by Mór Jókai
CHAPTER XVII.
TIMELY AID.
Meanwhile the Hungarian army had advanced to meet the enemy; but beingill officered and poorly drilled, with no experience whatever ofactual fighting, it was easily routed. The Austrians had but to sweepthe highway with their twelve-pounders, and the opposing centre gaveway at once. It was a shameful defeat: all turned tail and ran beforethe enemy; and when the Congreve rockets were sent, ricochetting,hissing, and spitting fire, to explode among the panic-strickenfugitives, the chaos became complete.
On such trying occasions, one man with his nerves under control isinvaluable. A-dA?n Baradlay was no soldier, no born tactician, but hepossessed that first requisite of success in any calling,self-control. As soon as he saw that the battle was going against hiscountrymen, although his place was in the rear as commissary-general,he threw himself on his horse and made an attempt to save the day. Torally the fugitives, demoralised as they were by the bursting ofshells on every side, was hopeless. Along the highway he saw advancinga troop of the enemy's cavalry, sweeping everything before it.
"Let us give them something to do," said he to himself, scanning thefleeing troops in quest of a few young men who might respond to hiscall. "Look here, boys," he shouted, "shall we let the enemy captureall our cannon without our striking a blow?"
A little knot of sturdy lads paused in their flight at this call. Theywere only common soldiers, but they shouted to one another: "Let usdie for our country!" and therewith faced about against the cavalrythat came charging down upon them.
Suddenly help appeared from an unexpected quarter: out of the acaciahedge that lined the highway such a raking fire was opened upon thecavalry that it was thrown into disorder and forced to beat a hastyretreat, leaving the road strewn with its dead and wounded. With loudhuzzas there now sprang out from behind the hedge the Death's HeadLegion, its leader, the long-legged Mausmann, waving his hat andcalling to A-dA?n: "Hurrah, patron! That's what we call barricadetactics."
A-dA?n welcomed the madcap student who had saluted him as "patron." TheGerman students regarded him as their patron, because he saw to itthat they received as good care as the rest of the army, and would notallow his countrymen to put any slight upon them. And they deservedall his kindness, the gallant lads; resolute under fire and alwaysgood-humoured, they were ever ready to fight and feared neither deathnor the devil,--no, nor Congreve rockets, for that matter. They knewtheir foe, too, from many a sharp encounter in the past. A hundredsuch lads were of untold value at a critical moment like the present.
The students and the other volunteers whom A-dA?n had rallied around himamounted to about two hundred in all,--a small but determined band.When the enemy saw that this handful of young men was holding thecavalry in check, they caused their rocket-battery to play upon thelittle band of patriots. And the lads took it for play indeed.
"Aha, old friend!" cried Mausmann, as a rocket came shrieking throughthe air. "See, boys, the first has stuck in the mud; up with a whizand down with a thud! The second there bursts in mid-air; the thirdcomes nearer, but we don't care. Here comes the fourth; its course isstraight." (Indeed, the rocket was so well aimed that it landed intheir very midst, whereupon Mausmann stepped forward, coolly took itby its stick, although it was spitting fire in an alarming manner, andhurled it into the ditch beside the road, where it explodedharmlessly; then he finished his rhyme.) "It bursts at last; too late,too late!" The young recruits laughed aloud.
Perceiving that their rockets were effecting nothing, the enemyplanned another cavalry charge, this time sending a troop ofcuirassiers to open the road. The little company of patriots drew up,three deep, clear across the highway, and awaited the assault. Duringthis pause Mausmann started the German student song:
"_Wer kommt dort von der HA?h?_ _Wer kommt dort von der HA?h?_ _Wer kommt dort von der HA?h?_ _Sa sa, ledernen HA?h_-- _Wer kommt dort von der HA?h?_"
His comrades joined in, and then with a loud hurrah they gave theoncoming horsemen a volley from their rifles at twenty paces distance.Aha! how they broke and turned tail and scampered back, leaving theirdead and wounded behind!
Then the gallant band reloaded, shouldered their pieces, and marchedback to join their comrades. But presently the sound of approachingcavalry was again heard on the road behind them. The horsemen dividedto right and left, hoping to surround their foe. The latter, however,closed in about their leader, and then faced outward, presenting abristling wall of bayonets on every side, like a monstrous hedgehog;and again their merry student song rang out defiantly. Once more theattacking cavalry was forced to fall back before the lively volleysof this determined band, which seemed ignorant of the meaning of fear,and proof against all modes of assault. Its method was to let theenemy advance until a rifle-volley was sure to do the most execution.The student song had many stanzas, one for each attack from thepursuing cavalry; it was sung to the end, and the enemy repulsed ateach onset. The slightly wounded bound up their wounds, while thosewho had fared the worst were laid across their comrades' rifle-barrelsand so carried along, marking their path with their life-blood, andever shouting hurrahs for the cause of liberty.
At last the cartridges ran low.
"Look here, patron," said Mausmann to A-dA?n, "we have but one round ofammunition left, and when that is gone we are lost. But there's abridge yonder which we can easily hold, and the cavalry can't getthrough the bog to surround us. And now, boys, swear that you'll savethis last shot, and from now on receive the enemy with your bayonets."
Thereupon the still undaunted students knelt on the highway, and, withupraised right hands, sang an oath from some opera chorus--perhaps itwas from "Beatrice"--resolved to play their parts well till theringing down of the curtain. Then they took possession of the bridge,and were preparing to receive the enemy's cavalry on the points oftheir bayonets, when all at once the horsemen slackened their paceand seemed stricken with a sudden panic. Out from the thicket thatbordered the road broke a squadron of hussars, and by a flank attackscattered the cuirassiers in all directions.
The fight was over for that day. The enemy sounded the retreat, andthe Hungarians were left to go their way unmolested. The hussarsturned back to the bridge, led by their captain, a tall and muscularyoung man with flashing eyes and a smile that played constantly abouthis mouth. Two of the young men on the bridge recognised that face andform. Those two were A-dA?n and Mausmann.
"Hurrah! Baradlay! Richard Baradlay!" cried the student, throwing hiscap high in the air, and rushing to meet his old acquaintance. In thewarmth of his welcome he nearly pulled the other from his horse.
Then A-dA?n came forward, and the two brothers, who had not met for sixyears, fell into each other's arms, while hussars and legionariesembraced and kissed one another, each with words of praise on histongue for the other.
"Heaven must have sent you to us!" exclaimed A-dA?n. "If you hadn't comewhen you did, you would have been by this time the head of thefamily."
"God forbid!" cried Richard. "But what are you doing here? Thesecretary of war bade me give you a good scolding for exposing yourlife when you are commissary-general and your place is with thetransport wagons. You were not sent out to fight, and you have a youngwife and infant children dependent on you. Have you forgotten them,unfeeling man? Just wait till I tell mother what you are up to!" As hespoke he grew suddenly serious. "Dear mother!" he exclaimed; "she musthave foreseen this when she came to me and bade me hasten hither toyour side."