Читать книгу The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen - Rudolf Raspe - Страница 6

_The effects of great activity and presence of mind – A favourite hound

described, which pups while pursuing a hare; the hare also litters while

pursued by the hound – Presented with a famous horse by Count Przobossky,

with which he performs many extraordinary feats._

All these narrow and lucky escapes, gentlemen, were chances turned

to advantage by presence of mind and vigorous exertions, which, taken

together, as everybody knows, make the fortunate sportsman, sailor,

and soldier; but he would be a very blamable and imprudent sportsman,

admiral, or general, who would always depend upon chance and his stars,

without troubling himself about those arts which are their particular

pursuits, and without providing the very best implements, which insure

success. I was not blamable either way; for I have always been as

remarkable for the excellency of my horses, dogs, guns, and swords, as

for the proper manner of using and managing them, so that upon the whole

I may hope to be remembered in the forest, upon the turf, and in the

field. I shall not enter here into any detail of my stables, kennel, or

armoury; but a favourite bitch of mine I cannot help mentioning to you;

she was a greyhound, and I never had or saw a better. She grew old in

my service, and was not remarkable for her size, but rather for her

uncommon swiftness. I always coursed with her. Had you seen her you must

have admired her, and would not have wondered at my predilection, and

at my coursing her so much. She ran so fast, so much, and so long in my

service, that she actually ran off her legs; so that, in the latter part

of her life, I was under the necessity of working and using her only as

a terrier, in which quality she still served me many years.

Coursing one day a hare, which appeared to me uncommonly big, I pitied

my poor bitch, being big with pups, yet she would course as fast as

ever. I could follow her on horseback only at a great distance. At once

I heard a cry as it were of a pack of hounds – but so weak and faint

that I hardly knew what to make of it. Coming up to them, I was greatly

surprised. The hare had littered in running; the same had happened to

my bitch in coursing, and there were just as many leverets as pups. By

instinct the former ran, the latter coursed: and thus I found myself

in possession at once of six hares, and as many dogs, at the end of a

course which had only begun with one.

I remember this, my wonderful bitch, with the same pleasure and

tenderness as a superb Lithuanian horse, which no money could have

bought. He became mine by an accident, which gave me an opportunity

of showing my horsemanship to a great advantage. I was at Count

Przobossky’s noble country-seat in Lithuania, and remained with the

ladies at tea in the drawing-room, while the gentlemen were down in

the yard, to see a young horse of blood which had just arrived from the

stud. We suddenly heard a noise of distress; I hastened down-stairs, and

found the horse so unruly, that nobody durst approach or mount him.

The most resolute horsemen stood dismayed and aghast; despondency was

expressed in every countenance, when, in one leap, I was on his back,

took him by surprise, and worked him quite into gentleness and obedience

with the best display of horsemanship I was master of. Fully to show

this to the ladies, and save them unnecessary trouble, I forced him to

leap in at one of the open windows of the tea-room, walked round several

times, pace, trot, and gallop, and at last made him mount the tea-table,

there to repeat his lessons in a pretty style of miniature which was

exceedingly pleasing to the ladies, for he performed them amazingly

well, and did not break either cup or saucer. It placed me so high in

their opinion, and so well in that of the noble lord, that, with his

usual politeness, he begged I would accept of this young horse, and

ride him full career to conquest and honour in the campaign against the

Turks, which was soon to be opened, under the command of Count Munich.

I could not indeed have received a more agreeable present, nor a

more ominous one at the opening of that campaign, in which I made my

apprenticeship as a soldier. A horse so gentle, so spirited, and so

fierce – at once a lamb and a Bucephalus, put me always in mind of the

soldier’s and the gentleman’s duty! of young Alexander, and of the

astonishing things he performed in the field.

We took the field, among several other reasons, it seems, with an

intention to retrieve the character of the Russian arms, which had been

blemished a little by Czar Peter’s last campaign on the Pruth; and this

we fully accomplished by several very fatiguing and glorious campaigns

under the command of that great general I mentioned before.

Modesty forbids individuals to arrogate to themselves great successes

or victories, the glory of which is generally engrossed by the

commander – nay, which is rather awkward, by kings and queens who never

smelt gunpowder but at the field-days and reviews of their troops; never

saw a field of battle, or an enemy in battle array.

Nor do I claim any particular share of glory in the great engagements

with the enemy. We all did our duty, which, in the patriot’s, soldier’s,

and gentleman’s language, is a very comprehensive word, of great honour,

meaning, and import, and of which the generality of idle quidnuncs

and coffee-house politicians can hardly form any but a very mean and

contemptible idea. However, having had the command of a body of hussars,

I went upon several expeditions, with discretionary powers; and the

success I then met with is, I think, fairly and only to be placed to my

account, and to that of the brave fellows whom I led on to conquest and

to victory. We had very hot work once in the van of the army, when we

drove the Turks into Oczakow. My spirited Lithuanian had almost brought

me into a scrape: I had an advanced fore-post, and saw the enemy coming

against me in a cloud of dust, which left me rather uncertain about

their actual numbers and real intentions: to wrap myself up in a

similar cloud was common prudence, but would not have much advanced my

knowledge, or answered the end for which I had been sent out; therefore

I let my flankers on both wings spread to the right and left and make

what dust they could, and I myself led on straight upon the enemy, to

have nearer sight of them: in this I was gratified, for they stood and

fought, till, for fear of my flankers, they began to move off rather

disorderly. This was the moment to fall upon them with spirit; we broke

them entirely – made a terrible havoc amongst them, and drove them not

only back to a walled town in their rear, but even through it, contrary

to our most sanguine expectation.

The swiftness of my Lithuanian enabled me to be foremost in the pursuit;

and seeing the enemy fairly flying through the opposite gate, I thought

it would be prudent to stop in the market-place, to order the men to

rendezvous. I stopped, gentlemen; but judge of my astonishment when

in this market-place I saw not one of my hussars about me! Are they

scouring the other streets? or what is become of them? They could not

be far off, and must, at all events, soon join me. In that expectation

I walked my panting Lithuanian to a spring in this market-place, and let

him drink. He drank uncommonly, with an eagerness not to be satisfied,

but natural enough; for when I looked round for my men, what should I

see, gentlemen! the hind part of the poor creature – croup and legs were

missing, as if he had been cut in two, and the water ran out as it came

in, without refreshing or doing him any good! How it could have happened

was quite a mystery to me, till I returned with him to the town-gate.

There I saw, that when I rushed in pell-mell with the flying enemy, they

had dropped the portcullis (a heavy falling door, with sharp spikes at

the bottom, let down suddenly to prevent the entrance of an enemy into

a fortified town) unperceived by me, which had totally cut off his hind

part, that still lay quivering on the outside of the gate. It would have

been an irreparable loss, had not our farrier contrived to bring both

parts together while hot. He sewed them up with sprigs and young shoots

of laurels that were at hand; the wound healed, and, what could not have

happened but to so glorious a horse, the sprigs took root in his body,

grew up, and formed a bower over me; so that afterwards I could go upon

many other expeditions in the shade of my own and my horse’s laurels.