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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/23805-0.txt b/23805-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..274ecf9 --- /dev/null +++ b/23805-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,772 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of For The Honor Of France, by Thomas A. Janvier + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: For The Honor Of France + 1891 + +Author: Thomas A. Janvier + +Release Date: December 10, 2007 [EBook #23805] +Last Updated: December 20, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOR THE HONOR OF FRANCE *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + +FOR THE HONOR OF FRANCE. + +By Thomas A. Janvier + +Copyright, 1891, by Harper & Brothers + + +“Pardon! Madame does not know that this is a smoking-carriage?” + +“But yes. Monsieur is very good. It is that my husband would smoke. +He is an old soldier. He smokes all the time. _Ciel!_ They are like +chimneys, these old soldiers. This man of mine regrets that he cannot +smoke when he is asleep!” + +While Madame delivered this address she continued also to mount the +steps, and as she finished it she seated herself in the corner of the +carriage opposite to me. She was short and round and sixty years old, +and smiling like the sun on a fine day. Her dress was the charming dress +of Aries, but over her kerchief she wore a silk mantle that glittered +with an embroidery of jet beads. This mantle was precious to her. Her +first act upon seating herself was to take it off, fold it carefully in +a large handkerchief, and lay it safely in the netting above her head. +She replaced it with a red knitted shawl, partly as a shield against the +dust, and partly as a protection against the fresh wind that was blowing +briskly down the valley of the Rhône. + +In a moment her husband followed her, bowing to me as he entered the +carriage. Seating himself beside her, and giving her plump hand a little +affectionate pat, he said: “It is all right, little one. Marie will +receive her jelly in good condition. I myself saw that the basket was +placed right side up in the carriage. The jelly will not spill.” Then, +turning to me, he added: “My wife makes a wonderful jelly of apricots, +Monsieur. We are taking some of it to our married daughter, who lives in +Avignon.” + +He was a well set-up old boy, with a face most pleasantly frank, +close-cut gray hair, short gray whiskers, and a bristling white +mustache. Across his forehead, cutting through his right eyebrow, was +a desperate scar, that I at once associated in my own mind with the +red ribbon of the Legion that he wore in the button-hole of his black +frock-coat. He looked the officer in retreat, and the very gentleness +and sweetness of his manner made me sure that he had done some gallant +fighting in his time. + +As the train pulled out from the station--it was at Tarascon that they +had joined me--he drew forth from his pocket a black little wooden pipe +and a tobacco-bag. This was my opportunity. I also drew forth a pipe and +a tobacco-bag. Would Monsieur accept some of my tobacco? I asked. I had +brought it, I added, from America; it was tobacco of the Havana. + +“Monsieur then is an American. That is interesting. And his tobacco is +from the Havana, that is more interesting still. My cousin’s son has +been for many years in America. His name is Marius Guiraud; he lives in +San Francisco; possibly Monsieur and he have met?” + +Monsieur regretted that he had not had this pleasure, and explained +that his home was in New York--three times as far from San Francisco as +Marseilles was from Paris. + +“Name of a name! Is it possible? How vast this America must be! And they +tell me--” Here he struck a wax match and paused to light his pipe. He +drew a dozen whiffs in silence, while on his face was the thoughtful +look of one whose taste in tobacco was critical and whose love for it +was strong. + +“Thunder of guns, but it is good!” he exclaimed, as he took the pipe +from his mouth and passed it lightly back and forth beneath his nose. +“Had we smoked tobacco like this in the Crimea we should have whipped +those rascal Russians in a single week. Ah, that we often were without +tobacco was the hardest part of all. I have smoked coffee grounds and +bay, Monsieur, and have been thankful to get them--I myself, who well +know what is good and what is not good in a pipe! This tobacco--it is +divine!” + +“Monsieur served in the Crimea?” + +“This is the proof of it,” he said, a little grimly, touching the scar +on his forehead. + +“And this,” his wife added, touching the bit of red ribbon in his +button-hole. “He was the bravest man in all that war, Monsieur, this old +husband of mine. His cross was given him by--” + +“Tchut, little one! What does Monsieur care how I got my cross? It was +not much that I did. Any man would have done the same.” + +“But the others did _not_ do the same. They ran away and left thee to do +it alone. Did not his Majesty tell thee--” + +“Ah, Monsieur hears what a _babillarde_ it is. If she were given her own +way she would swear that I commanded the allied armies, and that I +blew up the Redan and stormed the Malakoff and captured Sebastopol all +alone!” + +“Tell Monsieur what thou didst do,” said the little woman, warmly. +“Tell him truly precisely what thou didst do, and then let him judge for +himself if what I have said be one bit less than thy due.” + +“And so bring Monsieur to know that I am a babbling old woman like +thyself?” He pinched her gently, and then settled himself back against +the cushion as though with the intention of giving himself wholly to the +enjoyment of his pipe: yet was there a look in his eyes that showed how +strong was the desire within him--the desire that is natural to every +brave and simple-minded old soldier--to tell the story of his honorable +scars. Even had I felt no desire to hear this story, not to have pressed +him to tell it would have been cruel. But little pressing was required. + +“Since Monsieur is good enough to desire to hear what little there is to +tell,” he said, “and to show him how foolish is this old woman of mine, +I will tell him the whole affair. It is a stupid nothing; but Monsieur +may be amused by the trick that was put upon me by those great +generals--yes, that certainly was droll. + +“Our regiment, Monsieur, was the Twenty-seventh of the Line. It was +drawn almost wholly from the towns and villages in these parts: +Aries and Tarascon and Saint-Remy and Salon and Maillane and Château +Renard--there is the old château, over on the hill yonder, beside the +Durance--and Barbentane, that we shall see presently around the corner +of the hill. We all were _Provençaux_ together, and the men of the other +regiments of our division gave us the name of the Provence cats; though +why they gave us that foolish name I am sure they never knew any more +than we did ourselves. It was not because we were cowards, that I will +swear: our regiment did some very pretty fighting in its time, as any +one may know by reading the gazettes which were published in those days. + +“Our division held Mont Sapoune--the French right, you know--facing the +Little Redan across the Carenage Ravine. It was early in the siege, and +we had only drawn our first parallel: close against the Selinghinsk +and Vallyrie redoubts, and partly covering the ground where we dug our +rifle-pits later on. But we were going ahead with our work fast, and +already we had thrown up the little redoubts known as No. 11 and No. +15, which covered the advancing earthwork leading to where our second +parallel was to begin. Redoubt No. 11 was a good hundred yards, and +Redoubt No. 15 was more than three times that distance outside of our +lines; and everybody knew that these two advanced posts would be in +great danger until our second parallel was well under way. So very +possible was it that they might be surprised, and the guns turned on our +own lines in support of a general attack, that in each of them spikes +and hammers were kept in readiness against the need for spiking the guns +before they fell into the enemy’s hands. Our regiment lay just behind +these redoubts, in the rear of the artillerymen who manned our trenches; +and as the gunners had plenty to do all day long, and through the night +too sometimes, the work of keeping up the night pickets fell to our +share. + +“It was while things were this way that I was on picket early one +morning on our extreme left, close over the edge of the Carenage Ravine. +I had come on with the midnight relief, and by five o’clock in the +morning, when day wras just breaking, my teeth were chattering and I was +stiff with cold. Name of a name, but it was cold those winter mornings! +We have nothing like it, even when the worst mistral is blowing, in our +winters here in Provence. Down in the ravine there was a thick mist, +into which I could not see at all; but every now and then a whiff of +wind would come in from the seaward and thin it a little, and then I +would give a good look below me, for it was along the ravine that any +party sent out to surprise us almost certainly would come. + +“It was while the light still was faint that I thought I heard, coming +up through the mist, a little rattling sound, such as might be made by a +man stumbling and dropping his musket among the broken rocks. Just then +the mist was too thick for me to see twenty feet below me. I was sure +that something bad was going on down there, but I did not want to make a +fool of myself by giving a false alarm. All that I could do was to cock +my musket and to hold it pointed towards where the sound seemed to come +from, all ready, should there be need for it, to give the alarm and get +in a shot at the enemy at the same time. Truly, Monsieur, it seemed to +me that I stood that way, while my heart went pounding against my ribs, +for a whole year! I was no longer cold: the blood was racing through +my veins, and I was everywhere in a glow. Suddenly there came a puff of +wind, and as the mist thinned for a moment I saw that the whole ravine +was full of Russians. Their advance already was half-way up the bank +nearest to our works. In less than ten minutes the whole of them would +be dashing into our outlying redoubts. As I pulled the trigger of my +musket I tried to shout, but my throat was as dry as a furnace and I +could only gasp. And--will you believe it?--my musket missed fire! Name +of a name, what a state I was in! There was the enemy coming on under +cover of the mist; and there was I, the only man who could save our +army, standing dumb like a useless fool! + +“What I must do came to me like a flash. If I ran back inside of our +lines to give the alarm, the chances were a thousand to one that the +enemy would have the outlying redoubt, very likely would have them both, +and would turn the guns before help could come. But I knew, at least +I hoped, that there was time for me to get to the more exposed redoubt +ahead of them and give the word to spike the guns. It was all in an +instant, I say, that I found this thought in my mind, and my musket and +cartridge-box thrown I don’t know where, and myself dashing off through +the mist across the broken ground like a deer. + +“As I rushed into the redoubt our men thought that I was the Russians; +and when they knew me by my uniform for a Frenchman, and heard me crying +in a hoarse whisper, ‘Spike the guns!’ they thought that I was mad. But +the lieutenant in command of the battery had at least a little sense, +even if he did not have much courage, and he looked towards where I +pointed--and then he saw the shakos, as the mist lifted again, not a +hundred feet away. + +“‘Save yourselves, I will make the guns safe,’ he cried to his men--he +was not all a coward, poor fellow--and as they ran for it he picked up +the spikes and the hammer. Tap! tap! tap! one gun was spiked. Tap! +tap! tap! another. Then we heard the Russians beginning to scramble up +outside. + +“He swore a great oath as he dropped the hammer. ‘It can’t be done. +Run, cat!’ he cried--and away he started after his men. The name that I +called him as he ran away, Monsieur, was a very foul name; God forgive +me for what I said! But I was determined that it _should_ be done. In +a second I had picked up the nails and the hammer, and--tap! tap! +tap!--the third gun was safe. ‘Run, cat!’ I heard the lieutenant call +again. But--tap!--I had the nail started in the last gun, and then, +right above me, was a Russian major and with him a dozen of his men. +Tap! and I had the nail half-way home as the major jumped down beside +me, with his sword raised. I knew that I could parry his blow with the +hammer and then, possibly, get away; but I wanted to make sure that that +gun could not be turned. And so--it was quick thinking that I did just +then, Monsieur--tap! and the gun was no better than old iron! At +that same instant it seemed to me that the whole world burst into a +tremendous roar and ten thousand blazing stars--but it only was the +sword of that confounded Russian major banging against my skull!” + +The little woman was almost sobbing. She took her husband’s hand in both +of hers. + +“But you see that I was _not_ killed, little one,” he said; and he +raised her hands to his lips and kissed them. + +“It was not until the next day, Monsieur,” he went on, “that I knew +anything. Then I was in the hospital. + +“‘How did it go?’ I asked of the hospital-steward. + +“‘Shut up,’ said the steward. + +“This made me angry. ‘How did it go, _polisson?_’ I cried. ‘Tell me, or +I’ll crush your bones.’ + +“Then the man was more civil. ‘The Russians were driven back,’ he said, +‘and a lot of them were captured. You owe it to the same Russian major +who almost killed you that your life was saved. As soon as he was +brought into camp he sent a message to the general begging that you +might be looked after quickly. If there was any life left in you, it was +worth saving, he said, for you were a brave man--and he told how you had +spiked those last two guns! _Parbleu_, but for that message you would +have died! When they brought you in here you were nearly gone!’ + +“‘And the lieutenant who ran away?’ I asked. + +“‘Oh, he was killed--as he deserved. Now you know all about it. Hold +your tongue.’ + +“I felt so foolishly weak, and there was such a pain in my head as +I began to remember it all once more, that I could not ask any more +questions. Presently my head began to buzz and the pain in it to get +worse, and then for a week I had a fever that came near to taking me +off. But I pulled through”--he squeezed his wife’s hand, that again +had been laid in his--“and in three weeks I was back with the regiment +again. It was all due to my having such a wonderfully thick skull, the +doctors said, that the major’s sword had not broken it past all mending. +When I came into camp the boys all cheered me, and I was as proud as a +cock. And then, the first thing I knew, up came a corporal and a file of +men and arrested me. + +“‘What am I arrested for?’ I asked. + +“‘For being absent without leave from your regiment during battle,’ +said the corporal, and marched me off to the guard-house. Then I was not +proud at all. But I was very angry. That I should be arrested in this +fashion did not seem to me fair. + +“In half an hour back came the corporal and his file of men. This time +they took me to headquarters. In we went; and the corporal stood +beside me, and his men behind me in a row. It seemed as though half the +officers of our army were there: my colonel, the general of our brigade, +the general of our division, half a dozen other generals, three or +four English officers in their smart red coats; presently there was a +stir--and in came the Emperor! What the deuce it all meant I could not +tell at all! + +“‘Private Labonne,’ said my colonel, he spoke in a very harsh tone, yet +it seemed to me that there was an odd sort of twinkle in his eye--‘you +deserted your post, and you were absent without leave when your regiment +went into action.’ + +“‘Yes, but--’ + +“‘Not a word of excuse, Private Labonne. You know the penalty.’ I did +know the penalty, of course; it was to be taken out and shot. I began +to think that this was worse than the Russians! + +“‘When shall I order the court-martial, your Majesty?’ asked my colonel. + +“‘I will be the court-martial,’ said the Emperor. ‘This is a serious +matter; this is a matter to be dealt with in a hurry. The case is +proved. There is no need for a trial. I order Private Labonne to be shot +right away.’ + +“I shivered all down my back. It _was_ worse than the Russians; very +much worse. + +“‘Take him away,’ said my colonel. + +“The corporal put his hand on my shoulder and the guard closed in. +‘March!’ said the corporal. + +“‘Stop!’ said the Emperor. ‘Private Labonne, before you are taken away +and shot, tell me what you were doing in that battery.’ + +“‘Nothing, your Majesty.’ + +“‘Nothing? I thought that I heard something about guns being spiked. Did +not you spike a gun, Private Labonne?’ + +“‘Yes, your Majesty.’ + +“‘Did not you spike two guns--and both of them after the gunners and the +officer in command of the battery had run away?’ + +“‘Yes, your Majesty.’ + +“‘And why did you not run away, too, Private Labonne?’ + +“‘Because I wanted to spike the guns, your Majesty.’ + +“‘You did not think, then, that it was your duty as one of my soldiers +to save your life by running with the others?’ + +“This question puzzled me, for I certainly never had thought of the +matter in that way at all. It occurred to me that perhaps I really had +not done my duty. But what the Emperor said, for all that he was the +Emperor, did not seem reasonable, and I made bold to answer him: ‘If +I had taken care of my own life, your Majesty, a great many of your +soldiers would have died to pay for it. It would have been a bad day’s +work if those two guns had not been spiked, for the Russians certainly +would have turned them on our lines.’ + +“The Emperor turned to my colonel. ‘There is something in what Private +Labonne says, eh, colonel? I suppose there really would have been the +very devil to pay had the enemy turned those guns?’ + +“‘I suppose there would,’ said my colonel, a little grimly. + +“‘Then the case is not quite so black against Private Labonne as it at +first appeared?’ + +“‘Not quite so black,’ said my colonel. + +“‘Perhaps we need not have him shot, after all?’ + +“‘Perhaps not--not this time, at least.’ + +“‘We might even compliment him a little upon his bravery. For it was +rather brave--eh, colonel?--to stay in that battery and spike those +guns, while a hundred Russians were tumbling in upon him, and his own +comrades had run off and left him to do his duty and to die for it there +alone.’ + +“My colonel’s voice broke a little as he answered, ‘It was very brave, +your Majesty.’ + +“‘Eh, well, Private Labonne,’ said the Emperor, turning again to me, ‘we +won’t shoot you. Your colonel is right about your bravery; and to shoot +a brave man, except in battle, is a mistake. The Russian officer who +came so near to killing you was a major, I am told; well, you may happen +to meet him again, and if you do it is only fair that your rank should +equal his. Here is your commission, Major Labonne; and here is a little +thing ‘--it was his own cross of the Legion that the Emperor gave +me--‘that I want you to wear in remembrance of that day when you did as +brave a piece of work as ever was done by a French soldier for the honor +of France!’ + +“And so you see, Monsieur, it was only a comedy about my being shot, +after all. Here is Avignon. You must wait for me a moment, little one, +while I get the basket of jelly for Marie.” + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg’s For The Honor Of France, by Thomas A. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/23805-0.zip b/23805-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9206b48 --- /dev/null +++ b/23805-0.zip diff --git a/23805-8.txt b/23805-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a2dad34 --- /dev/null +++ b/23805-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,771 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of For The Honor Of France, by Thomas A. Janvier + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: For The Honor Of France + 1891 + +Author: Thomas A. Janvier + +Release Date: December 10, 2007 [EBook #23805] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOR THE HONOR OF FRANCE *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + +FOR THE HONOR OF FRANCE. + +By Thomas A. Janvier + +Copyright, 1891, by Harper & Brothers + + +"Pardon! Madame does not know that this is a smoking-carriage?" + +"But yes. Monsieur is very good. It is that my husband would smoke. +He is an old soldier. He smokes all the time. _Ciel!_ They are like +chimneys, these old soldiers. This man of mine regrets that he cannot +smoke when he is asleep!" + +While Madame delivered this address she continued also to mount the +steps, and as she finished it she seated herself in the corner of the +carriage opposite to me. She was short and round and sixty years old, +and smiling like the sun on a fine day. Her dress was the charming dress +of Aries, but over her kerchief she wore a silk mantle that glittered +with an embroidery of jet beads. This mantle was precious to her. Her +first act upon seating herself was to take it off, fold it carefully in +a large handkerchief, and lay it safely in the netting above her head. +She replaced it with a red knitted shawl, partly as a shield against the +dust, and partly as a protection against the fresh wind that was blowing +briskly down the valley of the Rhne. + +In a moment her husband followed her, bowing to me as he entered the +carriage. Seating himself beside her, and giving her plump hand a little +affectionate pat, he said: "It is all right, little one. Marie will +receive her jelly in good condition. I myself saw that the basket was +placed right side up in the carriage. The jelly will not spill." Then, +turning to me, he added: "My wife makes a wonderful jelly of apricots, +Monsieur. We are taking some of it to our married daughter, who lives in +Avignon." + +He was a well set-up old boy, with a face most pleasantly frank, +close-cut gray hair, short gray whiskers, and a bristling white +mustache. Across his forehead, cutting through his right eyebrow, was +a desperate scar, that I at once associated in my own mind with the +red ribbon of the Legion that he wore in the button-hole of his black +frock-coat. He looked the officer in retreat, and the very gentleness +and sweetness of his manner made me sure that he had done some gallant +fighting in his time. + +As the train pulled out from the station--it was at Tarascon that they +had joined me--he drew forth from his pocket a black little wooden pipe +and a tobacco-bag. This was my opportunity. I also drew forth a pipe and +a tobacco-bag. Would Monsieur accept some of my tobacco? I asked. I had +brought it, I added, from America; it was tobacco of the Havana. + +"Monsieur then is an American. That is interesting. And his tobacco is +from the Havana, that is more interesting still. My cousin's son has +been for many years in America. His name is Marius Guiraud; he lives in +San Francisco; possibly Monsieur and he have met?" + +Monsieur regretted that he had not had this pleasure, and explained +that his home was in New York--three times as far from San Francisco as +Marseilles was from Paris. + +"Name of a name! Is it possible? How vast this America must be! And they +tell me--" Here he struck a wax match and paused to light his pipe. He +drew a dozen whiffs in silence, while on his face was the thoughtful +look of one whose taste in tobacco was critical and whose love for it +was strong. + +"Thunder of guns, but it is good!" he exclaimed, as he took the pipe +from his mouth and passed it lightly back and forth beneath his nose. +"Had we smoked tobacco like this in the Crimea we should have whipped +those rascal Russians in a single week. Ah, that we often were without +tobacco was the hardest part of all. I have smoked coffee grounds and +bay, Monsieur, and have been thankful to get them--I myself, who well +know what is good and what is not good in a pipe! This tobacco--it is +divine!" + +"Monsieur served in the Crimea?" + +"This is the proof of it," he said, a little grimly, touching the scar +on his forehead. + +"And this," his wife added, touching the bit of red ribbon in his +button-hole. "He was the bravest man in all that war, Monsieur, this old +husband of mine. His cross was given him by--" + +"Tchut, little one! What does Monsieur care how I got my cross? It was +not much that I did. Any man would have done the same." + +"But the others did _not_ do the same. They ran away and left thee to do +it alone. Did not his Majesty tell thee--" + +"Ah, Monsieur hears what a _babillarde_ it is. If she were given her own +way she would swear that I commanded the allied armies, and that I +blew up the Redan and stormed the Malakoff and captured Sebastopol all +alone!" + +"Tell Monsieur what thou didst do," said the little woman, warmly. +"Tell him truly precisely what thou didst do, and then let him judge for +himself if what I have said be one bit less than thy due." + +"And so bring Monsieur to know that I am a babbling old woman like +thyself?" He pinched her gently, and then settled himself back against +the cushion as though with the intention of giving himself wholly to the +enjoyment of his pipe: yet was there a look in his eyes that showed how +strong was the desire within him--the desire that is natural to every +brave and simple-minded old soldier--to tell the story of his honorable +scars. Even had I felt no desire to hear this story, not to have pressed +him to tell it would have been cruel. But little pressing was required. + +"Since Monsieur is good enough to desire to hear what little there is to +tell," he said, "and to show him how foolish is this old woman of mine, +I will tell him the whole affair. It is a stupid nothing; but Monsieur +may be amused by the trick that was put upon me by those great +generals--yes, that certainly was droll. + +"Our regiment, Monsieur, was the Twenty-seventh of the Line. It was +drawn almost wholly from the towns and villages in these parts: +Aries and Tarascon and Saint-Remy and Salon and Maillane and Chteau +Renard--there is the old chteau, over on the hill yonder, beside the +Durance--and Barbentane, that we shall see presently around the corner +of the hill. We all were _Provenaux_ together, and the men of the other +regiments of our division gave us the name of the Provence cats; though +why they gave us that foolish name I am sure they never knew any more +than we did ourselves. It was not because we were cowards, that I will +swear: our regiment did some very pretty fighting in its time, as any +one may know by reading the gazettes which were published in those days. + +"Our division held Mont Sapoune--the French right, you know--facing the +Little Redan across the Carenage Ravine. It was early in the siege, and +we had only drawn our first parallel: close against the Selinghinsk +and Vallyrie redoubts, and partly covering the ground where we dug our +rifle-pits later on. But we were going ahead with our work fast, and +already we had thrown up the little redoubts known as No. 11 and No. +15, which covered the advancing earthwork leading to where our second +parallel was to begin. Redoubt No. 11 was a good hundred yards, and +Redoubt No. 15 was more than three times that distance outside of our +lines; and everybody knew that these two advanced posts would be in +great danger until our second parallel was well under way. So very +possible was it that they might be surprised, and the guns turned on our +own lines in support of a general attack, that in each of them spikes +and hammers were kept in readiness against the need for spiking the guns +before they fell into the enemy's hands. Our regiment lay just behind +these redoubts, in the rear of the artillerymen who manned our trenches; +and as the gunners had plenty to do all day long, and through the night +too sometimes, the work of keeping up the night pickets fell to our +share. + +"It was while things were this way that I was on picket early one +morning on our extreme left, close over the edge of the Carenage Ravine. +I had come on with the midnight relief, and by five o'clock in the +morning, when day wras just breaking, my teeth were chattering and I was +stiff with cold. Name of a name, but it was cold those winter mornings! +We have nothing like it, even when the worst mistral is blowing, in our +winters here in Provence. Down in the ravine there was a thick mist, +into which I could not see at all; but every now and then a whiff of +wind would come in from the seaward and thin it a little, and then I +would give a good look below me, for it was along the ravine that any +party sent out to surprise us almost certainly would come. + +"It was while the light still was faint that I thought I heard, coming +up through the mist, a little rattling sound, such as might be made by a +man stumbling and dropping his musket among the broken rocks. Just then +the mist was too thick for me to see twenty feet below me. I was sure +that something bad was going on down there, but I did not want to make a +fool of myself by giving a false alarm. All that I could do was to cock +my musket and to hold it pointed towards where the sound seemed to come +from, all ready, should there be need for it, to give the alarm and get +in a shot at the enemy at the same time. Truly, Monsieur, it seemed to +me that I stood that way, while my heart went pounding against my ribs, +for a whole year! I was no longer cold: the blood was racing through +my veins, and I was everywhere in a glow. Suddenly there came a puff of +wind, and as the mist thinned for a moment I saw that the whole ravine +was full of Russians. Their advance already was half-way up the bank +nearest to our works. In less than ten minutes the whole of them would +be dashing into our outlying redoubts. As I pulled the trigger of my +musket I tried to shout, but my throat was as dry as a furnace and I +could only gasp. And--will you believe it?--my musket missed fire! Name +of a name, what a state I was in! There was the enemy coming on under +cover of the mist; and there was I, the only man who could save our +army, standing dumb like a useless fool! + +"What I must do came to me like a flash. If I ran back inside of our +lines to give the alarm, the chances were a thousand to one that the +enemy would have the outlying redoubt, very likely would have them both, +and would turn the guns before help could come. But I knew, at least +I hoped, that there was time for me to get to the more exposed redoubt +ahead of them and give the word to spike the guns. It was all in an +instant, I say, that I found this thought in my mind, and my musket and +cartridge-box thrown I don't know where, and myself dashing off through +the mist across the broken ground like a deer. + +"As I rushed into the redoubt our men thought that I was the Russians; +and when they knew me by my uniform for a Frenchman, and heard me crying +in a hoarse whisper, 'Spike the guns!' they thought that I was mad. But +the lieutenant in command of the battery had at least a little sense, +even if he did not have much courage, and he looked towards where I +pointed--and then he saw the shakos, as the mist lifted again, not a +hundred feet away. + +"'Save yourselves, I will make the guns safe,' he cried to his men--he +was not all a coward, poor fellow--and as they ran for it he picked up +the spikes and the hammer. Tap! tap! tap! one gun was spiked. Tap! +tap! tap! another. Then we heard the Russians beginning to scramble up +outside. + +"He swore a great oath as he dropped the hammer. 'It can't be done. +Run, cat!' he cried--and away he started after his men. The name that I +called him as he ran away, Monsieur, was a very foul name; God forgive +me for what I said! But I was determined that it _should_ be done. In +a second I had picked up the nails and the hammer, and--tap! tap! +tap!--the third gun was safe. 'Run, cat!' I heard the lieutenant call +again. But--tap!--I had the nail started in the last gun, and then, +right above me, was a Russian major and with him a dozen of his men. +Tap! and I had the nail half-way home as the major jumped down beside +me, with his sword raised. I knew that I could parry his blow with the +hammer and then, possibly, get away; but I wanted to make sure that that +gun could not be turned. And so--it was quick thinking that I did just +then, Monsieur--tap! and the gun was no better than old iron! At +that same instant it seemed to me that the whole world burst into a +tremendous roar and ten thousand blazing stars--but it only was the +sword of that confounded Russian major banging against my skull!" + +The little woman was almost sobbing. She took her husband's hand in both +of hers. + +"But you see that I was _not_ killed, little one," he said; and he +raised her hands to his lips and kissed them. + +"It was not until the next day, Monsieur," he went on, "that I knew +anything. Then I was in the hospital. + +"'How did it go?' I asked of the hospital-steward. + +"'Shut up,' said the steward. + +"This made me angry. 'How did it go, _polisson?_' I cried. 'Tell me, or +I'll crush your bones.' + +"Then the man was more civil. 'The Russians were driven back,' he said, +'and a lot of them were captured. You owe it to the same Russian major +who almost killed you that your life was saved. As soon as he was +brought into camp he sent a message to the general begging that you +might be looked after quickly. If there was any life left in you, it was +worth saving, he said, for you were a brave man--and he told how you had +spiked those last two guns! _Parbleu_, but for that message you would +have died! When they brought you in here you were nearly gone!' + +"'And the lieutenant who ran away?' I asked. + +"'Oh, he was killed--as he deserved. Now you know all about it. Hold +your tongue.' + +"I felt so foolishly weak, and there was such a pain in my head as +I began to remember it all once more, that I could not ask any more +questions. Presently my head began to buzz and the pain in it to get +worse, and then for a week I had a fever that came near to taking me +off. But I pulled through"--he squeezed his wife's hand, that again +had been laid in his--"and in three weeks I was back with the regiment +again. It was all due to my having such a wonderfully thick skull, the +doctors said, that the major's sword had not broken it past all mending. +When I came into camp the boys all cheered me, and I was as proud as a +cock. And then, the first thing I knew, up came a corporal and a file of +men and arrested me. + +"'What am I arrested for?' I asked. + +"'For being absent without leave from your regiment during battle,' +said the corporal, and marched me off to the guard-house. Then I was not +proud at all. But I was very angry. That I should be arrested in this +fashion did not seem to me fair. + +"In half an hour back came the corporal and his file of men. This time +they took me to headquarters. In we went; and the corporal stood +beside me, and his men behind me in a row. It seemed as though half the +officers of our army were there: my colonel, the general of our brigade, +the general of our division, half a dozen other generals, three or +four English officers in their smart red coats; presently there was a +stir--and in came the Emperor! What the deuce it all meant I could not +tell at all! + +"'Private Labonne,' said my colonel, he spoke in a very harsh tone, yet +it seemed to me that there was an odd sort of twinkle in his eye--'you +deserted your post, and you were absent without leave when your regiment +went into action.' + +"'Yes, but--' + +"'Not a word of excuse, Private Labonne. You know the penalty.' I did +know the penalty, of course; it was to be taken out and shot. I began +to think that this was worse than the Russians! + +"'When shall I order the court-martial, your Majesty?' asked my colonel. + +"'I will be the court-martial,' said the Emperor. 'This is a serious +matter; this is a matter to be dealt with in a hurry. The case is +proved. There is no need for a trial. I order Private Labonne to be shot +right away.' + +"I shivered all down my back. It _was_ worse than the Russians; very +much worse. + +"'Take him away,' said my colonel. + +"The corporal put his hand on my shoulder and the guard closed in. +'March!' said the corporal. + +"'Stop!' said the Emperor. 'Private Labonne, before you are taken away +and shot, tell me what you were doing in that battery.' + +"'Nothing, your Majesty.' + +"'Nothing? I thought that I heard something about guns being spiked. Did +not you spike a gun, Private Labonne?' + +"'Yes, your Majesty.' + +"'Did not you spike two guns--and both of them after the gunners and the +officer in command of the battery had run away?' + +"'Yes, your Majesty.' + +"'And why did you not run away, too, Private Labonne?' + +"'Because I wanted to spike the guns, your Majesty.' + +"'You did not think, then, that it was your duty as one of my soldiers +to save your life by running with the others?' + +"This question puzzled me, for I certainly never had thought of the +matter in that way at all. It occurred to me that perhaps I really had +not done my duty. But what the Emperor said, for all that he was the +Emperor, did not seem reasonable, and I made bold to answer him: 'If +I had taken care of my own life, your Majesty, a great many of your +soldiers would have died to pay for it. It would have been a bad day's +work if those two guns had not been spiked, for the Russians certainly +would have turned them on our lines.' + +"The Emperor turned to my colonel. 'There is something in what Private +Labonne says, eh, colonel? I suppose there really would have been the +very devil to pay had the enemy turned those guns?' + +"'I suppose there would,' said my colonel, a little grimly. + +"'Then the case is not quite so black against Private Labonne as it at +first appeared?' + +"'Not quite so black,' said my colonel. + +"'Perhaps we need not have him shot, after all?' + +"'Perhaps not--not this time, at least.' + +"'We might even compliment him a little upon his bravery. For it was +rather brave--eh, colonel?--to stay in that battery and spike those +guns, while a hundred Russians were tumbling in upon him, and his own +comrades had run off and left him to do his duty and to die for it there +alone.' + +"My colonel's voice broke a little as he answered, 'It was very brave, +your Majesty.' + +"'Eh, well, Private Labonne,' said the Emperor, turning again to me, 'we +won't shoot you. Your colonel is right about your bravery; and to shoot +a brave man, except in battle, is a mistake. The Russian officer who +came so near to killing you was a major, I am told; well, you may happen +to meet him again, and if you do it is only fair that your rank should +equal his. Here is your commission, Major Labonne; and here is a little +thing '--it was his own cross of the Legion that the Emperor gave +me--'that I want you to wear in remembrance of that day when you did as +brave a piece of work as ever was done by a French soldier for the honor +of France!' + +"And so you see, Monsieur, it was only a comedy about my being shot, +after all. Here is Avignon. You must wait for me a moment, little one, +while I get the basket of jelly for Marie." + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's For The Honor Of France, by Thomas A. 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Janvier + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of For The Honor Of France, by Thomas A. Janvier + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: For The Honor Of France + 1891 + +Author: Thomas A. Janvier + +Release Date: December 10, 2007 [EBook #23805] +Last Updated: December 20, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOR THE HONOR OF FRANCE *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + FOR THE HONOR OF FRANCE. + </h1> + <h2> + By Thomas A. Janvier <br /><br /> Copyright, 1891, by Harper & Brothers + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + “Pardon! Madame does not know that this is a smoking-carriage?” + </p> + <p> + “But yes. Monsieur is very good. It is that my husband would smoke. He is + an old soldier. He smokes all the time. <i>Ciel!</i> They are like + chimneys, these old soldiers. This man of mine regrets that he cannot + smoke when he is asleep!” + </p> + <p> + While Madame delivered this address she continued also to mount the steps, + and as she finished it she seated herself in the corner of the carriage + opposite to me. She was short and round and sixty years old, and smiling + like the sun on a fine day. Her dress was the charming dress of Aries, but + over her kerchief she wore a silk mantle that glittered with an embroidery + of jet beads. This mantle was precious to her. Her first act upon seating + herself was to take it off, fold it carefully in a large handkerchief, and + lay it safely in the netting above her head. She replaced it with a red + knitted shawl, partly as a shield against the dust, and partly as a + protection against the fresh wind that was blowing briskly down the valley + of the Rhône. + </p> + <p> + In a moment her husband followed her, bowing to me as he entered the + carriage. Seating himself beside her, and giving her plump hand a little + affectionate pat, he said: “It is all right, little one. Marie will + receive her jelly in good condition. I myself saw that the basket was + placed right side up in the carriage. The jelly will not spill.” Then, + turning to me, he added: “My wife makes a wonderful jelly of apricots, + Monsieur. We are taking some of it to our married daughter, who lives in + Avignon.” + </p> + <p> + He was a well set-up old boy, with a face most pleasantly frank, close-cut + gray hair, short gray whiskers, and a bristling white mustache. Across his + forehead, cutting through his right eyebrow, was a desperate scar, that I + at once associated in my own mind with the red ribbon of the Legion that + he wore in the button-hole of his black frock-coat. He looked the officer + in retreat, and the very gentleness and sweetness of his manner made me + sure that he had done some gallant fighting in his time. + </p> + <p> + As the train pulled out from the station—it was at Tarascon that + they had joined me—he drew forth from his pocket a black little + wooden pipe and a tobacco-bag. This was my opportunity. I also drew forth + a pipe and a tobacco-bag. Would Monsieur accept some of my tobacco? I + asked. I had brought it, I added, from America; it was tobacco of the + Havana. + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur then is an American. That is interesting. And his tobacco is + from the Havana, that is more interesting still. My cousin’s son has been + for many years in America. His name is Marius Guiraud; he lives in San + Francisco; possibly Monsieur and he have met?” + </p> + <p> + Monsieur regretted that he had not had this pleasure, and explained that + his home was in New York—three times as far from San Francisco as + Marseilles was from Paris. + </p> + <p> + “Name of a name! Is it possible? How vast this America must be! And they + tell me—” Here he struck a wax match and paused to light his pipe. + He drew a dozen whiffs in silence, while on his face was the thoughtful + look of one whose taste in tobacco was critical and whose love for it was + strong. + </p> + <p> + “Thunder of guns, but it is good!” he exclaimed, as he took the pipe from + his mouth and passed it lightly back and forth beneath his nose. “Had we + smoked tobacco like this in the Crimea we should have whipped those rascal + Russians in a single week. Ah, that we often were without tobacco was the + hardest part of all. I have smoked coffee grounds and bay, Monsieur, and + have been thankful to get them—I myself, who well know what is good + and what is not good in a pipe! This tobacco—it is divine!” + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur served in the Crimea?” + </p> + <p> + “This is the proof of it,” he said, a little grimly, touching the scar on + his forehead. + </p> + <p> + “And this,” his wife added, touching the bit of red ribbon in his + button-hole. “He was the bravest man in all that war, Monsieur, this old + husband of mine. His cross was given him by—” + </p> + <p> + “Tchut, little one! What does Monsieur care how I got my cross? It was not + much that I did. Any man would have done the same.” + </p> + <p> + “But the others did <i>not</i> do the same. They ran away and left thee to + do it alone. Did not his Majesty tell thee—” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, Monsieur hears what a <i>babillarde</i> it is. If she were given her + own way she would swear that I commanded the allied armies, and that I + blew up the Redan and stormed the Malakoff and captured Sebastopol all + alone!” + </p> + <p> + “Tell Monsieur what thou didst do,” said the little woman, warmly. “Tell + him truly precisely what thou didst do, and then let him judge for himself + if what I have said be one bit less than thy due.” + </p> + <p> + “And so bring Monsieur to know that I am a babbling old woman like + thyself?” He pinched her gently, and then settled himself back against the + cushion as though with the intention of giving himself wholly to the + enjoyment of his pipe: yet was there a look in his eyes that showed how + strong was the desire within him—the desire that is natural to every + brave and simple-minded old soldier—to tell the story of his + honorable scars. Even had I felt no desire to hear this story, not to have + pressed him to tell it would have been cruel. But little pressing was + required. + </p> + <p> + “Since Monsieur is good enough to desire to hear what little there is to + tell,” he said, “and to show him how foolish is this old woman of mine, I + will tell him the whole affair. It is a stupid nothing; but Monsieur may + be amused by the trick that was put upon me by those great generals—yes, + that certainly was droll. + </p> + <p> + “Our regiment, Monsieur, was the Twenty-seventh of the Line. It was drawn + almost wholly from the towns and villages in these parts: Aries and + Tarascon and Saint-Remy and Salon and Maillane and Château Renard—there + is the old château, over on the hill yonder, beside the Durance—and + Barbentane, that we shall see presently around the corner of the hill. We + all were <i>Provençaux</i> together, and the men of the other regiments of + our division gave us the name of the Provence cats; though why they gave + us that foolish name I am sure they never knew any more than we did + ourselves. It was not because we were cowards, that I will swear: our + regiment did some very pretty fighting in its time, as any one may know by + reading the gazettes which were published in those days. + </p> + <p> + “Our division held Mont Sapoune—the French right, you know—facing + the Little Redan across the Carenage Ravine. It was early in the siege, + and we had only drawn our first parallel: close against the Selinghinsk + and Vallyrie redoubts, and partly covering the ground where we dug our + rifle-pits later on. But we were going ahead with our work fast, and + already we had thrown up the little redoubts known as No. 11 and No. 15, + which covered the advancing earthwork leading to where our second parallel + was to begin. Redoubt No. 11 was a good hundred yards, and Redoubt No. 15 + was more than three times that distance outside of our lines; and + everybody knew that these two advanced posts would be in great danger + until our second parallel was well under way. So very possible was it that + they might be surprised, and the guns turned on our own lines in support + of a general attack, that in each of them spikes and hammers were kept in + readiness against the need for spiking the guns before they fell into the + enemy’s hands. Our regiment lay just behind these redoubts, in the rear of + the artillerymen who manned our trenches; and as the gunners had plenty to + do all day long, and through the night too sometimes, the work of keeping + up the night pickets fell to our share. + </p> + <p> + “It was while things were this way that I was on picket early one morning + on our extreme left, close over the edge of the Carenage Ravine. I had + come on with the midnight relief, and by five o’clock in the morning, when + day wras just breaking, my teeth were chattering and I was stiff with + cold. Name of a name, but it was cold those winter mornings! We have + nothing like it, even when the worst mistral is blowing, in our winters + here in Provence. Down in the ravine there was a thick mist, into which I + could not see at all; but every now and then a whiff of wind would come in + from the seaward and thin it a little, and then I would give a good look + below me, for it was along the ravine that any party sent out to surprise + us almost certainly would come. + </p> + <p> + “It was while the light still was faint that I thought I heard, coming up + through the mist, a little rattling sound, such as might be made by a man + stumbling and dropping his musket among the broken rocks. Just then the + mist was too thick for me to see twenty feet below me. I was sure that + something bad was going on down there, but I did not want to make a fool + of myself by giving a false alarm. All that I could do was to cock my + musket and to hold it pointed towards where the sound seemed to come from, + all ready, should there be need for it, to give the alarm and get in a + shot at the enemy at the same time. Truly, Monsieur, it seemed to me that + I stood that way, while my heart went pounding against my ribs, for a + whole year! I was no longer cold: the blood was racing through my veins, + and I was everywhere in a glow. Suddenly there came a puff of wind, and as + the mist thinned for a moment I saw that the whole ravine was full of + Russians. Their advance already was half-way up the bank nearest to our + works. In less than ten minutes the whole of them would be dashing into + our outlying redoubts. As I pulled the trigger of my musket I tried to + shout, but my throat was as dry as a furnace and I could only gasp. And—will + you believe it?—my musket missed fire! Name of a name, what a state + I was in! There was the enemy coming on under cover of the mist; and there + was I, the only man who could save our army, standing dumb like a useless + fool! + </p> + <p> + “What I must do came to me like a flash. If I ran back inside of our lines + to give the alarm, the chances were a thousand to one that the enemy would + have the outlying redoubt, very likely would have them both, and would + turn the guns before help could come. But I knew, at least I hoped, that + there was time for me to get to the more exposed redoubt ahead of them and + give the word to spike the guns. It was all in an instant, I say, that I + found this thought in my mind, and my musket and cartridge-box thrown I + don’t know where, and myself dashing off through the mist across the + broken ground like a deer. + </p> + <p> + “As I rushed into the redoubt our men thought that I was the Russians; and + when they knew me by my uniform for a Frenchman, and heard me crying in a + hoarse whisper, ‘Spike the guns!’ they thought that I was mad. But the + lieutenant in command of the battery had at least a little sense, even if + he did not have much courage, and he looked towards where I pointed—and + then he saw the shakos, as the mist lifted again, not a hundred feet away. + </p> + <p> + “‘Save yourselves, I will make the guns safe,’ he cried to his men—he + was not all a coward, poor fellow—and as they ran for it he picked + up the spikes and the hammer. Tap! tap! tap! one gun was spiked. Tap! tap! + tap! another. Then we heard the Russians beginning to scramble up outside. + </p> + <p> + “He swore a great oath as he dropped the hammer. ‘It can’t be done. Run, + cat!’ he cried—and away he started after his men. The name that I + called him as he ran away, Monsieur, was a very foul name; God forgive me + for what I said! But I was determined that it <i>should</i> be done. In a + second I had picked up the nails and the hammer, and—tap! tap! tap!—the + third gun was safe. ‘Run, cat!’ I heard the lieutenant call again. But—tap!—I + had the nail started in the last gun, and then, right above me, was a + Russian major and with him a dozen of his men. Tap! and I had the nail + half-way home as the major jumped down beside me, with his sword raised. I + knew that I could parry his blow with the hammer and then, possibly, get + away; but I wanted to make sure that that gun could not be turned. And so—it + was quick thinking that I did just then, Monsieur—tap! and the gun + was no better than old iron! At that same instant it seemed to me that the + whole world burst into a tremendous roar and ten thousand blazing stars—but + it only was the sword of that confounded Russian major banging against my + skull!” + </p> + <p> + The little woman was almost sobbing. She took her husband’s hand in both + of hers. + </p> + <p> + “But you see that I was <i>not</i> killed, little one,” he said; and he + raised her hands to his lips and kissed them. + </p> + <p> + “It was not until the next day, Monsieur,” he went on, “that I knew + anything. Then I was in the hospital. + </p> + <p> + “‘How did it go?’ I asked of the hospital-steward. + </p> + <p> + “‘Shut up,’ said the steward. + </p> + <p> + “This made me angry. ‘How did it go, <i>polisson?</i>’ I cried. ‘Tell me, + or I’ll crush your bones.’ + </p> + <p> + “Then the man was more civil. ‘The Russians were driven back,’ he said, + ‘and a lot of them were captured. You owe it to the same Russian major who + almost killed you that your life was saved. As soon as he was brought into + camp he sent a message to the general begging that you might be looked + after quickly. If there was any life left in you, it was worth saving, he + said, for you were a brave man—and he told how you had spiked those + last two guns! <i>Parbleu</i>, but for that message you would have died! + When they brought you in here you were nearly gone!’ + </p> + <p> + “‘And the lieutenant who ran away?’ I asked. + </p> + <p> + “‘Oh, he was killed—as he deserved. Now you know all about it. Hold + your tongue.’ + </p> + <p> + “I felt so foolishly weak, and there was such a pain in my head as I began + to remember it all once more, that I could not ask any more questions. + Presently my head began to buzz and the pain in it to get worse, and then + for a week I had a fever that came near to taking me off. But I pulled + through”—he squeezed his wife’s hand, that again had been laid in + his—“and in three weeks I was back with the regiment again. It was + all due to my having such a wonderfully thick skull, the doctors said, + that the major’s sword had not broken it past all mending. When I came + into camp the boys all cheered me, and I was as proud as a cock. And then, + the first thing I knew, up came a corporal and a file of men and arrested + me. + </p> + <p> + “‘What am I arrested for?’ I asked. + </p> + <p> + “‘For being absent without leave from your regiment during battle,’ said + the corporal, and marched me off to the guard-house. Then I was not proud + at all. But I was very angry. That I should be arrested in this fashion + did not seem to me fair. + </p> + <p> + “In half an hour back came the corporal and his file of men. This time + they took me to headquarters. In we went; and the corporal stood beside + me, and his men behind me in a row. It seemed as though half the officers + of our army were there: my colonel, the general of our brigade, the + general of our division, half a dozen other generals, three or four + English officers in their smart red coats; presently there was a stir—and + in came the Emperor! What the deuce it all meant I could not tell at all! + </p> + <p> + “‘Private Labonne,’ said my colonel, he spoke in a very harsh tone, yet it + seemed to me that there was an odd sort of twinkle in his eye—‘you + deserted your post, and you were absent without leave when your regiment + went into action.’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Yes, but—’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Not a word of excuse, Private Labonne. You know the penalty.’ I did know + the penalty, of course; it was to be taken out and shot. I began to think + that this was worse than the Russians! + </p> + <p> + “‘When shall I order the court-martial, your Majesty?’ asked my colonel. + </p> + <p> + “‘I will be the court-martial,’ said the Emperor. ‘This is a serious + matter; this is a matter to be dealt with in a hurry. The case is proved. + There is no need for a trial. I order Private Labonne to be shot right + away.’ + </p> + <p> + “I shivered all down my back. It <i>was</i> worse than the Russians; very + much worse. + </p> + <p> + “‘Take him away,’ said my colonel. + </p> + <p> + “The corporal put his hand on my shoulder and the guard closed in. + ‘March!’ said the corporal. + </p> + <p> + “‘Stop!’ said the Emperor. ‘Private Labonne, before you are taken away and + shot, tell me what you were doing in that battery.’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Nothing, your Majesty.’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Nothing? I thought that I heard something about guns being spiked. Did + not you spike a gun, Private Labonne?’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Yes, your Majesty.’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Did not you spike two guns—and both of them after the gunners and + the officer in command of the battery had run away?’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Yes, your Majesty.’ + </p> + <p> + “‘And why did you not run away, too, Private Labonne?’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Because I wanted to spike the guns, your Majesty.’ + </p> + <p> + “‘You did not think, then, that it was your duty as one of my soldiers to + save your life by running with the others?’ + </p> + <p> + “This question puzzled me, for I certainly never had thought of the matter + in that way at all. It occurred to me that perhaps I really had not done + my duty. But what the Emperor said, for all that he was the Emperor, did + not seem reasonable, and I made bold to answer him: ‘If I had taken care + of my own life, your Majesty, a great many of your soldiers would have + died to pay for it. It would have been a bad day’s work if those two guns + had not been spiked, for the Russians certainly would have turned them on + our lines.’ + </p> + <p> + “The Emperor turned to my colonel. ‘There is something in what Private + Labonne says, eh, colonel? I suppose there really would have been the very + devil to pay had the enemy turned those guns?’ + </p> + <p> + “‘I suppose there would,’ said my colonel, a little grimly. + </p> + <p> + “‘Then the case is not quite so black against Private Labonne as it at + first appeared?’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Not quite so black,’ said my colonel. + </p> + <p> + “‘Perhaps we need not have him shot, after all?’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Perhaps not—not this time, at least.’ + </p> + <p> + “‘We might even compliment him a little upon his bravery. For it was + rather brave—eh, colonel?—to stay in that battery and spike + those guns, while a hundred Russians were tumbling in upon him, and his + own comrades had run off and left him to do his duty and to die for it + there alone.’ + </p> + <p> + “My colonel’s voice broke a little as he answered, ‘It was very brave, + your Majesty.’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Eh, well, Private Labonne,’ said the Emperor, turning again to me, ‘we + won’t shoot you. Your colonel is right about your bravery; and to shoot a + brave man, except in battle, is a mistake. The Russian officer who came so + near to killing you was a major, I am told; well, you may happen to meet + him again, and if you do it is only fair that your rank should equal his. + Here is your commission, Major Labonne; and here is a little thing ‘—it + was his own cross of the Legion that the Emperor gave me—‘that I + want you to wear in remembrance of that day when you did as brave a piece + of work as ever was done by a French soldier for the honor of France!’ + </p> + <p> + “And so you see, Monsieur, it was only a comedy about my being shot, after + all. Here is Avignon. You must wait for me a moment, little one, while I + get the basket of jelly for Marie.” + </p> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg’s For The Honor Of France, by Thomas A. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: For The Honor Of France + 1891 + +Author: Thomas A. Janvier + +Release Date: December 10, 2007 [EBook #23805] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOR THE HONOR OF FRANCE *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + +FOR THE HONOR OF FRANCE. + +By Thomas A. Janvier + +Copyright, 1891, by Harper & Brothers + + +"Pardon! Madame does not know that this is a smoking-carriage?" + +"But yes. Monsieur is very good. It is that my husband would smoke. +He is an old soldier. He smokes all the time. _Ciel!_ They are like +chimneys, these old soldiers. This man of mine regrets that he cannot +smoke when he is asleep!" + +While Madame delivered this address she continued also to mount the +steps, and as she finished it she seated herself in the corner of the +carriage opposite to me. She was short and round and sixty years old, +and smiling like the sun on a fine day. Her dress was the charming dress +of Aries, but over her kerchief she wore a silk mantle that glittered +with an embroidery of jet beads. This mantle was precious to her. Her +first act upon seating herself was to take it off, fold it carefully in +a large handkerchief, and lay it safely in the netting above her head. +She replaced it with a red knitted shawl, partly as a shield against the +dust, and partly as a protection against the fresh wind that was blowing +briskly down the valley of the Rhone. + +In a moment her husband followed her, bowing to me as he entered the +carriage. Seating himself beside her, and giving her plump hand a little +affectionate pat, he said: "It is all right, little one. Marie will +receive her jelly in good condition. I myself saw that the basket was +placed right side up in the carriage. The jelly will not spill." Then, +turning to me, he added: "My wife makes a wonderful jelly of apricots, +Monsieur. We are taking some of it to our married daughter, who lives in +Avignon." + +He was a well set-up old boy, with a face most pleasantly frank, +close-cut gray hair, short gray whiskers, and a bristling white +mustache. Across his forehead, cutting through his right eyebrow, was +a desperate scar, that I at once associated in my own mind with the +red ribbon of the Legion that he wore in the button-hole of his black +frock-coat. He looked the officer in retreat, and the very gentleness +and sweetness of his manner made me sure that he had done some gallant +fighting in his time. + +As the train pulled out from the station--it was at Tarascon that they +had joined me--he drew forth from his pocket a black little wooden pipe +and a tobacco-bag. This was my opportunity. I also drew forth a pipe and +a tobacco-bag. Would Monsieur accept some of my tobacco? I asked. I had +brought it, I added, from America; it was tobacco of the Havana. + +"Monsieur then is an American. That is interesting. And his tobacco is +from the Havana, that is more interesting still. My cousin's son has +been for many years in America. His name is Marius Guiraud; he lives in +San Francisco; possibly Monsieur and he have met?" + +Monsieur regretted that he had not had this pleasure, and explained +that his home was in New York--three times as far from San Francisco as +Marseilles was from Paris. + +"Name of a name! Is it possible? How vast this America must be! And they +tell me--" Here he struck a wax match and paused to light his pipe. He +drew a dozen whiffs in silence, while on his face was the thoughtful +look of one whose taste in tobacco was critical and whose love for it +was strong. + +"Thunder of guns, but it is good!" he exclaimed, as he took the pipe +from his mouth and passed it lightly back and forth beneath his nose. +"Had we smoked tobacco like this in the Crimea we should have whipped +those rascal Russians in a single week. Ah, that we often were without +tobacco was the hardest part of all. I have smoked coffee grounds and +bay, Monsieur, and have been thankful to get them--I myself, who well +know what is good and what is not good in a pipe! This tobacco--it is +divine!" + +"Monsieur served in the Crimea?" + +"This is the proof of it," he said, a little grimly, touching the scar +on his forehead. + +"And this," his wife added, touching the bit of red ribbon in his +button-hole. "He was the bravest man in all that war, Monsieur, this old +husband of mine. His cross was given him by--" + +"Tchut, little one! What does Monsieur care how I got my cross? It was +not much that I did. Any man would have done the same." + +"But the others did _not_ do the same. They ran away and left thee to do +it alone. Did not his Majesty tell thee--" + +"Ah, Monsieur hears what a _babillarde_ it is. If she were given her own +way she would swear that I commanded the allied armies, and that I +blew up the Redan and stormed the Malakoff and captured Sebastopol all +alone!" + +"Tell Monsieur what thou didst do," said the little woman, warmly. +"Tell him truly precisely what thou didst do, and then let him judge for +himself if what I have said be one bit less than thy due." + +"And so bring Monsieur to know that I am a babbling old woman like +thyself?" He pinched her gently, and then settled himself back against +the cushion as though with the intention of giving himself wholly to the +enjoyment of his pipe: yet was there a look in his eyes that showed how +strong was the desire within him--the desire that is natural to every +brave and simple-minded old soldier--to tell the story of his honorable +scars. Even had I felt no desire to hear this story, not to have pressed +him to tell it would have been cruel. But little pressing was required. + +"Since Monsieur is good enough to desire to hear what little there is to +tell," he said, "and to show him how foolish is this old woman of mine, +I will tell him the whole affair. It is a stupid nothing; but Monsieur +may be amused by the trick that was put upon me by those great +generals--yes, that certainly was droll. + +"Our regiment, Monsieur, was the Twenty-seventh of the Line. It was +drawn almost wholly from the towns and villages in these parts: +Aries and Tarascon and Saint-Remy and Salon and Maillane and Chateau +Renard--there is the old chateau, over on the hill yonder, beside the +Durance--and Barbentane, that we shall see presently around the corner +of the hill. We all were _Provencaux_ together, and the men of the other +regiments of our division gave us the name of the Provence cats; though +why they gave us that foolish name I am sure they never knew any more +than we did ourselves. It was not because we were cowards, that I will +swear: our regiment did some very pretty fighting in its time, as any +one may know by reading the gazettes which were published in those days. + +"Our division held Mont Sapoune--the French right, you know--facing the +Little Redan across the Carenage Ravine. It was early in the siege, and +we had only drawn our first parallel: close against the Selinghinsk +and Vallyrie redoubts, and partly covering the ground where we dug our +rifle-pits later on. But we were going ahead with our work fast, and +already we had thrown up the little redoubts known as No. 11 and No. +15, which covered the advancing earthwork leading to where our second +parallel was to begin. Redoubt No. 11 was a good hundred yards, and +Redoubt No. 15 was more than three times that distance outside of our +lines; and everybody knew that these two advanced posts would be in +great danger until our second parallel was well under way. So very +possible was it that they might be surprised, and the guns turned on our +own lines in support of a general attack, that in each of them spikes +and hammers were kept in readiness against the need for spiking the guns +before they fell into the enemy's hands. Our regiment lay just behind +these redoubts, in the rear of the artillerymen who manned our trenches; +and as the gunners had plenty to do all day long, and through the night +too sometimes, the work of keeping up the night pickets fell to our +share. + +"It was while things were this way that I was on picket early one +morning on our extreme left, close over the edge of the Carenage Ravine. +I had come on with the midnight relief, and by five o'clock in the +morning, when day wras just breaking, my teeth were chattering and I was +stiff with cold. Name of a name, but it was cold those winter mornings! +We have nothing like it, even when the worst mistral is blowing, in our +winters here in Provence. Down in the ravine there was a thick mist, +into which I could not see at all; but every now and then a whiff of +wind would come in from the seaward and thin it a little, and then I +would give a good look below me, for it was along the ravine that any +party sent out to surprise us almost certainly would come. + +"It was while the light still was faint that I thought I heard, coming +up through the mist, a little rattling sound, such as might be made by a +man stumbling and dropping his musket among the broken rocks. Just then +the mist was too thick for me to see twenty feet below me. I was sure +that something bad was going on down there, but I did not want to make a +fool of myself by giving a false alarm. All that I could do was to cock +my musket and to hold it pointed towards where the sound seemed to come +from, all ready, should there be need for it, to give the alarm and get +in a shot at the enemy at the same time. Truly, Monsieur, it seemed to +me that I stood that way, while my heart went pounding against my ribs, +for a whole year! I was no longer cold: the blood was racing through +my veins, and I was everywhere in a glow. Suddenly there came a puff of +wind, and as the mist thinned for a moment I saw that the whole ravine +was full of Russians. Their advance already was half-way up the bank +nearest to our works. In less than ten minutes the whole of them would +be dashing into our outlying redoubts. As I pulled the trigger of my +musket I tried to shout, but my throat was as dry as a furnace and I +could only gasp. And--will you believe it?--my musket missed fire! Name +of a name, what a state I was in! There was the enemy coming on under +cover of the mist; and there was I, the only man who could save our +army, standing dumb like a useless fool! + +"What I must do came to me like a flash. If I ran back inside of our +lines to give the alarm, the chances were a thousand to one that the +enemy would have the outlying redoubt, very likely would have them both, +and would turn the guns before help could come. But I knew, at least +I hoped, that there was time for me to get to the more exposed redoubt +ahead of them and give the word to spike the guns. It was all in an +instant, I say, that I found this thought in my mind, and my musket and +cartridge-box thrown I don't know where, and myself dashing off through +the mist across the broken ground like a deer. + +"As I rushed into the redoubt our men thought that I was the Russians; +and when they knew me by my uniform for a Frenchman, and heard me crying +in a hoarse whisper, 'Spike the guns!' they thought that I was mad. But +the lieutenant in command of the battery had at least a little sense, +even if he did not have much courage, and he looked towards where I +pointed--and then he saw the shakos, as the mist lifted again, not a +hundred feet away. + +"'Save yourselves, I will make the guns safe,' he cried to his men--he +was not all a coward, poor fellow--and as they ran for it he picked up +the spikes and the hammer. Tap! tap! tap! one gun was spiked. Tap! +tap! tap! another. Then we heard the Russians beginning to scramble up +outside. + +"He swore a great oath as he dropped the hammer. 'It can't be done. +Run, cat!' he cried--and away he started after his men. The name that I +called him as he ran away, Monsieur, was a very foul name; God forgive +me for what I said! But I was determined that it _should_ be done. In +a second I had picked up the nails and the hammer, and--tap! tap! +tap!--the third gun was safe. 'Run, cat!' I heard the lieutenant call +again. But--tap!--I had the nail started in the last gun, and then, +right above me, was a Russian major and with him a dozen of his men. +Tap! and I had the nail half-way home as the major jumped down beside +me, with his sword raised. I knew that I could parry his blow with the +hammer and then, possibly, get away; but I wanted to make sure that that +gun could not be turned. And so--it was quick thinking that I did just +then, Monsieur--tap! and the gun was no better than old iron! At +that same instant it seemed to me that the whole world burst into a +tremendous roar and ten thousand blazing stars--but it only was the +sword of that confounded Russian major banging against my skull!" + +The little woman was almost sobbing. She took her husband's hand in both +of hers. + +"But you see that I was _not_ killed, little one," he said; and he +raised her hands to his lips and kissed them. + +"It was not until the next day, Monsieur," he went on, "that I knew +anything. Then I was in the hospital. + +"'How did it go?' I asked of the hospital-steward. + +"'Shut up,' said the steward. + +"This made me angry. 'How did it go, _polisson?_' I cried. 'Tell me, or +I'll crush your bones.' + +"Then the man was more civil. 'The Russians were driven back,' he said, +'and a lot of them were captured. You owe it to the same Russian major +who almost killed you that your life was saved. As soon as he was +brought into camp he sent a message to the general begging that you +might be looked after quickly. If there was any life left in you, it was +worth saving, he said, for you were a brave man--and he told how you had +spiked those last two guns! _Parbleu_, but for that message you would +have died! When they brought you in here you were nearly gone!' + +"'And the lieutenant who ran away?' I asked. + +"'Oh, he was killed--as he deserved. Now you know all about it. Hold +your tongue.' + +"I felt so foolishly weak, and there was such a pain in my head as +I began to remember it all once more, that I could not ask any more +questions. Presently my head began to buzz and the pain in it to get +worse, and then for a week I had a fever that came near to taking me +off. But I pulled through"--he squeezed his wife's hand, that again +had been laid in his--"and in three weeks I was back with the regiment +again. It was all due to my having such a wonderfully thick skull, the +doctors said, that the major's sword had not broken it past all mending. +When I came into camp the boys all cheered me, and I was as proud as a +cock. And then, the first thing I knew, up came a corporal and a file of +men and arrested me. + +"'What am I arrested for?' I asked. + +"'For being absent without leave from your regiment during battle,' +said the corporal, and marched me off to the guard-house. Then I was not +proud at all. But I was very angry. That I should be arrested in this +fashion did not seem to me fair. + +"In half an hour back came the corporal and his file of men. This time +they took me to headquarters. In we went; and the corporal stood +beside me, and his men behind me in a row. It seemed as though half the +officers of our army were there: my colonel, the general of our brigade, +the general of our division, half a dozen other generals, three or +four English officers in their smart red coats; presently there was a +stir--and in came the Emperor! What the deuce it all meant I could not +tell at all! + +"'Private Labonne,' said my colonel, he spoke in a very harsh tone, yet +it seemed to me that there was an odd sort of twinkle in his eye--'you +deserted your post, and you were absent without leave when your regiment +went into action.' + +"'Yes, but--' + +"'Not a word of excuse, Private Labonne. You know the penalty.' I did +know the penalty, of course; it was to be taken out and shot. I began +to think that this was worse than the Russians! + +"'When shall I order the court-martial, your Majesty?' asked my colonel. + +"'I will be the court-martial,' said the Emperor. 'This is a serious +matter; this is a matter to be dealt with in a hurry. The case is +proved. There is no need for a trial. I order Private Labonne to be shot +right away.' + +"I shivered all down my back. It _was_ worse than the Russians; very +much worse. + +"'Take him away,' said my colonel. + +"The corporal put his hand on my shoulder and the guard closed in. +'March!' said the corporal. + +"'Stop!' said the Emperor. 'Private Labonne, before you are taken away +and shot, tell me what you were doing in that battery.' + +"'Nothing, your Majesty.' + +"'Nothing? I thought that I heard something about guns being spiked. Did +not you spike a gun, Private Labonne?' + +"'Yes, your Majesty.' + +"'Did not you spike two guns--and both of them after the gunners and the +officer in command of the battery had run away?' + +"'Yes, your Majesty.' + +"'And why did you not run away, too, Private Labonne?' + +"'Because I wanted to spike the guns, your Majesty.' + +"'You did not think, then, that it was your duty as one of my soldiers +to save your life by running with the others?' + +"This question puzzled me, for I certainly never had thought of the +matter in that way at all. It occurred to me that perhaps I really had +not done my duty. But what the Emperor said, for all that he was the +Emperor, did not seem reasonable, and I made bold to answer him: 'If +I had taken care of my own life, your Majesty, a great many of your +soldiers would have died to pay for it. It would have been a bad day's +work if those two guns had not been spiked, for the Russians certainly +would have turned them on our lines.' + +"The Emperor turned to my colonel. 'There is something in what Private +Labonne says, eh, colonel? I suppose there really would have been the +very devil to pay had the enemy turned those guns?' + +"'I suppose there would,' said my colonel, a little grimly. + +"'Then the case is not quite so black against Private Labonne as it at +first appeared?' + +"'Not quite so black,' said my colonel. + +"'Perhaps we need not have him shot, after all?' + +"'Perhaps not--not this time, at least.' + +"'We might even compliment him a little upon his bravery. For it was +rather brave--eh, colonel?--to stay in that battery and spike those +guns, while a hundred Russians were tumbling in upon him, and his own +comrades had run off and left him to do his duty and to die for it there +alone.' + +"My colonel's voice broke a little as he answered, 'It was very brave, +your Majesty.' + +"'Eh, well, Private Labonne,' said the Emperor, turning again to me, 'we +won't shoot you. Your colonel is right about your bravery; and to shoot +a brave man, except in battle, is a mistake. The Russian officer who +came so near to killing you was a major, I am told; well, you may happen +to meet him again, and if you do it is only fair that your rank should +equal his. Here is your commission, Major Labonne; and here is a little +thing '--it was his own cross of the Legion that the Emperor gave +me--'that I want you to wear in remembrance of that day when you did as +brave a piece of work as ever was done by a French soldier for the honor +of France!' + +"And so you see, Monsieur, it was only a comedy about my being shot, +after all. Here is Avignon. You must wait for me a moment, little one, +while I get the basket of jelly for Marie." + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's For The Honor Of France, by Thomas A. 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Janvier + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: For The Honor Of France + 1891 + +Author: Thomas A. Janvier + +Release Date: December 10, 2007 [EBook #23805] +Last Updated: December 20, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOR THE HONOR OF FRANCE *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + FOR THE HONOR OF FRANCE. + </h1> + <h2> + By Thomas A. Janvier <br /><br /> Copyright, 1891, by Harper & Brothers + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + “Pardon! Madame does not know that this is a smoking-carriage?” + </p> + <p> + “But yes. Monsieur is very good. It is that my husband would smoke. He is + an old soldier. He smokes all the time. <i>Ciel!</i> They are like + chimneys, these old soldiers. This man of mine regrets that he cannot + smoke when he is asleep!” + </p> + <p> + While Madame delivered this address she continued also to mount the steps, + and as she finished it she seated herself in the corner of the carriage + opposite to me. She was short and round and sixty years old, and smiling + like the sun on a fine day. Her dress was the charming dress of Aries, but + over her kerchief she wore a silk mantle that glittered with an embroidery + of jet beads. This mantle was precious to her. Her first act upon seating + herself was to take it off, fold it carefully in a large handkerchief, and + lay it safely in the netting above her head. She replaced it with a red + knitted shawl, partly as a shield against the dust, and partly as a + protection against the fresh wind that was blowing briskly down the valley + of the Rhône. + </p> + <p> + In a moment her husband followed her, bowing to me as he entered the + carriage. Seating himself beside her, and giving her plump hand a little + affectionate pat, he said: “It is all right, little one. Marie will + receive her jelly in good condition. I myself saw that the basket was + placed right side up in the carriage. The jelly will not spill.” Then, + turning to me, he added: “My wife makes a wonderful jelly of apricots, + Monsieur. We are taking some of it to our married daughter, who lives in + Avignon.” + </p> + <p> + He was a well set-up old boy, with a face most pleasantly frank, close-cut + gray hair, short gray whiskers, and a bristling white mustache. Across his + forehead, cutting through his right eyebrow, was a desperate scar, that I + at once associated in my own mind with the red ribbon of the Legion that + he wore in the button-hole of his black frock-coat. He looked the officer + in retreat, and the very gentleness and sweetness of his manner made me + sure that he had done some gallant fighting in his time. + </p> + <p> + As the train pulled out from the station—it was at Tarascon that + they had joined me—he drew forth from his pocket a black little + wooden pipe and a tobacco-bag. This was my opportunity. I also drew forth + a pipe and a tobacco-bag. Would Monsieur accept some of my tobacco? I + asked. I had brought it, I added, from America; it was tobacco of the + Havana. + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur then is an American. That is interesting. And his tobacco is + from the Havana, that is more interesting still. My cousin’s son has been + for many years in America. His name is Marius Guiraud; he lives in San + Francisco; possibly Monsieur and he have met?” + </p> + <p> + Monsieur regretted that he had not had this pleasure, and explained that + his home was in New York—three times as far from San Francisco as + Marseilles was from Paris. + </p> + <p> + “Name of a name! Is it possible? How vast this America must be! And they + tell me—” Here he struck a wax match and paused to light his pipe. + He drew a dozen whiffs in silence, while on his face was the thoughtful + look of one whose taste in tobacco was critical and whose love for it was + strong. + </p> + <p> + “Thunder of guns, but it is good!” he exclaimed, as he took the pipe from + his mouth and passed it lightly back and forth beneath his nose. “Had we + smoked tobacco like this in the Crimea we should have whipped those rascal + Russians in a single week. Ah, that we often were without tobacco was the + hardest part of all. I have smoked coffee grounds and bay, Monsieur, and + have been thankful to get them—I myself, who well know what is good + and what is not good in a pipe! This tobacco—it is divine!” + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur served in the Crimea?” + </p> + <p> + “This is the proof of it,” he said, a little grimly, touching the scar on + his forehead. + </p> + <p> + “And this,” his wife added, touching the bit of red ribbon in his + button-hole. “He was the bravest man in all that war, Monsieur, this old + husband of mine. His cross was given him by—” + </p> + <p> + “Tchut, little one! What does Monsieur care how I got my cross? It was not + much that I did. Any man would have done the same.” + </p> + <p> + “But the others did <i>not</i> do the same. They ran away and left thee to + do it alone. Did not his Majesty tell thee—” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, Monsieur hears what a <i>babillarde</i> it is. If she were given her + own way she would swear that I commanded the allied armies, and that I + blew up the Redan and stormed the Malakoff and captured Sebastopol all + alone!” + </p> + <p> + “Tell Monsieur what thou didst do,” said the little woman, warmly. “Tell + him truly precisely what thou didst do, and then let him judge for himself + if what I have said be one bit less than thy due.” + </p> + <p> + “And so bring Monsieur to know that I am a babbling old woman like + thyself?” He pinched her gently, and then settled himself back against the + cushion as though with the intention of giving himself wholly to the + enjoyment of his pipe: yet was there a look in his eyes that showed how + strong was the desire within him—the desire that is natural to every + brave and simple-minded old soldier—to tell the story of his + honorable scars. Even had I felt no desire to hear this story, not to have + pressed him to tell it would have been cruel. But little pressing was + required. + </p> + <p> + “Since Monsieur is good enough to desire to hear what little there is to + tell,” he said, “and to show him how foolish is this old woman of mine, I + will tell him the whole affair. It is a stupid nothing; but Monsieur may + be amused by the trick that was put upon me by those great generals—yes, + that certainly was droll. + </p> + <p> + “Our regiment, Monsieur, was the Twenty-seventh of the Line. It was drawn + almost wholly from the towns and villages in these parts: Aries and + Tarascon and Saint-Remy and Salon and Maillane and Château Renard—there + is the old château, over on the hill yonder, beside the Durance—and + Barbentane, that we shall see presently around the corner of the hill. We + all were <i>Provençaux</i> together, and the men of the other regiments of + our division gave us the name of the Provence cats; though why they gave + us that foolish name I am sure they never knew any more than we did + ourselves. It was not because we were cowards, that I will swear: our + regiment did some very pretty fighting in its time, as any one may know by + reading the gazettes which were published in those days. + </p> + <p> + “Our division held Mont Sapoune—the French right, you know—facing + the Little Redan across the Carenage Ravine. It was early in the siege, + and we had only drawn our first parallel: close against the Selinghinsk + and Vallyrie redoubts, and partly covering the ground where we dug our + rifle-pits later on. But we were going ahead with our work fast, and + already we had thrown up the little redoubts known as No. 11 and No. 15, + which covered the advancing earthwork leading to where our second parallel + was to begin. Redoubt No. 11 was a good hundred yards, and Redoubt No. 15 + was more than three times that distance outside of our lines; and + everybody knew that these two advanced posts would be in great danger + until our second parallel was well under way. So very possible was it that + they might be surprised, and the guns turned on our own lines in support + of a general attack, that in each of them spikes and hammers were kept in + readiness against the need for spiking the guns before they fell into the + enemy’s hands. Our regiment lay just behind these redoubts, in the rear of + the artillerymen who manned our trenches; and as the gunners had plenty to + do all day long, and through the night too sometimes, the work of keeping + up the night pickets fell to our share. + </p> + <p> + “It was while things were this way that I was on picket early one morning + on our extreme left, close over the edge of the Carenage Ravine. I had + come on with the midnight relief, and by five o’clock in the morning, when + day wras just breaking, my teeth were chattering and I was stiff with + cold. Name of a name, but it was cold those winter mornings! We have + nothing like it, even when the worst mistral is blowing, in our winters + here in Provence. Down in the ravine there was a thick mist, into which I + could not see at all; but every now and then a whiff of wind would come in + from the seaward and thin it a little, and then I would give a good look + below me, for it was along the ravine that any party sent out to surprise + us almost certainly would come. + </p> + <p> + “It was while the light still was faint that I thought I heard, coming up + through the mist, a little rattling sound, such as might be made by a man + stumbling and dropping his musket among the broken rocks. Just then the + mist was too thick for me to see twenty feet below me. I was sure that + something bad was going on down there, but I did not want to make a fool + of myself by giving a false alarm. All that I could do was to cock my + musket and to hold it pointed towards where the sound seemed to come from, + all ready, should there be need for it, to give the alarm and get in a + shot at the enemy at the same time. Truly, Monsieur, it seemed to me that + I stood that way, while my heart went pounding against my ribs, for a + whole year! I was no longer cold: the blood was racing through my veins, + and I was everywhere in a glow. Suddenly there came a puff of wind, and as + the mist thinned for a moment I saw that the whole ravine was full of + Russians. Their advance already was half-way up the bank nearest to our + works. In less than ten minutes the whole of them would be dashing into + our outlying redoubts. As I pulled the trigger of my musket I tried to + shout, but my throat was as dry as a furnace and I could only gasp. And—will + you believe it?—my musket missed fire! Name of a name, what a state + I was in! There was the enemy coming on under cover of the mist; and there + was I, the only man who could save our army, standing dumb like a useless + fool! + </p> + <p> + “What I must do came to me like a flash. If I ran back inside of our lines + to give the alarm, the chances were a thousand to one that the enemy would + have the outlying redoubt, very likely would have them both, and would + turn the guns before help could come. But I knew, at least I hoped, that + there was time for me to get to the more exposed redoubt ahead of them and + give the word to spike the guns. It was all in an instant, I say, that I + found this thought in my mind, and my musket and cartridge-box thrown I + don’t know where, and myself dashing off through the mist across the + broken ground like a deer. + </p> + <p> + “As I rushed into the redoubt our men thought that I was the Russians; and + when they knew me by my uniform for a Frenchman, and heard me crying in a + hoarse whisper, ‘Spike the guns!’ they thought that I was mad. But the + lieutenant in command of the battery had at least a little sense, even if + he did not have much courage, and he looked towards where I pointed—and + then he saw the shakos, as the mist lifted again, not a hundred feet away. + </p> + <p> + “‘Save yourselves, I will make the guns safe,’ he cried to his men—he + was not all a coward, poor fellow—and as they ran for it he picked + up the spikes and the hammer. Tap! tap! tap! one gun was spiked. Tap! tap! + tap! another. Then we heard the Russians beginning to scramble up outside. + </p> + <p> + “He swore a great oath as he dropped the hammer. ‘It can’t be done. Run, + cat!’ he cried—and away he started after his men. The name that I + called him as he ran away, Monsieur, was a very foul name; God forgive me + for what I said! But I was determined that it <i>should</i> be done. In a + second I had picked up the nails and the hammer, and—tap! tap! tap!—the + third gun was safe. ‘Run, cat!’ I heard the lieutenant call again. But—tap!—I + had the nail started in the last gun, and then, right above me, was a + Russian major and with him a dozen of his men. Tap! and I had the nail + half-way home as the major jumped down beside me, with his sword raised. I + knew that I could parry his blow with the hammer and then, possibly, get + away; but I wanted to make sure that that gun could not be turned. And so—it + was quick thinking that I did just then, Monsieur—tap! and the gun + was no better than old iron! At that same instant it seemed to me that the + whole world burst into a tremendous roar and ten thousand blazing stars—but + it only was the sword of that confounded Russian major banging against my + skull!” + </p> + <p> + The little woman was almost sobbing. She took her husband’s hand in both + of hers. + </p> + <p> + “But you see that I was <i>not</i> killed, little one,” he said; and he + raised her hands to his lips and kissed them. + </p> + <p> + “It was not until the next day, Monsieur,” he went on, “that I knew + anything. Then I was in the hospital. + </p> + <p> + “‘How did it go?’ I asked of the hospital-steward. + </p> + <p> + “‘Shut up,’ said the steward. + </p> + <p> + “This made me angry. ‘How did it go, <i>polisson?</i>’ I cried. ‘Tell me, + or I’ll crush your bones.’ + </p> + <p> + “Then the man was more civil. ‘The Russians were driven back,’ he said, + ‘and a lot of them were captured. You owe it to the same Russian major who + almost killed you that your life was saved. As soon as he was brought into + camp he sent a message to the general begging that you might be looked + after quickly. If there was any life left in you, it was worth saving, he + said, for you were a brave man—and he told how you had spiked those + last two guns! <i>Parbleu</i>, but for that message you would have died! + When they brought you in here you were nearly gone!’ + </p> + <p> + “‘And the lieutenant who ran away?’ I asked. + </p> + <p> + “‘Oh, he was killed—as he deserved. Now you know all about it. Hold + your tongue.’ + </p> + <p> + “I felt so foolishly weak, and there was such a pain in my head as I began + to remember it all once more, that I could not ask any more questions. + Presently my head began to buzz and the pain in it to get worse, and then + for a week I had a fever that came near to taking me off. But I pulled + through”—he squeezed his wife’s hand, that again had been laid in + his—“and in three weeks I was back with the regiment again. It was + all due to my having such a wonderfully thick skull, the doctors said, + that the major’s sword had not broken it past all mending. When I came + into camp the boys all cheered me, and I was as proud as a cock. And then, + the first thing I knew, up came a corporal and a file of men and arrested + me. + </p> + <p> + “‘What am I arrested for?’ I asked. + </p> + <p> + “‘For being absent without leave from your regiment during battle,’ said + the corporal, and marched me off to the guard-house. Then I was not proud + at all. But I was very angry. That I should be arrested in this fashion + did not seem to me fair. + </p> + <p> + “In half an hour back came the corporal and his file of men. This time + they took me to headquarters. In we went; and the corporal stood beside + me, and his men behind me in a row. It seemed as though half the officers + of our army were there: my colonel, the general of our brigade, the + general of our division, half a dozen other generals, three or four + English officers in their smart red coats; presently there was a stir—and + in came the Emperor! What the deuce it all meant I could not tell at all! + </p> + <p> + “‘Private Labonne,’ said my colonel, he spoke in a very harsh tone, yet it + seemed to me that there was an odd sort of twinkle in his eye—‘you + deserted your post, and you were absent without leave when your regiment + went into action.’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Yes, but—’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Not a word of excuse, Private Labonne. You know the penalty.’ I did know + the penalty, of course; it was to be taken out and shot. I began to think + that this was worse than the Russians! + </p> + <p> + “‘When shall I order the court-martial, your Majesty?’ asked my colonel. + </p> + <p> + “‘I will be the court-martial,’ said the Emperor. ‘This is a serious + matter; this is a matter to be dealt with in a hurry. The case is proved. + There is no need for a trial. I order Private Labonne to be shot right + away.’ + </p> + <p> + “I shivered all down my back. It <i>was</i> worse than the Russians; very + much worse. + </p> + <p> + “‘Take him away,’ said my colonel. + </p> + <p> + “The corporal put his hand on my shoulder and the guard closed in. + ‘March!’ said the corporal. + </p> + <p> + “‘Stop!’ said the Emperor. ‘Private Labonne, before you are taken away and + shot, tell me what you were doing in that battery.’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Nothing, your Majesty.’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Nothing? I thought that I heard something about guns being spiked. Did + not you spike a gun, Private Labonne?’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Yes, your Majesty.’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Did not you spike two guns—and both of them after the gunners and + the officer in command of the battery had run away?’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Yes, your Majesty.’ + </p> + <p> + “‘And why did you not run away, too, Private Labonne?’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Because I wanted to spike the guns, your Majesty.’ + </p> + <p> + “‘You did not think, then, that it was your duty as one of my soldiers to + save your life by running with the others?’ + </p> + <p> + “This question puzzled me, for I certainly never had thought of the matter + in that way at all. It occurred to me that perhaps I really had not done + my duty. But what the Emperor said, for all that he was the Emperor, did + not seem reasonable, and I made bold to answer him: ‘If I had taken care + of my own life, your Majesty, a great many of your soldiers would have + died to pay for it. It would have been a bad day’s work if those two guns + had not been spiked, for the Russians certainly would have turned them on + our lines.’ + </p> + <p> + “The Emperor turned to my colonel. ‘There is something in what Private + Labonne says, eh, colonel? I suppose there really would have been the very + devil to pay had the enemy turned those guns?’ + </p> + <p> + “‘I suppose there would,’ said my colonel, a little grimly. + </p> + <p> + “‘Then the case is not quite so black against Private Labonne as it at + first appeared?’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Not quite so black,’ said my colonel. + </p> + <p> + “‘Perhaps we need not have him shot, after all?’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Perhaps not—not this time, at least.’ + </p> + <p> + “‘We might even compliment him a little upon his bravery. For it was + rather brave—eh, colonel?—to stay in that battery and spike + those guns, while a hundred Russians were tumbling in upon him, and his + own comrades had run off and left him to do his duty and to die for it + there alone.’ + </p> + <p> + “My colonel’s voice broke a little as he answered, ‘It was very brave, + your Majesty.’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Eh, well, Private Labonne,’ said the Emperor, turning again to me, ‘we + won’t shoot you. Your colonel is right about your bravery; and to shoot a + brave man, except in battle, is a mistake. The Russian officer who came so + near to killing you was a major, I am told; well, you may happen to meet + him again, and if you do it is only fair that your rank should equal his. + Here is your commission, Major Labonne; and here is a little thing ‘—it + was his own cross of the Legion that the Emperor gave me—‘that I + want you to wear in remembrance of that day when you did as brave a piece + of work as ever was done by a French soldier for the honor of France!’ + </p> + <p> + “And so you see, Monsieur, it was only a comedy about my being shot, after + all. Here is Avignon. You must wait for me a moment, little one, while I + get the basket of jelly for Marie.” + </p> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg’s For The Honor Of France, by Thomas A. 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