Читать книгу The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen / Приключения барона Мюнхгаузена. Уровень 1 - Рудольф Эрих Распе, Готфрид Бюргер, Готфрид Август Бюргер - Страница 17

I remember this, my wonderful dog, with the same pleasure and tenderness as a superb Lithuanian horse, which no money could buy. That horse became mine by an accident. I was at some noble lord’s place, and remained with the ladies at tea in the drawing-room, while the gentlemen were down in the yard, to see a young horse. The horse arrived from the stud. We suddenly heard a noise of distress; I hastened downstairs, and found the horse so unruly, that nobody could approach or mount him.

The most resolute horsemen stood dismayed and aghast. Despondency was expressed in every countenance, when, in one leap[18], I was on his back. I took him by surprise, and worked him quite into gentleness and obedience. Oh, I was a real master of horsemanship! But I wanted to show this to the ladies, you see. I forced the horse to leap in at one of the open windows of the tea-room, walked round several times, and at last made him mount the tea-table. It was exceedingly pleasing to the ladies, for the horse walked amazingly well, and did not break either cup or saucer.

It placed me so high in their opinion, and so well in the opinion of the noble lord, that, with his usual politeness, he begged me to take this young horse. It was the noble lord’s present.

It was a very agreeable present – a horse so gentle, so spirited, and so fierce! It was my best friend during the Turkish war.

One day the Turks were coming against me in a cloud of dust. I was rather uncertain about their actual numbers and real intentions. The fight was terrible, but we broke them entirely – made a terrible havoc amongst them, and drove back to a walled town in their rear.

The swiftness of my horse enabled me to be the first in the pursuit. I decided to stop in the market-place, and I walked my horse to a well in this market-place, and let him drink. It drank uncommonly, and was not satisfied. Why? I looked round, and what did I see, gentlemen? The hind part of the poor creature – his croup and legs were missing. The horse was cut in two[19], and the water ran out as it came in. The water did not do my horse any good! How it happened was quite a mystery to me. I returned with him to the town-gate. There I saw, that when I rushed in with the flying enemy, they dropped the portcullis (a heavy door, with sharp spikes at the bottom, it prevents the entrance of an enemy into a fortified town).And it cut off the horse’s hind part, so it still lay on the outside of the gate. I took it immediately and brought to the doctor. He sewed them up with sprigs and young shoots of laurels that were at hand. The wound healed, and the sprigs took root in the horse’s body.