Part 4 (2/2)
A rascally horse-dealer had told the clique that a herd of cattle which he had sold to the Austrians was in a o, and now sixty Hussars, armed only with their carbines, were on their way to capture it Avoiding the ues into the h tracks We surprised five Croats, who had been left to guard the herd, asleep in a shed To prevent theo, we tied them up and left the fired and returned to the cahted to have played such a successful trick on the enemy, and at the same time acquired some food
This event illustrates the already wretched condition of the aranisation such neglect will bring troops; whose officers are obliged not only to tolerate these sort of expeditions, but to take advantage of the supplies they procure without see to knohence they come
Chap 9
Happy in my military career, I had not even reached the rank of corporal when I was raised ieant This is how it came about
On the left of my father's division was that commanded by General Seras, whose headquarters were at Finale This division, which occupied the part of Liguria where the mountains are steepest, was co unable to operate, except in small detachments, on the few open spaces which at this point separate the shore of the Mediterranean fro been ordered to push forith the greater part of his division to reconnoitre the area of Mount Santa-Giacomo, beyond which there were several valleys, wrote tothe loan of a detachment of fifty Hussars for this expedition; a request which could not be turned down So reed and named Lt Leisteinschneider as commander of this detachment, of which my platoon was a part
We left Madona to make our way to Finale There was, at that ti the sea coast, known as the Corniche The lieutenant badly injured his foot as a result of a fall from his horse, and so the coeant na man, capable and well-trained, and full of self-assurance
General Seras, at the head of his division, advanced next day onto the snow-clad slopes of Mount Santa-Giacoo forward the next day, with he al contact with the enereat a number? On this subject the General had absolutely no information, and as his orders from the commander-in-chief were to reconnoitre the Austrian positions at this point of the line, but not to engage in coth, General Seras reflected that if he advanced his infantry division into the middle of the mountains, where often one could not see enemy troops until one found oneself face to face with theht be led, in spite of his wishes, into a ed to carry out a dangerous retreat
He decided therefore to proceed with caution, and to push out, three or four leagues in front of him, an advance party which could probe the country and, et so or would not talk As a sered if he advanced the to return with the inforently needed, it was to the fifty Hussars that he gave the task of going ahead and exploring the terrain Then, as the country was very broken, he gave a eant, briefed him, in front of the detach that it was essential that ent ahead until we made contact with the enemy outposts, from which he would very eant Canonto the book He sent out a suard, put scouts on the flanks and took all the precautions usual in partisan warfare When we had gone soeant questioned the inn-keeper and was told that, a good hour's march aas a body of Austrian troops, the size of which he did not know, though he knew that the leading regiment contained some very unpleasant Hussars, who had athered this inforone a hundred paces, when Sergeant Canon, writhing on his horse, declared that he had the o any further He handed the coeant Pertelay, as next in seniority Pertelay, however pointed out that he was an Alsatian and was unable to read French, and could not, in consequence, understand the eneral
He did not wish to accept the coeants, old Bercheny Hussars, refused for the same reason, as did the corporals
In vain, as a eneral's instructions and explain our route on the eants ould take over; they all refused anew; then, to reat surprise, these old sweats turned to me and said ”Take command yourself We'll follow you and obey all your orders”
The rest of the party expressed the sao no further and the honour of the regieneral's orders were carried out, above all when it was perhaps aa disaster for his division So I accepted the coeant Canon if he felt able to continue At which point he began to complain once ht he was really ill, but the men of the detach re, that nature has endowed ht even add that there was a tier My military record and the thirteen wounds I have received in the wars are, I believe, sufficient proof
So, on taking command of fifty men, placed under my orders in such extraordinary circue--I resolved to prove to my comrades that if I had neither experience normyself resolutely at their head I set off in the direction where I kneould encounter the ene ti to hide They hastened to capture hi him back I questioned hiues away, and claimed that he had not seen any Austrian troops I was sure he was lying, either fro, because ere very close to the enemy cantonments I remembered then that I had read in a book about partisan warfare, which iven me to study, that to persuade the inhabitants of a country in which one is fighting to talk, it is sohened ive my boyish face a ferocious look, I shouted, ”What! You rascal! You have been wandering about in a country occupied by a great body of Austrian troops, and you clai? You are a spy!
Coht away”
I ordered four Hussars to dis himself held by the troopers whose carbines had just been loaded in front of him, was overcome by such terror that he swore that he would tell me all he knew He was a servant in a iven a letter to take to relatives of the Prior, and he had been told that if he ran into the French, he was not to tell them where the Austrians were; but now that he was forced to speak, he told us that a league froies, and that about a hundred of Barco's Hussars were in a hamlet which was only a short distance away Questioned about the defensive precautions taken by these Hussars, he said that before one reached the houses, they had posted a picket-guard which was in a garden surrounded by hedges, and that when he went through the ha to water their horses at a little pond on the far side of the buildings
Having received this information, I had now tothe picket-guard who, being entrenched behind hedges, could not be attacked by cavalry, while the fire froive warning of our approach To do this required that we go round the hamlet, so as to reach the pond, and fall, unexpectedly, on our ene seen? I then ordered the peasant to lead us on a detour, and promised to set him free as soon as we reached the other side of the hamlet, which we could see: when he refused to do so, I had him taken by the scruff of the neck by one Hussar while another held a pistol to his ear, which e hedges hid our e to see, at the edge of a s their horses
All the riders were carrying their arms, which is the usual practice for outposts, but those in colected a precaution which is essential in war, that is, to allow only one troop at a time to unbridle their horses and enter the water, while the remainder stay on the bank ready to repel any attack Confident that there were no French about and relying on the watchfulness of the guard posted at the entry to the village, the eneht this precaution unnecessary This was to be his downfall
When I was some five hundred paces from the pond, I ordered the peasant to be released, who ran off as fast as his legs could carry hi forbidden allop on the enemy Hussars, who did not see us until a moment before we arrived at the pond The pond's banks were too high for the horses to climb out, and there was only one practicable way in, which was the one that served as the village drinking place It is true that this was a wide area, but there were ether there, all with their bridles in their hands and their carbines slung, so unconcerned that soine their surprise!
I attacked them immediately with carbine fire, which killed several, wounded many and knocked out a lot of their horses The confusion was total! Nevertheless, their captain, rallying some e to get out of the water, and opened fire on us, which although not sustained, wounded two ofkilled the captain with a blow from his sabre, the rest crowded back into the pond To escape from the carbine fire,and a good nu in the water Those who reached the other side found that their horses could not cla the the bank, they fled in disorder into the countryside
The twelveWe attacked theht However there remained about thirty men still in the pond, afraid to try to escape because we occupied the only way out They shouted to us that they were surrendering; I accepted this and as they came to the bank, made them thron their arms Most of these men and horses ounded, but as I wished to have some trophy from our victory, I chose seventeen horses and riders ere fit, and placing them in the middle of the detach round the village, as before
It was just as well that I itives had run to warn the nearby troops who had already been alerted by the sound of gunfire, and within half an hour there were five hundred horsemen on the banks of the little pond and some thousands of infantryues away, our wounded having been able to sustain a full gallop We stopped for a short tihed to see in the distance several ene our trail, since we knew that they had no hope of catching us, because in their fear of falling into an a now out of danger, I gave Pertelay two of the best-eneral Seras of the success of our ood order, with our prisoners in the centre and well guarded, I set off at a slow trot down the road to the inn