roleplaying:munchausen:chapter_v
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+ | ====== TRAVELS OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN ====== | ||
+ | ===== CHAPTER V ===== | ||
+ | //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, | ||
+ | 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' | ||
+ | ladies at tea in the drawing-room, | ||
+ | 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, | ||
+ | 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' | ||
+ | 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' | ||
+ | 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, | ||
+ | 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' | ||
+ | soldier' | ||
+ | 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, | ||
+ | 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, | ||
+ | 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, | ||
+ | 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' | ||
+ | laurels. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | Go to [[CHAPTER VI]] |
roleplaying/munchausen/chapter_v.txt · Last modified: 2005/11/22 18:01 by 127.0.0.1