eir flanks against my mare's near
flank was a quartermaster-sergeant, whom I knew from having frequently
seen him at the marshal's, making copies for him of the "morning
states." This man, having been attacked and wounded by several of the
enemy, fell under Lisette's belly, and was seizing my leg to pull
himself up, when a Russian grenadier, too drunk to stand steady, wishing
to finish him by a thrust in the breast, lost his balance, and the point
of his bayonet went astray into my cloak, which at that moment was
puffed out by the wind. Seeing that I did not fall, the Russian left the
sergeant and aimed a great number of blows at me. These were at first
fruitless, but one at last reached me, piercing my left arm, and I felt
with a kind of horrible pleasure my blood flowing hot. The Russian
grenadier with redoubled fury made another thrust at me, but, stumbling
with the force which he put into it, drove his bayonet into my mare's
thigh. Her ferocious instincts being restored by the pain, she sprang at
the Russian, and at one mouthful tore off his nose, lips, eyebrows, and
all the skin of his face, making of him a living death's-head, dripping
with blood. Then hurling herself with fury among the combatants, kicking
and biting, Lisette upset everything that she met on her road. The
officer who had made so many attempts to strike me tried to hold her by
the bridle; she seized him by his belly, and carrying him off with ease,
she bore him out of the crush to the foot of the hillock, where, having
torn out his entrails and mashed his body under her feet, she left him
dying on the snow. Then, taking the road by which she had come, she made
her way at full gallop towards the cemetery of Eylau. Thanks to the
hussar's saddle on which I was sitting, I kept my seat. But a new danger
awaited me. The snow had begun to fall again, and great flakes obscured
the daylight when, having arrived close to Eylau, I found myself in
front of a battalion of the Old Guard, who, unable to see clearly at a
distance, took me for an enemy's officer leading a charge of cavalry.
The whole battalion at once opened fire on me; my cloak and my saddle
were riddled, but I was not wounded nor was my mare. She continued her
rapid course, and went through the three ranks of the battalion as
easily as a snake through a hedge. But this last spurt had exhausted
Lisette's strength; she had lost much blood, for one of the large veins
in her thigh had been divided, an