"We will wait for you on the other side," said I, though in my heart I doubted it I should ever see him there. Then, bidding him be of good courage, and taking a cordial farewell of his son, I set out immediately.
Valerie awaited me on the brink of the river. Her black charger appeared to be as fresh as though he had left his stable at Moscow but yesterday; her uniform of hussars was as trim and well kept as any good soldier might have desired. As for little Joan, the tale we had told her was one which a child would not question. We were to carry her across the river, and her father and brother would follow presently in the baggage wagons. She believed us with a child's faith, and, being drawn up upon the saddle before me, she asked when we would cross the bridge. Then I told her the truth.
"You see for yourself," said I, "what a dreadful place the bridge now is. We are going to swim the river, ma petite, and in that way we shall cheat the Russians. Now, cling to me with both your arms, and do not mind what happens. Why should you be afraid?"
She told me very proudly that she was not, and, calling to Valerie, I put my horse at the water.
The place might have been some twenty yards from the first pontoon, and for awhile the good beast which carried me found ground for his feet. In those moments I could see how wise we had been to prefer the hazard of the water to that of the bridge. Such a scene as was then taking place upon that frail structure has surely never been witnessed in all the story of His Majesty's wars.
Pell-mell upon it went wagons and cannon and the terrified camp-followers. Horsemen cut their way as though sabreing an enemy; women screamed with terror; the strong were dragged down with the weak; men trampled one another under foot without a thought of mercy. The number of the dead and dying no man might estimate, and over these the living crawled as they could, the Russian shells falling ceaselessly amidst them, and the deadly bullets finding many a billet.
All this I beheld as in some swift vision of horror, from which the eyes turned almost with gratitude to the fetid waters about me. The swirling torrent, the crashing of the ice-floes, the bobbing corpses everywhere but fostered that pursuit of safety which now grew upon me as a fever. I must win the opposite shore, I said, or all were lost. Let me but set foot upon those black slopes which were the goal of my desire and all were won by this supreme endeavour. It was easy to be said, but how remote the hope of it!
I should tell you that the darkness had now come down, and with it a return of the bitter cold.
I had caught the child up with my left arm, and, giving the good horse his head, I felt the water strike me suddenly with a deadly chill, and heard Joan's shrill cry of horror as at length the current caught us and we were swept away into the vortex of the river.
Now, indeed, we stood face to face with Death and felt his icy hand upon us.