"You are wounded.-*" said Napoleon to him. "I beg your pardon. Sire, I am dead," — and the adjutant fell from his horse, and died on the spot.
This seemed verv fine to him, and he fancied that he somewhat resembled this adjutant; then he gave his horse a blow with the whip; and assumed still more of that knowing^ Cossack bearing, glanced at his orderly, who was galloping behind him, standing upright in his stirrups, and thus in dashing style he reached the place where it was necessary to dismount. Here he found four soldiers, who were smoking their pipes as they sat on the stones.
" What are you doing here? " he shouted at them.
" We have been carrying a wounded man from the field, Your Honor, and have sat down to rest," one of them replied, concealing his pipe behind his 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, after taking a few steps, found himself quil;e alone. Splinters whizzed near him, and struck in the trenches. Another bomb rose in front of him, and seemed 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.' But when the bomb burst, and at a distance from. him, he grew dreadfully vexed at himself, and glanced about as he rose, to see whether any one had perceived him fall, but there was no one about.
When fear has once made its way into the mind, it does not speedily give way to another feeling. He, who had boasted that he would gj never bend, hastened along the trench with accelerated speed, and almost on his hands and knees. "Ah! this is very bad!" he thought, as he stumbled. " I shall certainly be killed! " And, conscious of how difficult it was for him to breathe, and that the perspiration was breaking out all over his body, he was amazed at himself, but he no longer strove to conquer his feelings.
All at once steps became audible in advance of him. He quickly straightened himself up, raised his head, and, boldly clanking his sword, began to proceed at a slower pace than before. He did not know himself. When he joined the officer of sappers and the sailor who were coming to meet him, and the former called to him, "Lie down," pointing to the bright speck of a bomb, which, growing ever brighter and brighter, swifter and swifter, as it approached, crashed down in the vicinity of the trench, he only bent his head a very little, involuntarily, under the influence of the terrified shout, and went his way.
" Whew! what a brave man! " ejaculated the sailor, who had calmly watched the exploding
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bomb, and, with practised glance, at once calculated that its splinters could not strike inside the trench; " he did not even wish to lie down."
Only a few steps remained to be taken, across an open space, before Kalugin would reach the casemate of the commander of the bastion, when he was again attacked by dimness of vision and that stupid sensation of fear; his heart began to beat more violently, the blood rushed to his head, and he was obliged to exert an effort over himself in order to reach the casemate.
"Why are you so out of breath V inquired the general, when Kalugin had communicated to him his orders.
"I have been walking very fast, Your Excellency! "
" Will you not take a glass of wine t "
Kalugin drank the wine, and lighted a cigarette. The engagement had already come to an end; only the heavy cannonade continued, going on from both sides.