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and banging accouterments, he looked to be an insane
soldier.
As the regiment swung from its position out into a
cleared space the woods and thickets before it awakened.
Yellow flames leaped toward it from many directions. The
forest made a tremendous objection.
The line lurched straight for a moment. Then the right
wing swung forward; it in turn was surpassed by the left.
Afterward the center careered to the front until the regiment
was a wedge-shaped mass, but an instant later the
opposition of the bushes, trees, and uneven places on the
ground split the command and scattered it into detached
clusters.
The youth, light-footed, was unconsciously in advance.
His eyes still kept note of the clump of trees. From all places
near it the clannish yell of the enemy could be heard. The
little flames of rifles leaped from it. The song of the bullets
was in the air and shells snarled among the treetops. One
tumbled directly into the middle of a hurrying group and
exploded in crimson fury. There was an instant spectacle of a
man, almost over it, throwing up his hands to shield his
eyes.
Other men, punched by bullets, fell in grotesque agonies.
The regiment left a coherent trail of bodies.
They had passed into a clearer atmosphere. There was an
effect like a revelation in the new appearance of the
landscape. Some men working madly at a battery were plain
to them, and the opposing infantry's lines were defined by
the gray walls and fringes of smoke.
It seemed to the youth that he saw everything. Each
blade of the green grass was bold and clear. He thought that
he was aware of every change in the thin, transparent vapor
that floated idly in sheets. The brown or gray trunks of the
trees showed each roughness of their surfaces. And the men
of the regiment, with their starting eyes and sweating faces,
running madly, or falling, as if thrown headlong, to queer,
heaped-up corpses--all were comprehended. His mind took a
mechanical but firm impression, so that afterward everything
was pictured and explained to him, save why he himself was
there.
But there was a frenzy made from this furious rush. The
men, pitching forward insanely, had burst into cheerings,
moblike and barbaric, but tuned in strange keys that can
arouse the dullard and the stoic. It made a mad enthusiasm
that, it seemed, would be incapable of checking itself before
granite and brass. There was the delirium that encounters
despair and death, and is heedless and blind to the odds. It
is a temporary but sublime absence of selfishness. And
because it was of this order was the reason, perhaps, why
the youth wondered, afterward, what reasons he could have
had for being there.
Presently the straining pace ate up the energies of the
men. As if by agreement, the leaders began to slacken their
speed. The volleys directed against them had had a seeming
windlike effect. The regiment snorted and blew. Among some
stolid trees it began to falter and hesitate. The men, staring
intently, began to wait for some of the distant walls to smoke
to move and disclose to them the scene. Since much of their
strength and their breath had vanished, they returned to
caution. They were become men again.
The youth had a vague belief that he had run miles, and
he thought, in a way, that he was now in some new and
unknown land.
The moment the regiment ceased its advance the
protesting splutter of musketry became a steadied roar. Long
and accurate fringes of smoke spread out. From the top of a
small hill came level belchings of yellow flame that caused an
inhuman whistling in the air.
The men, halted, had opportunity to see some of their
comrades dropping with moans and shrieks. A few lay under
foot, still or wailing. And now for an instant the men stood,
their rifles slack in their hands, and watched the regiment
dwindle. They appeared dazed and stupid. This spectacle
seemed to paralyze them, overcome them with a fatal
fascination. They stared woodenly at the sights, and,
lowering their eyes, looked from face to face. It was a
strange pause, and a strange silence.
Then, above the sounds of the outside commotion, arose
the roar of the lieutenant. He strode suddenly forth, his
infantile features black with rage.
"Come on, yeh fools!" he bellowed. "Come on! Yeh can't
stay here. Yeh must come on." He said more, but much of it
could not be understood.
He started rapidly forward, with his head turned toward
the men, "Come on," he was shouting. The men stared with
blank and yokel-like eyes at him. He was obliged to halt and
retrace his steps. He stood then with his back to the enemy
and delivered gigantic curses into the faces of the men. His
body vibrated from the weight and force of his imprecations.
And he could string oaths with the facility of a maiden who
strings beads.
The friend of the youth aroused. Lurching suddenly
forward and dropping to his knees, he fired an angry shot at
the persistent woods. This action awakened the men. They
huddled no more like sheep. They seemed suddenly to
bethink themselves of their weapons, and at once
commenced firing. Belabored by their officers, they began to
move forward. The regiment, involved like a cart involved in
mud and muddle, started unevenly with many jolts and
jerks. The men stopped now every few paces to fire and load,
and in this manner moved slowly on from trees to trees.
The flaming opposition in their front grew with their
advance until it seemed that all forward ways were barred by
the thin leaping tongues, and off to the right an ominous
demonstration could sometimes be dimly discerned. The
smoke lately generated was in confusing clouds that made it [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]