第52章 How the Brigadier Bore Himself at Waterloo(8)

I had made my way out of the inn in the dashing manner which I have described to you when last we met, and I left the English aide-de-camp shaking his foolish fist out of the window.I could not but laugh as I looked back at him, for his angry red face was framed and frilled with hay.Once out on the road I stood erect in my stirrups, and I put on the handsome black riding- coat, lined with red, which had belonged to him.It fell to the top of my high boots, and covered my tell-tale uniform completely.As to my busby, there are many such in the German service, and there was no reason why it should attract attention.So long as no one spoke to me there was no reason why I should not ride through the whole of the Prussian army; but though I understood German, for I had many friends among the German ladies during the pleasant years that I fought all over that country, still I spoke it with a pretty Parisian accent which could not be confounded with their rough, unmusical speech.Iknew that this quality of my accent would attract attention, but I could only hope and pray that I would be permitted to go my way in silence.

The Forest of Paris was so large that it was useless to think of going round it, and so I took my courage in both hands and galloped on down the road in the track of the Prussian army.It was not hard to trace it, for it was rutted two feet deep by the gun-wheels and the caissons.Soon I found a fringe of wounded men, Prussians and French, on each side of it, where Bulow's advance had come into touch with Marbot's Hussars.One old man with a long white beard, a surgeon, I suppose, shouted at me, and ran after me still shouting, but I never turned my head and took no notice of him save to spur on faster.I heard his shouts long after I had lost sight of him among the trees.

Presently I came up with the Prussian reserves.The infantry were leaning on their muskets or lying exhausted on the wet ground, and the officers stood in groups listening to the mighty roar of the battle and discussing the reports which came from the front.I hurried past at the top of my speed, but one of them rushed out and stood in my path with his hand up as a signal to me to stop.Five thousand Prussian eyes were turned upon me.There was a moment! You turn pale, my friends, at the thought of it.Think how every hair upon me stood on end.But never for one instant did my wits or my courage desert me."General Blucher!" I cried.Was it not my guardian angel who whispered the words in my ear? The Prussian sprang from my path, saluted, and pointed forward.They are well disciplined, these Prussians, and who was he that he should dare to stop the officer who bore a message to the general?

It was a talisman that would pass me out of every danger, and my heart sang within me at the thought.So elated was I that I no longer waited to be asked, but as I rode through the army I shouted to right and left,"General Blucher! General Blucher!" and every man pointed me onward and cleared a path to let me pass.

There are times when the most supreme impudence is the highest wisdom.But discretion must also be used, and I must admit that I became indiscreet.For as I rode upon my way, ever nearer to thefighting line, a Prussian officer of Uhlans gripped my bridle and pointed to a group of men who stood near a burning farm."There is Marshal Blucher.Deliver your message!" said he, and sure enough, my terrible old grey-whiskered veteran was there within a pistol-shot, his eyes turned in my direction.

But the good guardian angel did not desert me.

Quick as a flash there came into my memory the name of the general who commanded the advance of the Prussians.

{illust.caption = "There is Marshal Blucher.Deliver your message!"}

"General Bulow!" I cried.The Uhlan let go my bridle."General Bulow! General Bulow!" I shouted, as every stride of the dear little mare took me nearer my own people.Through the burning village of Planchenoit I galloped, spurred my way between two columns of Prussian infantry, sprang over a hedge, cut down a Silesian Hussar who flung himself before me, and an instant afterward, with my coat flying open to show the uniform below, I passed through the open files of the tenth of the line, and was back in the heart of Lobau's corps once more.Outnumbered and outflanked, they were being slowly driven in by the pressure of the Prussian advance.I galloped onward, anxious only to find myself by the Emperor's side.

But a sight lay before me which held me fast as though I had been turned into some noble equestrian statue.I could not move, I could scarce breathe, as I gazed upon it.There was a mound over which my path lay, and as I came out on the top of it I looked down the long, shallow valley of Waterloo.I had left it with two great armies on either side and a clear field between them.Now there were but long, ragged fringes of broken and exhausted regiments upon the two ridges, but a real army of dead and wounded lay between.For two miles in length and half a mile across the ground was strewed and heaped with them.But slaughter was no new sight to me, and it was not that which held me spellbound.It was that up the long slope of the British position was moving a walking forest- black, tossing, waving, unbroken.Did I not know the bearskins of the Guard?And did I not also know, did not my soldier's instinct tell me,that it was the last reserve of France; that the Emperor, like a desperate gamester, was staking all upon his last card? Up they went and up-- grand, solid, unbreakable, scourged with musketry, riddled with grape, flowing onward in a black, heavy tide, which lapped over the British batteries.With my glass I could see the English gunners throw themselves under their pieces or run to the rear.On rolled the crest of the bearskins, and then, with a crash which was swept across to my ears, they met the British infantry.A minute passed, and another, and another.My heart was in my mouth.