Victor Victorious

by Cecil Starr Johns

  *CHAPTER XIII*

  So war had come, and I, for one, thanked God that it had not found usunprepared.

  The first shot of the war was fired at Ruln. It took the enemy threedays, and cost them many lives, to drive our small force out of thatplace. It was on that day that they made their first move from thenorth, and it is with this attack that I will deal first.

  A thousand men seized Melanov, driving out a small force of ill-equippedRudarlians. These retired with every appearance of panic and surprise.It was Captain von Essens who was responsible for this move, and he hadchosen his men for their intelligence; they must have acted their partextremely well.

  The enemy advanced rapidly, their cavalry reached Nardal and occupiedthat place without resistance. On the other flank they reached half-wayto Villatov. The ground, however, in that direction was eminentlyunsuited for cavalry work, and a small body of Rudarlians held themthere successfully.

  At Viritz, their main force met with considerable resistance, as wedetermined to make them bring up as large a number of troops aspossible. Our old guns were conspicuous, and in spite of their age didconsiderable damage. Again we lost ground, retiring, before anoverwhelming force, some seven miles, to a range of hills where we wereheavily entrenched. We left Viritz in a hurry, leaving behind us anumber of obsolete guns carefully rendered useless; I had given them tothe Bornians as I had promised.

  They occupied Viritz, and I heard with great satisfaction that they werecongratulating themselves on the easiness with which they wereprogressing. They made the fatal blunder of under-estimating anadversary. It was what I had wished and schemed for. The concentrationof their troops at Viritz, preparatory to a final rush through toKarena, gave us time to complete our defences on the hills, and there wesat and waited.

  The three roads which led from Viritz to Karena, Romlitz, and Kelbna ranthrough the hills at places where, strangely enough, minerals had beenfound; between these roads, linking them up, were our troops. The roadswere also joined by a military road, on the side nearest to Karena.This had been built especially for the movements of troops.

  So far they had made no use of the aeroplane which had been seen byCarruthers, and we did not wish them to know of ours, until necessary.Then an accident took place which might have upset our plansconsiderably: my two trained aeronauts were standing together talking,when a shell burst near them; killing one, wounding the other, andcompletely smashing one of the aircraft. It was the first shell, from abattery that had taken up a position to try and force us from ourentrenchments. As soon as this was reported to me, I rode over to seewhether something could be done, but, alas, the damaged machine wasbeyond repair, even if we had had anyone to fly in it. I must confessthat the sight of the other standing there all ready for use made mefeel despondent, especially as a few minutes later we saw the Bornianmachine rise in the air from behind their line.

  I sat there impotent, and watched the accursed thing come flyingtowards, and then over us. She could make her observations and we coulddo nothing to prevent her. I rode a little way back still looking atthe machine, and then from behind me I heard a cheer, a wildexhilarating sound which caused me to turn again quickly. Our ownaeroplane was just rising from the ground. I stared in astonishment. Ihad no idea that anyone could fly amongst my officers, whoever it wasshould reap a rich reward. Then one of my aides-de-camp came towards meat a gallop.

  "Who is on that?" I asked with a wave of my hand to the ascendingmachine.

  "Monsieur Carruthers, your Majesty."

  Rupert! and I never knew that he could fly. It did not surprise me,however, it was just the kind of thing which he would enjoy.

  My heart beat rapidly as I watched his machine ascending higher andhigher; what did he intend to do? I was not left long in doubt, for hesoon started in pursuit of the Bornian. They disappeared into theclouds which rolled low over the hills behind us. The Bornian evidentlyknew that he was being pursued, for in a little while they reappearedagain, like birds at first, but every minute growing bigger. It was arace, in which the Bornian was leading. I think that nearly every manwas watching with open-mouthed astonishment. I turned my head for aninstant and lost touch with them; I no longer knew which was which. Myagitation must have passed to my horse, for he began to plunge, tearingat the bit.

  A great cry from the soldiery, and I looked up. My God! one of them wasfalling horribly--like a great wounded eagle--the other kept on its waytowards the enemy's lines.

  I almost broke down then, I know that I covered my face with my handsand groaned; my old friend, my dear old pal, had gone. Those around mekept silent in sympathy, for they knew how strong had been the bondbetween their King and the English lord.

  I did not look any more, but motioned to some one to find out all hecould of the catastrophe. This was no time for private grief.Carruthers had given his life for me, and now we must fight to preserveour own.

  There was a depressed feeling among the troops, the failure of ouraeroplanes had dampened them, I think they regarded it as a bad omen. Iturned to give an order, and saw on my aide's face a look of supremeastonishment.

  "Look, your Majesty, he's coming back."

  I looked. What an extraordinary thing, for what reason would he return?And then the men began to shout, wildly, and I knew the reason: it wasour machine that was returning; it had been the Bornian who had come tothe ground.

  It was as if the sun had suddenly shone out, on every face there was asmile, and gone, for ever, the feeling of depression.

  It was one of the happiest moments of my life when Carruthers came toreport on his trip over Viritz. I felt inclined literally to hug him,but had to be content with his salute.

  His report was satisfactory.

  All that day the artillery fire was kept up with but small loss to us,and night fell.

  I had instructed the gunners to cease firing, to make it appear asthough some of them had been put out of action, and so little by littleour fire had slackened. So far the forts had not spoken.

  Anyone on the look out that night would have seen three rockets soarinto the sky over Karena; they were very important, but the enemy didnot know that such was the case. As it was, they conveyed a message toGeneral von Quarovitch.

  And then morning came, and with it the attack. A tremendous bombardmentfor some two hours, which did little damage, as our men had literallydug themselves in, and then the infantry advanced; a feeble fire metthem until within a few hundred yards, and then they were simply sweptaway. No human beings could have withstood that rain of fire, and theyfled back, while all the time our cavalry hung upon their flankscreating further panic among them.

  Again their artillery opened fire, and this time our forts came intoaction; the roar of their big guns must have awakened the Bornians tothe terrible position, especially as they must have heard, about thattime, that Quarovitch had cut right across their communications withsome fifteen thousand men. He had carried out his part with consummateskill, and was then entrenched in a strong position south of Melanov.

  I think General von Brote, realising his position, thought that his onlychance lay in breaking through on the Karena road. Perhaps he imaginedthat we were in less force than we were. I don't know, but anyhow hetried the impossible.

  A few miles east of the Karena road, there was a break in the hills, andit was this way that General von Brote thought to turn our flank. Icannot understand his reasoning, for he must have known that it wasextremely unlikely that we should have left such a way open, especiallyas it was cavalry country; but I can only suppose that he still did notrealise that we were thoroughly prepared.

  I have said it was cavalry country, so it was, right up to the break,and on the other side towards Yungben, but the break itself was ratheran extraordinary piece of ground.

  Right across the whole width, which at the greatest was some threemiles, were strewn immense boulders, some singly, others arranged inheaps for some hundred yards, o
nly in the centre was there a space ofabout half a mile free from them. Instead of the boulders a narrowstream ran across. It was a stream which watered the plains roundYungben, twisting and winding in a most weird fashion. In time of rain,it sometimes flooded the fields around, but now it ran steadily andcalmly, little dreaming, if streams can dream, of the horrible sights itwas to see before many hours had passed, or of the dead bodies of manand beast with which its clear waters were to be choked.

  In order to make this break as impregnable as I could, without showingany great signs, I had constructed a low, barbed wire entanglement onthe Yungben side of the stream; this entanglement, although low, wasfifty yards wide; behind that again, I had rifle pits dug, but insteadof banking up the earth it was scattered over the ground. Besides thisI had placed a battery of horse artillery on either flank, while theline of boulders was also guarded with entanglements and maxims;altogether we had some three thousand troops guarding that spot. Theguns, and the men, were concealed behind bushes and small trees, as wellas the masses of rock, some hundred men only being on view.

  Against this defence, there were some five thousand of the enemy.Relying upon the reports of their scouts, who had been misled by thesmall number of our men to be seen, their cavalry swept forward. Theywere too far from their supports, their artillery was unable to comeinto action, on account of their forward movement. They swept onblindly, trusting to sweep away the little force opposed to them. Ourmen opened fire at two thousand yards, they did some damage but notenough even to make them think; they rode on and on, the nearer theygot, the more men they lost.

  They were within one hundred yards of the stream, when the rest of ourinfantry came into action. It must have been appalling, although eventhen they struggled to get to close quarters, but the stream held them,the entanglements held them, and all the while death was poured from thebarrels of our rifles and maxim guns; what was left of them turned andfled. Their artillery opened, but, before they could get the range, ourbatteries replied, and we had our ranges marked. They retired. It willnever be known how many men they lost, for the remnant of that force wasengulfed in the ruin that had overtaken the main bodies.

  Our right wing advanced, joining the two thousand men who had beenposted on the Villatov road. General von Brote massed his guns and menon the Karena road; our left advanced. He hurled regiment afterregiment at our front, they were mown down by the hundred. As nightfell he retreated to Viritz, and our whole line advanced. His cavalry onthe left wing, at Nardal, were called in. There they rested for thenight, but with earliest dawn our attack commenced. Hemmed in on allsides, they fought like lions, but it was unavailing. Then they triedto retreat still farther, and Quarovitch held them. It was the end.Without a single chance of success, they fought on, although three timesI sent a white flag with a message to Brote, asking him to refrain fromfurther useless bloodshed. He was resolved to die rather thansurrender. He did die, and then what was left of his army threw downtheir weapons.

  Of the thirty-five thousand men who had entered Rudarlia throughMelanov, only seventeen thousand surrendered, the rest had been killed,wounded, or were already prisoners.

  Their surprise, to which they had evidently looked to end the warquickly, had failed utterly. Our northern frontier was now safe, and Icould throw most of our men to the relief of Avilinoff. We had lostaltogether some four thousand men in killed and wounded. I left eleventhousand to clear up the scattered Bornians, and guard the frontier andprisoners, the other twenty-five thousand I hurried south. Many of themhad not been in the firing line at all, so they were perfectly fresh,and brim-full of enthusiasm and eagerness to come to grips with the foe.

  In order to avoid any delay--which would have been almost inevitable hadwe returned through Karena--I, with my aides, motored through Romlitz toAgrade. There I stayed for only one day. Scutane was delighted to hearthat the extra troops were on the way down, as he said that Avilinoffhad been rather hard pressed at Milova, but that now he was in a goodposition to defend that place. Accordingly, I left for Avilinoff'shead-quarters immediately.

  It was evident that the enemy had counted on the success of theirnorthern attack, as they had not hastened, rather luckily for us, forAvilinoff's army was sadly outnumbered, both in men and guns.

  He had done grand work, his retreats were as orderly as parades, whichspoke well for the troops under his command. I found that his army hadoccupied a strong position extending from Nadir on the left, to Pinofskaon the right. So far, not a single Bornian had managed to cross theLoina. Now, however, when the news from the north became known, therewas new vigour put into both armies. The Bornians at once realised thattheir dawdling methods would not succeed, and, also, they were spurredto try and blot out the disaster at Viritz.

  The Rudarlians, in their turn, were more resolved than ever to beat backtheir enemy; success dispelled all the bad effects of a tedious retreat.

  Success was an excellent tonic, yet it could not equalise the opposingforces, although every day saw that inequality grow less, as trainloadafter trainload of fresh troops poured into Agrade and Milova; but thegreatest thing for us was the fact that the artillery became more of astrength.

  For four days the position underwent no change, in spite of somevigorous attacks, both by night and day. On the fifth day we lostNadir, through a brilliant flanking attack of the enemy's cavalry. Thereis no doubt that we were completely surprised, as we had never believedfor one minute that they would have attempted the road from Alzar toDrenda, with any considerable force. Our troops, guarding the narrowroad through the hills south-east of Nadir, were easily disposed of andtaken in the rear; Nadir became untenable. We fell back to Lortrun, amove which considerably weakened our left wing, by lengthening it.However, it now rested safely at the extreme end, for our rear wasguarded by the Drenda marshes, across which I knew it was impossible tomove troops.

  Our position was not satisfactory, so I sent word to Quarovitch to bringevery available man to Agrade. By this time the north was quiet and hebrought six thousand with him. Two thousand of these were cavalry. Thesame night that he arrived, he came to meet me, and, with Avilinoff, weworked for some hours on a scheme which I had thought of.

  We strengthened our left wing with some twenty thousand men, somestraight from Agrade to Vilt, the others, by way of Roltov across theLoina to Lortrun. Five thousand men were sent to hold Butrem and theroad to Milova; while another five thousand were dispatched tostrengthen the right flank, and entrench from Trun to Atar, and fromTrun to the mountains on the west of Pinofska.

  While these movements were being carried out, the Bornians were by nomeans idle, but pushed their attacks strongly. More than once it seemedthat our line would be pierced, but, thanks to our artillery, whichprevented them from crossing the Loina, we managed to hold our ground.

  The fierceness of their attack really stood us in good stead, for itenabled us to carry out our plans without showing our hand.

  Under the guise of a forced retirement, we drew back to the new lines wehad prepared. From the mountains by Pinofska our line ran in a doublecurve to Butrem; there it stopped, and both sides of the Loina were leftundefended as far as Vilt, from whence our line ran to Lortrun.

  Imagining that we were in retreat, and seeking to cut in behind Milova,they hurled their forces across and straddled the Loina; in this way,they, in their turn split their line, but not to their advantage, for inorder to advance on the northern bank they were obliged to mass theirtroops in a narrow strip of land, not wide enough for them to manoeuvrein properly.

  When they had crossed, and were engaged in a fierce attack on Vilt, ourforces moved out from Lortrun. By sheer weight of numbers we regainedNadir and the Drenda road.

  We entrenched ourselves well along the Nadir-Vilt road, and for two daysrepulsed every attack made by the Bornians. Then, when they hadexhausted themselves in vain, we in our turn advanced, doubling theirright wing back upon itself, by a series of brilliant bayonet charges,whic
h drove them headlong from their trenches. Then, while they were indisorder, our cavalry got to work. I had collected a large force inNadir, and fresh, with high spirits, they were irresistible, sweepingall before them. At the same time, we allowed Pinofska to go, retiringeastward to defend Agrade and leaving open the road to Kelbna.

  It was apparently too tempting a bait to be refused, and they weakenedtheir centre to reinforce their left. It was only owing to this that wedared to drive their right in the way we did, and that was eminentlysatisfactory; for, driven back on themselves in hopeless confusion, theyunited with their other forces south of Butrem, not in a strong linecapable of defence, but in an indescribable state of tangle. In manyplaces along the Loina, their forces would be trying to cross the riverat the same time, but in different directions. We drove them fromFarnov, and then the remnant of their right wing fell back to try anddefend their communications with Lorif.

  We captured a tremendous mass of war material, guns and prisoners, as itwas impossible, owing to the rapidity of our movements, for the forceson the northern bank of the Loina to recross and get away in time.

  The crumpling of their right wing necessitated the drawing in of theirleft, so they did not progress far beyond Pinofska; and little by littlewe drove them back from there until we reoccupied our old lines acrossthe Kelbna road.

  We now had an undoubted superiority in all arms, as well as a greaternumber of men; but, try how we would, for some days we could not makeany real progress beyond the Pinofska-Trun-Farnov line.

  Each day I rode or motored along this line to hold conversations withthe different generals, and to encourage the wounded; the actualfighting men did not need encouragement, they were brim-full of zeal andconfidence.

  It was during this period that I was delivered from that enemy of mine,Prince Alexis.

  Between Trun and Atar the road is of an intensely beautiful nature,presenting many different kinds of scenery, well wooded in places, withgentle slopes running down to small streams which feed the Loina, whilealways to the north rose the mountains. The road itself rises and fallswith delightful frequency, from an artistic point of view, although Idoubt if the farmers who live in the vicinity, or their horses, reallyappreciate it. On the top of one of these inclines the road wasbisected by a cart track, and in order to obtain a view over thesurrounding country I had turned off along this track, accompanied byWoolgast, Scutane, and some dozen troopers.

  It was soon after daybreak, and we were returning from Pinofska, where Ihad slept the night before. I do not know quite how it happened, but, onattempting to retrace our steps, we discovered that our way was blockedby some fifty of the enemy's cavalry. It was extremely lucky for usthat we saw them before they saw us, for it gave us time to get speed onour horses. To charge was the only thing for us to do, and we struckthem hard; in a few seconds we were through them, all save two of thetroopers who had been shot down. We raced for the road, with theBornians hard at our heels. We could hear from their cries, that theyknew I was of the party and it made them redouble their efforts toovertake us; they kept up a fusillade of revolver shots, but fortunatelywithout effect.

  Our horses fairly flew along that muddy track, but, quickly as we went,the Bornians were as quick, and as we turned into the Trun road theywere a very little way behind. In their eagerness to capture me, theymust have forgotten that all the time we were approaching our lines, forthey never slackened their pace, and in consequence ran into the arms ofa regiment of Rudarlian cavalry at the foot of the hill.

  It was over very quickly, they had the discretion to surrender at once,with one exception. This one had, either through his horse, or forother reasons, ridden well behind his comrades, but he could not hope toescape by turning back up the hill, so instead, he made a dash forliberty, by jumping the bank which bordered the road towards the enemy'slines. I heard Woolgast give a grunt, and the next moment he hadfollowed.

  I sprang from my horse and stood on the higher ground looking after him.The ground over which he was riding sloped gently down to a streambelow, on the other side of which the ground rose again and was wellwooded, not with big trees, but small brushwood. Woolgast was at fullcharge after the flying Bornian, it was a magnificent sight to see thetwo horses stretching out, the one flying, the other in pursuit. Thepursued turned in his saddle and fired, Woolgast swerved a little butkept on, ever drawing nearer. Some three lengths from the stream, heovertook the Bornian; we saw his sword flash once, and the enemy droppedfrom his horse. Then Woolgast, unable to stop his, urged him to thejump, and, slowly returning, jumped the stream again, and alighted. Hewalked up to the Bornian's body--which made a light blue patch among thestubble--and then reeled suddenly over on to the top of him.

  He was not seriously hurt, thank God, but simply in a faint. When weturned the dead Bornian, so that we could see his face--it was PrinceAlexis.

  I confess that I felt relief at his death, he was so degraded that therewas nothing he would not have stooped to do. I might have felt sorrowat the death of an ordinary enemy, but in the case of Alexis, no--simplyrelief.

  Woolgast was evidently disturbed in his mind as to the consequence ofhis action, for he sent me word that he craved an audience.

  He was in a state of feverish excitement, for the wound, although notsevere, was a painful one.

  "Well, General?" I said.

  "There is something I wish to tell your Majesty. It is this: I called tothe Prince to surrender, before and after he shot me."

  "Quite so, General, and you did right; you also did right in cutting himdown when he refused. You did both Rudarlia and myself a good servicein killing him."

  He heaved a sigh of relief.

  "Thank God, your Majesty, I did not know----"

  "What I should feel about it? Well, you know now, and can sleep inpeace; but be quick in recovering, for I need you."

  I had become genuinely fond of Woolgast. He was a man whom I had agreat admiration for; and, seeing that he was generally near me, I had agood many opportunities of discovering his worth. I know that he wasdevoted to me.

  To return to the main battle. For a week or more the fighting continuedwithout advantage to either side, at least, neither the Bornians norourselves were able to say that we had definitely advanced our lines.There could be no doubt, however, that our artillery did much damage,although not sufficient to allow us to assault their positions.

  It was necessary that we should break through their line somewhere, butthe difficult question was where and how to do it.

  We had smashed their right flank by stratagem; we had split our force intwo to do this. We would now do the same thing on our right, that is tosay we would give up the bridge of Atar.

  I had explained thus far to the generals, when General von Scutane said:

  "But, your Majesty, they will not bite twice at the same bait."

  "I should be sorry if they did, General, for it would not be what Iwish. I believe that they will think that we intend to advance ourflanks. I am trusting to them weakening their centre, for I intend tostrike hard for Villet."

  "Then you propose to hold the Kelbna road from Trun through Pinofska,and then from Blanne to Farnov?"

  "That is my idea; and, in order to confirm them in the opinion that weintend flanking movements, we will move troops from Milova to Trun andFarnov by day, and move them back again at night. We must do everythingwe can to strengthen their belief that we wish to repeat the plan whichsucceeded so well on our left. If necessary, our flanks must fallback."

  "It is a scheme full of danger, your Majesty."

  "And also full of possibilities."

  "Yes, your Majesty, of defeat as well as of success."

  "That I refuse to consider, although we will take all precautionsagainst such a thing. However, I do not press my scheme if anyone cansuggest a better. You must remember that time is flying and theBornians can bring two recruits to our one, while their line ofcommunications from Ruln is not long, and so they have
not very greatdifficulties in regard to transport."

  That was the stratagem adopted, and the movements of our troops for thenext two days puzzled even our own men. There is no doubt that theenemy were puzzled too, but they took the situation in the way that wewished.

  We decided not to evacuate Atar, which--as I had foreseen--they did notbite at.

  When both our flanks were hotly engaged, our forward movement in thecentre began. It was a costly effort, but it succeeded.

  We got them on the run and kept them so, driving a wedge right throughthe centre of their line towards Villet. It was their left wing whichsuffered this time from the Loina--that was a fateful river for them.We drove them out of Villet itself, and then began the most terriblestruggle of the war, for that small town was life or death to them.Three times they took it, and as many times we drove them out again,each time with greater ease, for every hour saw our position improve, aswe concentrated our artillery. Then they found that Villet was lost tothem for ever; it was a fact that they realised with difficulty.

  But, once they did so, the end came quickly. Cut off from Lorif, theironly way of escape back to Bornia, they surrendered in masses. Theremainder of their army withdrew sullenly towards their frontier. Theyconducted their retreat in fairly good order.

  Had we liked, we could have utterly crushed them, but we refrained frompressing too closely upon their rearguard for two reasons: we did notwish to sacrifice the lives of our troops needlessly, and the Bornianswere hopelessly beaten. I daresay it was wrong not to drive them withall our might, I'm sure that the military text-books would say so, but Iwas only a civilian after all.

  I had sent, as soon as we could spare the troops, a column into Garace,that province which had been lost to us for so long.

  They met with little opposition, for the Bornian forces there were veryscanty and quite without enterprise, or enthusiasm.

  Before we had finished there, almost before the beaten remnant had leftLorif, Bornia sued for peace.