary to dismount.Here he found four soldiers, who were smoking their pipes as they saton the stones.

  "What are you doing here?" he shouted at them.

  "We have been carrying a wounded man from the field, Your Honor, andhave sat down to rest," one of them replied, concealing his pipe behindhis back, and pulling off his cap.

  "Resting indeed! March off to your posts!"

  And, in company with them, he walked up the hill through the trenches,encountering wounded men at every step.

  On attaining the crest of the hill, he turned to the left, and, aftertaking a few steps, found himself quite alone. Splinters whizzed nearhim, and struck in the trenches. Another bomb rose in front of him, andseemed to be flying straight at him. All of a sudden he felt terrified;he ran off five paces at full speed, and lay down on the ground. Butwhen the bomb burst, and at a distance from him, he grew dreadfullyvexed at himself, and glanced about as he rose, to see whether any onehad perceived him fall, but there was no one about.

  When fear has once made its way into the mind, it does not speedilygive way to another feeling. He, who had boasted that he wouldnever bend, hastened along the trench with accelerated speed, andalmost on his hands and knees. "Ah! this is very bad!" he thought,as he stumbled. "I shall certainly be killed!" And, conscious of howdifficult it was for him to breathe, and that the perspiration wasbreaking out all over his body, he was amazed at himself, but he nolonger strove to conquer his feelings.

  All at once steps became audible in advance of him. He quicklystraightened himself up, raised his head, and, boldly clanking hissword, began to proceed at a slower pace than before. He did not knowhimself. When he joined the officer of sappers and the sailor whowere coming to meet him, and the former called to him, "Lie down,"pointing to the bright speck of a bomb, which, growing ever brighterand brighter, swifter and swifter, as it approached, crashed downin the vicinity of the trench, he only bent his head a very little,involuntarily, under the influence of the terrified shout, and went hisway.

  "Whew! what a brave man!" ejaculated the sailor, who had calmly watchedthe exploding bomb, and, with practised glance, at once calculatedthat its splinters could not strike inside the trench; "he did not evenwish to lie down."

  Only a few steps remained to be taken, across an open space, beforeKalugin would reach the casemate of the commander of the bastion,
whenhe was again attacked by dimness of vision and that stupid sensation offear; his heart began to beat more violently, the blood rushed to hishead, and he was obliged to exert an effort over himself in order toreach the casemate.

  "Why are you so out of breath?" inquired the general, when Kalugin hadcommunicated to him his orders.

  "I have been walking very fast, Your Excellency!"

  "Will you not take a glass of wine?"

  Kalugin drank the wine, and lighted a cigarette. The engagement hadalready come to an end; only the heavy cannonade continued, going onfrom both sides.

  In the casemate sat General N., the commander of the bastion, and sixother officers, among whom was Praskukhin, discussing various detailsof the conflict. Seated in this comfortable apartment, with bluehangings, with a sofa, a bed, a table, covered with papers, a wallclock, and the holy pictures, before which burned a lamp, and gazingupon these signs of habitation, and at the arshin-thick (twenty-eightinches) beams which formed the ceiling, and listening to the shots,which were deadened by the casemate, Kalugin positively could notunderstand how he had twice permitted himself to be overcome with suchunpardonable weakness. He was angry with himself, and he longed fordanger, in order that he might subject himself to another trial.

  "I am glad that you are here, captain," he said to a naval officer,in the cloak of staff-officer, with a large moustache and the crossof St.