Emma Watson Pussy
Books:
Anna Karenina
War And Peace
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that there was a bridge in front
of him and that soldiers were doing something on both sides of it
and in the meadow, among the rows of new-mown hay which he had taken
no notice of amid the smoke of the campfires the day before; but
despite the incessant firing going on there he had no idea that this
was the field of battle. He did not notice the sound of the bullets
whistling from every side, or the projectiles that flew over him,
did not see the enemy on the other side of the river, and for a long
time did not notice the killed and wounded, though many fell near him.
He looked about him with a smile which did not leave his face.
"Whys that fellow in front of the line?" shouted somebody at him
again.
"To the left!... Keep to the right!" the men shouted to him.
Pierre went to the right, and unexpectedly encountered one of
Raevskis adjutants whom he knew. The adjutant looked angrily at
him, evidently also intending to shout at him, but on recognizing
him he nodded.
"How have you got here?" he said, and galloped on.
Pierre, feeling out of place there, having nothing to do, and afraid
of getting in someones way again, galloped after the adjutant.
"Whats happening here? May I come with you?" he asked.
"One moment, one moment!" replied the adjutant, and riding up to a
stout colonel who was standing in the meadow, he gave him some message
and then addressed Pierre.
"Why have you come here, Count?" he asked with a smile. "Still
inquisitive?"
"Yes, yes," assented Pierre.
But the adjutant turned his horse about and rode on.
"Here its tolerable," said he, "but with Bagration on the left
flank theyre getting it frightfully hot."
"Really?" said Pierre. "Where is that?"
"Come along with me to our knoll. We can get a view from there and
in our battery it is still bearable," said the adjutant. "Will you
come?"
"Yes, Ill come with you," replied Pierre, looking round for his
groom.
It was only now that he noticed wounded men staggering along or
being carried on stretchers. On that very meadow he had ridden over
the day before, a soldier was lying athwart the rows of scented hay,
with his head thrown awkwardly back and his shako off.
"Why havent they carried him away?" Pierre was about to ask, but
seeing the stern expression of the adjutant who was also looking
that way, he checked himself.
Pierre did not find his groom and rode along the hollow with the
adjutant to Raevskis Redoubt. His horse lagged behind the
adjutants and jolted him at every step.
"You dont seem to be used to riding, Count?" remarked the adjutant.
"No its not that, but her action seems so jerky," said Pierre in
a puzzled tone.
"Why... shes wounded!" said the adjutant. "In the off foreleg above
the knee. A bullet, no doubt. I congratulate you, Count, on your
baptism of fire!"
Having ridden in the smoke past the Sixth Corps, behind the
artillery which had been moved forward and was in action, deafening
them with the noise of firing, they came to a small wood. There it was
cool and quiet, with a scent of autumn. Pierre and the adjutant
dismounted and walked up the hill on foot.
"Is the general here?" asked the adjutant on reaching the knoll.
"He was here a minute ago but has just gone that way," someone
told him, pointing to the right.
The adjutant looked at Pierre as if puzzled what to do with him now.
"Dont trouble about me," said Pierre. "Ill go up onto the knoll if
I may?"
"Yes, do. Youll see everything from there and its less
dangerous, and Ill come for you."
Pierre went to the battery and the adjutant rode on. They did not
meet again, and only much later did Pierre learn that he lost an arm
that day.
The knoll to which Pierre ascended was that famous one afterwards
known to the Russians as the Knoll Battery or Raevskis Redoubt, and
to the French as la grande redoute, la fatale redoute, la redoute du
centre, around which tens of thousands fell, and which the French
regarded as the key to the whole position.
This redoubt consisted of a knoll, on three sides of which
trenches had been dug. Within the entrenchment stood ten guns that
were being fired through openings in the earthwork.
In line with the knoll on both sides stood other guns which also
fired incessantly. A little behind the guns stood infantry. When
ascending that knoll Pierre
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