How The Redoubt Was Taken

How The Redoubt Was Taken,
by Prosper Mérimée

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Title: How The Redoubt Was Taken 1896
Author: Prosper Mérimée
Release Date: October 17, 2007 [EBook #23057]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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REDOUBT WAS TAKEN ***

Produced by David Widger

HOW THE REDOUBT WAS TAKEN
By Prosper Mérimée
Copyright, 1896, by The Current Literature Publishing Company

A friend of mine, a soldier, who died in Greece of fever some years
since, described to me one day his first engagement. His story so
impressed me that I wrote it down from memory. It was as follows:
I joined my regiment on September 4th. It was evening. I found the
colonel in the camp. He received me rather bruskly, but having read the
general's introductory letter he changed his manner and addressed me
courteously.
By him I was presented to my captain, who had just come in from
reconnoitring. This captain, whose acquaintance I had scarcely time to
make, was a tall, dark man, of harsh, repelling aspect. He had been a
private soldier, and had won his cross and epaulettes upon the field of
battle. His voice, which was hoarse and feeble, contrasted strangely
with his gigantic stature. This voice of his he owed, as I was told, to a
bullet which had passed completely through his body at the battle of
Jena.
On learning that I had just come from college at Fontainebleau, he
remarked, with a wry face: "My lieutenant died last night."
I understood what he implied, "It is for you to take his place, and you
are good for nothing."
A sharp retort was on my tongue, but I restrained it.
The moon was rising behind the redoubt of Cheverino, which stood two
cannon-shots from our encampment. The moon was large and red, as is
common at her rising; but that night she seemed to me of extraordinary
size. For an instant the redoubt stood out coal-black against the
glittering disk. It resembled the cone of a volcano at the moment of
eruption.
An old soldier, at whose side I found myself, observed the color of the
moon.
"She is very red," he said. "It is a sign that it will cost us dear to win
this wonderful redoubt."

I was always superstitious, and this piece of augury, coming at that
moment, troubled me. I sought my couch, but could not sleep. I rose,
and walked about a while, watching the long line of fires upon the
heights beyond the village of Cheverino.
When the sharp night air had thoroughly refreshed my blood I went
back to the fire. I rolled my mantle round me, and I shut my eyes,
trusting not to open them till daybreak. But sleep refused to visit me.
Insensibly my thoughts grew doleful. I told myself that I had not a
friend among the hundred thousand men who filled that plain. If I were
wounded, I should be placed in hospital, in the hands of ignorant and
careless surgeons. I called to mind what I had heard of operations. My
heart beat violently, and I mechanically arranged, as a kind of rude
cuirass, my handkerchief and pocketbook upon my breast. Then,
overpowered with weariness, my eyes closed drowsily, only to open the
next instant with a start at some new thought of horror.
Fatigue, however, at last gained the day. When the drums beat at
daybreak I was fast asleep. We were drawn up in ranks. The roll was
called, then we stacked our arms, and everything announced that we
should pass another uneventful day.
But about three o'clock an aide-de-camp arrived with orders. We were
commanded to take arms.
Our sharpshooters marched into the plain, We followed slowly, and in
twenty minutes we saw the outposts of the Russians falling back and
entering the redoubt. We had a battery of artillery on our right, another
on our left, but both some distance in advance of us. They opened a
sharp fire upon the enemy, who returned it briskly, and the redoubt of
Cheverino was soon concealed by volumes of thick smoke. Our
regiment was almost covered from the Russians' fire by a piece of
rising ground. Their bullets (which besides were rarely aimed at us, for
they preferred to fire upon our cannoneers) whistled over us, or at worst
knocked up a shower of earth and stones.
Just as the order to advance was given,